Jude 1:12

Hidden Rocks

Hidden rocks. Jude 1:12.

What is the greatest treat when you are on holiday at the seaside? Paddling? No; better than that! Building sand castles? No; more exciting than that! Swimming? No; even jollier than that! What then? Why, going for a row in a boat, of course! That is “top hole,” as you boys say, especially if you are allowed to steer for a bit, or to take an oar occasionally. If you add to these joys the joy of dangling a line over the side of the boat and catching fish to fry for tea, you will agree with me that an outing like that is hard to beat.

I have a piece of advice to give you when you go for such a row, and it is this. Take an old sailor man with you. Why? For two very good reasons the first of which is that if you want to fish he will show you the best fishing ground; the second, that he will keep you clear of our text. Our text, like strong currents, is one of the dangers of going for a row on a coast you do not know. If you wish to find out what that danger is turn up the Revised Version of the Bible at the second last book, the Epistle of Jude. In the twelfth verse you will find two words “hidden rocks” and in these two words you have both the text and the danger.

Any sailor will tell you that hidden rocks are one of the worst dangers of an unknown coast. Sometimes you can tell that they are there from the white line of foam which breaks over them, and at very low tide you may see their black tops showing above water. Sometimes the water is perfectly calm and smiling above them, and there is no sign to tell you that they are beneath. But if the sun is shining and the water clear, lean over the side of the boat and you will catch a glimpse of their dark forms. You will notice that some are sharp and jagged like the teeth of a saw, others are rounded or covered with a thick coat of seaweed; but you feel that though they may look different they are all capable of knocking a very nasty hole in the bottom of your frail boat. Sometimes the channel between their hungry teeth is so narrow that the boat has to be steered very carefully to get you safely through. You are not so keen on holding the tiller then; you are only too thankful to hand it over to someone who knows the passage.

Boys and girls, the sea is not the only place where we find hidden rocks. We find them in everyday life; and the rocks we find there are even more dangerous than those to be found in the ocean. Strange to say, too, the hidden rocks of life, like the hidden rocks of the sea, are of two kinds. The first show a path of white above them. They hoist a danger signal. But the second are so hidden that we cannot tell they are there till suddenly one day a flash of light reveals them to us.

1. Now for the first kind those that hoist a danger signal. These are, I think, the wrong things that we know quite well we should not do, yet straightway go and do them. We know that they are dangerous, but we deliberately run our little boat on to them. What would you say of a sailor who steered straight for the foam that marked a hidden reef? You would call him either mad, or foolish, or both. Well, when you know a thing is wrong and yet do it, let me assure you, you are equally crazy and foolish.

Of course I know that often it is more difficult to steer away from the rocks than to steer to them. People who want you to do wrong have a peculiarly maddening way of daring you to do it, and hinting that you are a coward if you refuse. When you come across such people, remember this: it is more splendid to be a moral hero than a merely physical hero. It is more splendid to turn a deaf ear to taunts and refuse to do what conscience whispers to be wrong, than it is to yield to mockings. Conscience is the foam on the hidden rock, and if we disregard it we deserve shipwreck. To run headlong into danger or temptation is no sign of bravery.

A gentleman once wished to engage a coachman. He had a number of applications from good men. How do you think he chose among them? He took them all to a certain road which lay between a hill on the right side and a precipice on the left; and he asked each in turn how close to the edge of the precipice he could drive. One man said he thought he could drive within a foot, another said within nine inches, and a third was certain he could drive within six inches. The last man said, “I should keep as far from the edge as I possibly could,” and the gentleman promptly engaged him.

2. What about the second kind of hidden rocks? I think these are like the many things we do every day without realizing that they are wrong. They lie hidden so deep in our heart and are so well concealed that we never suspect their existence; and just because we don't know of them, just because they hoist no danger signal, they are all the more dangerous. Lots of us would be tremendously surprised if we saw how selfish we were. We always thought that was just standing up for our rights. We should be surprised, and shocked, too, to learn that we were mean and greedy. We always imagined we were just taking our share of the good things of life. Then others of us would be astonished to find that we were spiteful and revengeful; we had always thought that was merely paying people back in their own coin. Perhaps a few of us had been thinking ourselves perfect and patting our own backs and despising others, but we called that self-respect and did not think how hideous a fault it was. Boys and girls, look into your hearts today. Ask God to flash some of His own light into their darkness and discover to you their hidden faults.

Then, having discovered them, set about getting rid of them with His help. You know what is done to dangerous rocks in a harbor channel. They are blasted out with gunpowder. That is what we must do with the hidden rocks in our heart. We must blast them out; and we must ask God to help us to do it, for we shall never get rid of them without His aid.