the peace of Christ. We can but wait and trust His promise, and, trusting it, never relax our effort towards that peace which shall be ours when we shall have but one aim-to do the will of God. We must never cease to strive, so that when death draws near we may have the peace which can say, looking back on a life which, through much failure, has never been quite faithless, "My Father, fulfil in Thyself what was wanting in my life. Let me say-in Thee, and Thee alone-I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do." ¶ It sounds paradoxical, and yet it is the truth, that there is no peace like that which is to be found in suffering, in moral suffering, when it has reached its climax, when the whole being, mind, heart and soul, through strength of will, or, more truly, through the absolute submission to the will of God, accepts the past, loves the present, and does not fear the future.1 It is the heart that looks out towards the future and hopes without fear. In the roll-call of faith in Hebrews 11 faith is associated with two things-" things hoped for," that is, things future; and" things unseen," that is, things present. And the illustrations of faith throughout the chapter are connected either with "things hoped for" in the future, or with "things unseen" in the present. Every illustration, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, right to the end, comes under one or other of those elements-things hoped for, or things unseen. The peace of God in the heart enables us to front the future fearlessly, and to feel assured that whilst " we do not know what is in the future, yet that the Lord is in the future and we are in the Lord." It is an old story, but worth repeating by way of illustration, of a man in great depression, as we all sometimes are, who, with a sad face, was saying to a friend, "Things are awfully hard with me, very dark and forbidding." My dear fellow," said the other man, you should look on the bright side." "But," was the answer, "I have no bright side." "Well, then," rejoined the friend, "polish up the dark side." Those are fine words of the prophet in Isaiah 60: "The Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded." We can almost realise the man steeling himself, as he adds, "Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed." That is peace.2 "Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown? 1 Count de Mauny, The Peace of Suffering, 59. There is a glory in the setting sun, That far surpasses morning's paler hues; Long since, in childhood's happier days, methought, Ah! oft in fancy did those eyes behold Fancy's bright edges lose their golden sheen, Though life is sadder now than in the past, III. THE HINDRANCES. What hinders us from enjoying peace of conscience? 1. There is a want of simplicity and cordiality in our reception of the Gospel, the good news Jesus Christ brings to us concerning God. When we read the Gospels and see how Jesus moved among men, with so much gentleness and grace, we think that it would be really easy to accept Him as our Master and Lord could we but look in His face and feel the pressure of His hand. We are often impatient with those who misunderstood Him, and angry with those who resisted Him. Had we been there we would have treated Him differently. We would have gone, not like Nicodemus, by night to unburden our hearts before Him, but would have run to 1 Una, In Life's Garden, 51 Him any day, to cast the care of our souls upon Him, with the absolute assurance that He would speedily and effectively give us rest. His kind face would be an encouragement, His sweet voice would be a benediction, His loving touch would be an inspiration. Were Jesus here in person it would be so easy to trust and not be afraid. Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, describes how two went on the tumbril to the guillotine, one of them a young sempstress whom the rage of that awful reign of terror was sacrificing to glut its thirst for blood, and the other a man who by stratagem had succeeded in putting himself vicariously in the place of another. “If I ride with you, Citizen Evremond," said the girl, "will you let me take your hand? I am not afraid, but I am little and weak, and it will give me courage. She passed to that dreadful death, holding the stranger's hand, with no sign of fear. Could we but feel the pressure of Jesus' hand, sorrow or sin or death would have no dominion over us. But He is dead. There is no Christ in the world to-day. There are Christians, but no Christ. There are churches, but no Jesus. Why not trust the word of Jesus and make the venture of faith-Lord, I believe Thee. Lean hard upon His unspeakable mercy and goodness, whatever our guilt and whatever our weakness, and refuse to give any entertainment to the doubt which would unsettle our faith or the temptations which would turn us away from the conduct which naturally follows this belief. 2. We often fail to possess the peace of conscience for lack of a definite surrender to Christ. In the title of Christ as Lord or Master we are reminded of our consecration. Notice, it is not merely the "God of Peace," but the "Lord of Peace," the One who gives peace because He is Lord. It is in submission to Him as our Lord that we find and enjoy this peace. The religious soldier and the religious sailor are generally happy Christians for this reason, it may be, among others, that they have transferred to God's service the habit of unquestioning, prompt, ready obedience, which was taught them in their professions. For them there is no speculating about difficulties; there is none of that discursing into the whole world of motives which so often, in men trained to think rather than to act, disconcerts and saddens the whole life. Theirs is a life of action, and what is peace but this: "If a man love me he will keep my commandments," and, "I will manifest myself to him?" 1 "He is thy LORD." Oh, I am glad of this, And glory of Thy full and visible reign. Thou reignest now" He is thy LORD " to-day." 3. We are too anxious to keep ourselves instead of trusting to Christ to keep us. Some men, by insisting upon the inward evidences of adoption as the title of our inheritance, succeed unintentionally in making the heart of the righteous sad, whom God hath not made sad. Others are continually probing and prying into their own hearts, and looking into themselves, when they had far better be looking out of themselves, and to Christ. For it is Christ who saves us and not we ourselves. No pious feelings or emotions, no sense of peace and reconciliation, can give us a title to acceptance with God, who pardons and justifies us for the merits of Christ, simply embraced and relied upon by a faithful, trusting and loving heart. Let our minds dwell on the power of Christ to keep His own. This power is and must be absolute and unconditioned, infinite and unlimited. "All authority," He said, "hath been given unto me in heaven and in earth." Nothing less than universal sovereignty is expressed in this solemn claim. He is Lord of all. Every kind and form of force is subject to His rule, as is also every sphere in which such force can act. Moreover, we recall that the claim was made after His resurrection, in which He was "declared 1 F. W. Robertson, The Human Race, 315. 2 Frances Ridley Havergal. to be the Son of God with power," and in connection therefore with the death He died for all men. Tremendous and allembracing as are the words, they cannot be considered apart from what He said on other occasions concerning Himself, nor, further, from what He proved Himself to be during and since His life on earth. There is indeed no reason why we should doubt their veracity, excepting-which is no reason-that we find it hard at times to reconcile their claims with the facts of experience. ¶There has been no man in modern times who enjoyed more of the peace of God than that man who was martyred at Khartoum -General Gordon. He never knew fear; he never hesitated in presence of the most terrible dangers. He was like one wrapped round and bathed in the mighty protecting love of God; yet all his life was spent in warfare. Wherever he saw wrong done, iniquity, oppression, cruelty, misgovernment, there he hurried to find his battle-field, to strike for God and the right. Someone has told the story of his life in the words, " One man against fearful odds, but with God always on his side." That was the secret of his wonderful peace. It came to him because the sword of the Spirit was in his hands, and around him the armour of truth and light.1 We ask for Peace, O Lord! It is not for such Peace that we would pray. We ask for Peace, O Lord! Yet not to stand secure, Crushing the gentle strings That human hearts should know, Untouched by others' joy Or others' woe;— Thou, O dear Lord, wilt never teach us so. 1 J. G. Greenhough, The Mind of Christ in St. Paul, 236. |