I. The story from which these words are taken is a story of national progress. It is also one of supernatural progress. For us the supernatural is, in the highest and truest sense of the word, natural, for it is the revelation of the nature of God. We accept the possibility of the supernatural and miraculous, but all the more for that do we hold that if God interferes in the affairs of men miraculously, He will not do it capriciously, unnecessarily, wantonly. Upon the whole story of these Jewish miracles there is stamped a character which marks distinctly the reason for which they were wrought; that reason was the religious education of the world. By these miracles the Jew was taught that for nations and men there is a God, an eternal and a personal Will above us and around us that works for righteousness. This great fact was taught mm by illustrated lessons, by pictures illuminated with the Divine light and so filled with the Divine colour that they stand and last for all time.
II. The lesson that seems definitely stamped on the story of the miraculous passage of the Red Sea is the lesson of fearlessness in the discharge of duty, of resolute walking in the way that we know to be God's way for us. We find this true: (1) in the case of individuals; (2) in the case of nations. For individuals and for nations God has appointed a law of progress. All who have ever striven to raise the tone of a nation's life, to bring the nation onward on the path that leads to peace and righteousness, have been preaching to mankind this great word of God's, "Go forward where God would have you go."
Bishop Magee, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xx., p. 55.
Progress is the great test of a Christian. It is not what we are absolutely, but what we are relatively, relatively to what we were. Religion must always be "a walk," and the child of God a traveller. Old things get further and further behind, and as they recede look smaller and smaller; new things constantly come into view, and there is no stagnation. The man, though slowly, and with much struggle, and with many humiliations, is stretching on to the ever-rising level of his own spiritual and heaven-drawn conscience.
I. We may be discouraged because of past failures. Still we have no choice but to go on. Life is made up of rash beginnings and premature endings. We have nothing for it but to begin again.
II. We may feel ourselves utterly graceless and godless. The remedy is, at once to determine to be a great Christian. We must aim at things far in advance. We must go forward.
III. Perhaps some great temptation or sin bars the way. Then we must not stand calculating. We must not look at consequences, but simply "go forward" to the new life of self-denial and holiness.
J. Vaughan, Sermons,7th series, p. 15.
References: Exodus 14:13-15. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. x., p. 152.Exodus 14:15. C. J. Vaughan, The Days of the Son of Man,p. 251; Outline Sermons for Children,p. 17; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons,2nd series, p. 120; J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon,pp. 428, 436; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes,2nd series, p. 52; S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches,p. 45; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. x., No. 548; Homiletic Magazine,vol. xiii., p. 18; J. Hamilton, Works,vol. v., p. 166. Exodus 14:15-31. Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., pp. 130, 132.Exodus 14:16. J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College,vol. iii., p. 320. Exodus 14:19; Exodus 14:20. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxx., No. 1793.