“A sea of glass mingled with fire” (Rev. 15:2).

William Graham Scroggie

Peace and energy do not always go together, though they should. Energy need be none the less energetic if it be peaceful, nor peace the less peaceful if it be energetic. Peace without energy may be only stagnation; and energy without peace may be but a form of panic. What we need is that our glassy sea be mingled with fire, and that our fire shall have for its home a glassy sea. Too often the water puts out the fire, or the fire dries up the water; but in every true life these dwell helpfully together. Why should peace exclude passion, and why should passion destroy peace? Why should one moral quality triumph at the expense of another? Yet, too often it is so. Sometimes our sea is not glassy, but tempest tossed; and sometimes our fire burns low. Sometimes it is all calm, and no energy, and sometimes it is all energy and no calm. But what is possible and right is, that the glassy sea be mingled with fire! That our outward energy be regulated by inward peace, and that our inward peace find expression in outward energy. Then shall there be equipoise of power.