There are many ways in which the supreme good may be represented, but
perhaps none of them is so lovely, and exercises such universal
fascination of attraction, as that which presents it in the form of
rest. It is an eloquent testimony to the unrest which tortures every
heart that the promise of peace should to all seem so fair. It may be
presented and aimed at in very ignoble and selfish ways. It may be
sought for in cowardly shirking of duty, in sluggish avoidance of
effort, in selfish absorption, apart from all the miseries of mankind.
It may be sought for in the ignoble paths of mere pleasure, amidst the
sanctities of human love, amidst the nobilities of intellectual effort
and pursuit. But all men in their workings are aiming at rest of spirit,
and only in such rest does blessedness lie. 'There is no joy but calm.'
It is better than all the excitements of conflict, and better than the
flush of victory. Best which is not apathy, rest which is not
indolence, rest which is contemporaneous with, and the consequence of,
the full wholesome activity of the whole nature in its legitimate
directions, that is the good that we are all longing for. The sea is not
stagnant, though it be calm. There will be the slow heave of the calm
billow, and the wavelets may sparkle in the sunlight, though they be
still from all the winds that rave. Deep in every human heart, in yours
and mine, brother, is this cry for rest and peace. Let us see to it that
we do not mistranslate the meaning of the longing, or fancy that it can
be found in the ignoble, the selfish, the worldly ways to which I have
referred. We want, most of all, peace in our inmost hearts.
II. Then the second thing to be suggested here is that the Lord of Peace
Himself is the only giver of peace.
I suppose I may take for granted, on the part at least of the members of
my own congregation, some remembrance of a former discourse upon another
of these petitions, in which I pointed out how, in phraseology analogous
to that of my text, there were the distinct reference to the divinity of
Jesus Christ, the distinct presentation of prayer to Him, the
implication of His present activity upon Christian hearts.
And here again we have the august and majestic 'Himself.' Here again we
have the distinct reference of the title 'Lord' to Jesus. And here again
we have plainly prayer to Him.
But the title by which He is addressed is profoundly significant, 'The
Lord of Peace.' Now we find, in another of Paul's letters, in immediate
conjunction with His teaching, that casting all our care upon God is
the sure way to bring the peace of God into our hearts, the title 'the
God of Peace'; and he employs the same phraseology in another of his
letters, when he prays that the 'God of Peace' would fill the Roman
Christians 'with all joy and peace in believing.'
So, then, here is a title which is all but distinctively divine. 'The
_Lord_ of Peace' is brought into parallelism and equality with 'the God
of Peace'; which were blasphemy unless the underlying implication was
that Jesus Christ Himself was divine.
He is the 'Lord of Peace' because that tranquillity of heart and spirit,
that unruffled calm which we all see from afar, and long to possess, was
verily His, in His manhood, during all the calamities and changes and
activities of His earthly life. I have said that 'peace' is not apathy,
that it is not indifference, that it is not self-absorption. Look at the
life of the 'Lord of Peace.' In Him there were wholesome human emotions.
He sorrowed, He wept, He wondered, He was angry, He pitied, He loved.
And yet all these were perfectly consistent with the unruffled calm
which marked His whole career. So peace is not stolid indifference, nor
is it to be found in the avoidance of difficult duties, or the cowardly
shirking of sacrifices and pains and struggles; but rather it is 'peace
subsisting at the heart of endless agitation,' of which the great
example stands in Him who was 'the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with
grief,' and who yet, in it all, was 'the Lord of Peace.'
Why was Christ's manhood so perfectly tranquil? The secret lies here. It
was a manhood in unbroken communion with the Father. And what was the
secret of that unbroken communion with the Father? It lies here, in the
perfect submission of His will. Resignation is peace. The surrender of
self-will is peace. Obedience is peace. Trust is peace, and fellowship
with the divine is peace. So Christ has taught us in His life--'The
Father hath not left Me alone, because I do always the things that
please Him.' And therein He has marked out for us the path of
righteousness and communion, which is ever the path of peace. 'Thou wilt
keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he
trusteth in Thee.' That is the secret of the tranquillity of the
ever-calm Christ.
Being thus the Lord of Peace, inasmuch as it was His own constant and
unbroken possession, He is the sole giver of it to others.
Ah! brethren, our hearts want far more, for their stable restfulness,
than we can find in any hand, or in any heart, except those of Jesus
Christ Himself. For what do we need? We need, in order that we should
know the sweetness of repose, an adequate object for every part of our
nature. If we find something that is good and sweet and satisfying for
some portion of this complex being of ours, all its other hungry desires
are apt to be left unappeased. So we are shuttle-cocked from one wish to
another, and bandied about from one partial satisfaction to another, and
in them all it is but segments of our being that are satisfied, whilst
all the rest of the circumference remains disquieted. We need that, in
one attainable and single object, there shall be at once that which will
subjugate the will, that which will illuminate and appease the
conscience, that which will satisfy the seeking intellect, and hold
forth the promise of endless progress in insight and knowledge, that
which will meet all the desires of our ravenous clamant nature, and
that which will fill every creek and cranny of our empty hearts as with
the flashing brightness of an inflowing tide.
And where shall we find all these, but in one dear heart, and where
shall we discern the one object, whom, possessing, we have enough; and
without whom, possessing all beside, we are mendicants and starving?
Where, but in that dear Lord, who Himself will supply all our needs, and
will minister to us peace, because for will and conscience and intellect
and affections and desires He supplies the pabulum that they require,
and gives more than enough for their satisfaction?
We want, if we are to be at rest, that there shall be some absolute
control over our passions, lusts, desires, which torture us for ever, as
long as they are ungoverned. There is only one hand which will take the
wild beasts of our nature, bind them in the silken leash of His love,
and lead them along, tamed and obedient.
We want, for our peace, that all our relations with circumstances and
men around us shall be rectified. And who is there that can bring about
such harmony between us and our surroundings that calamities shall not
press upon us with their heaviest weight, nor opposing circumstances
kindle angry resistance, but only patient perseverance and thankful
persistence in the path of duty? It is only Christ that can regulate our
relations to the things and the men around us, and make all things work
together to our consciousness for our good.
Further, if we are to be at rest, and possess any true, fundamental, and
stable tranquillity, we want that our relations with God shall
consciously be rectified and made blessed. And I, for my part, do not
believe that any man comes into the full sweetness of an assured
friendship with God, unless he comes to it by the road of faith in that
Saviour in whom God draws near to us with tenderness in His heart, and
blessings dropping from His open Hands. To be at peace with God is the
beginning of all true tranquillity, and that can be secured only by
faith in Jesus Christ.
So, because He brings the reconciliation between man and God, because He
brings the rectification of our relation to circumstances and men,
because He brings the control of desires and passions and inclinations,
and because He satisfies all the capacities of our natures, in Him, and
in Him only, is there peace for us.