"He is Faithful that Promised."
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you; not as the world
giveth."--JOHN xiv. 27.
Peace in Believing.
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee."
"Perfect peace!"--what a blessed attainment! My soul! is it thine? Sure
I am it is _not_, if thou art seeking it in a perishable world, or in
the perishable creature, or in thy perishable self. Although thou hast
all that the world would call enviable and happy, unless thou hast peace
_in_ God, and _with_ God, all else is unworthy of the name;--a spurious
thing, which the first breath of adversity will shatter, and the hour of
death utterly annihilate! Perfect peace! What is it? It is the peace of
forgiveness. It is the peace arising out of a sense of God reconciled
through the blood of the everlasting covenant,--resting sweetly on the
bosom, and the work of Jesus,--to Him committing thine eternal all. My
soul! stay thyself on God, that so this blessed peace may be thine. Thou
hast tried the world. It has deceived thee. Prop after prop of earthly
scaffolding has yielded, and tottered, and fallen. Has thy God ever done
so? Ah! this false and counterfeit world-peace may do well for the
world's work, and the world's day of prosperity. But test it in the hour
of sorrow; and what can it do for thee when most it is needed? On the
other hand, what though thou hast no other blessing on earth to call
thine own? Thou art rich indeed, if thou canst look upwards to Heaven,
and say with "unpresumptuous smile," "I am at peace with God."
"REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON
WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!"