[1] We may see this in human things. When a parent does not
uphold _order and law_ in his family, there will be no
peace in that family. When a government does not uphold
order and law in a nation, there will be no peace in that
nation. They are to be upheld mercifully indeed; but still
they are to be upheld. Now in man both are imperfect, both
his righteousness and his mercy; and therefore they are
ever jarring. Sometimes he will lean to the one, sometimes
to the other; and so neither produces the work of peace.
But in God both are at one: neither shall hinder, neither
can give way to the other. Sooner shall the heavens split,
like a breaking wave, into foam, and melt away, than the
slightest shadow of anything that is not perfectly
righteous shall pass over the righteousness of God.
Accordingly it could only be when perfect mercy and perfect
truth met together, that righteousness and mercy could kiss
each other. And thus alone shall any ever enjoy perfect
peace, when they have received the full forgiveness of
their sins from the perfect mercy of God, and are clothed
in the perfect righteousness of Christ. Even in heaven
there can be no peace, except it be the work of
righteousness.--_Hare._
[2] When He teaches us that the eye of God is ever watching
over us, and the hand of God ever providing over us,--when
He commands us to pray to God with confidence as to our
heavenly Father, and to make all our wants and wishes known
to Him,--hereby, if we give heed to His bidding, He at once
hushes all those never-ending, still-beginning anxieties,
which are the thorns and thistles planted by the curse in
the human heart. When He teaches us to love our neighbours,
and to forgive, nay, to love our enemies, He roots up all
the cause which destroy peace and breed quarrels between
man and man. Every passion that we subdue is so much gain
to our peace; for every passion is a peacebreaker.
Covetousness, ambition, lust, drunkenness, vanity, pride
are peacebreakers. All these passions set us at variance
with neighbours; all of them set us at variance with
ourselves. Whereas, contentment, temperance, sobriety,
chastity, modesty, meekness are peacemakers.--_Hare._