with their brethren and control their relations to their fellowmen! Yet by every form of argument, precept, promise, and illustration is this great principle put before us, and pressed on us, and pre-eminently by the illustrious example of our Lord Himself. "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you," was His frequent theme. So important is it, that our own happiness and the welfare of others are bound up with the exhibition and influence of this affection. What a different body the Church would soon be, and what a different world would ours become, if this Christian love, as the work of faith and the fruit of the Spirit of God, had freer scope and more constant exercise-rising above the walls of sectarianism, breaking down the barriers of bigotry, and proving the true unity of all who have been redeemed by Christ, and regenerated by the power of the Holy Ghost. "Love never faileth." "Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

XXXIII.

The Power of Divine Peace.

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful."-COLOSSIANS iii. 15.

OVE may be the girdle of all the Christian graces; but

injunction to let the peace of God rule in the heart? It is not difficult to see, that the man who has this peace in his heart is the most likely to cultivate successfully the love which is the prominent badge of Christian discipleship. Calmness in the soul is the concomitant and stimulus of Christian affection. The man who is disturbed by fear, harassed by doubt, agitated by anxiety, or oppressed by inward accusation is not likely to abound in love towards others. The more that we have of Divine peace, the tranquillity which Jesus Christ alone can give, the more are we in a position to put on the "charity which is the bond of perfectness."

Some of the oldest manuscripts here read the peace of Christ, instead of the peace of God,-a reading adopted by the ablest biblical critics, and to be preferred.* The difference, however, is immaterial. This peace is the Redeemer's

* Alexandrian, Vatican, and Sinaitic MSS., adopted by Tischendorf, Tregelles, Ellicott, Wordsworth, Alford, etc.

own legacy: "My peace I give unto you." By His sacrifice for us He has secured it; and as our Mediator He is our peace.

race.

I Contemplate, first, the nature and value of this object as a blessing to be realized. Surely the peace of Christ is the highest blessing for men: it is peace with God, and the rest of the soul in Him-the peace which comes to us from Christ and through Him. Man had lifted the arms of rebellion against his Maker, had spurned the authority, and forfeited the favour of God; and destruction to the sinner must have been the issue. But God came down in the person of His Son with the message of mercy and the overtures of peace, to proclaim it as heaven's highest boon to a fallen Christ Jesus made peace through the blood of His cross, and left it as His bequeathment to all His disciples, and still He says to them, "Peace I leave with you: my peace I give unto you." This peace, in its character, is the peace which Christ Himself enjoys-a calmness the same as dwells in His Divine bosom. Spirit-stirring and yet soothing is the thought that sinful and imperfect man may thus be a partaker of the peace of God. Nothing can disturb the repose or harass the peace of the Almighty. Hell may rage and the world may rebel; but He that sitteth in the heavens is the subject of no anxious care and no agitating thought. To have the peace of Christ is to have this blessedness in our measure within our souls; so that with no gloom from the past, and no forebodings for the future, with no pursuing vengeance and no depressing fear, we stand strong and calm amid the troubles of this world, like the rock unmoved amid the ocean surges which rage around it and dash against it on every side. It is a Divine tranquillity which no mere worldly power can give or take away, and which no earthly sorrow can diminish or disturb. It comes from God through Christ and is maintained and nourished

in the soul as a positive blessing, a gracious reality, and a most precious possession.

You perceive the Apostle assumes that every Christian has this peace in his heart, a privilege actually possessed, not a privilege hovering around the soul as a hoped-for blessing to be realized by-and-by. It is only as he actually possesses it that he can let it rule in his heart. Yet there are many who are in uncertainty about this blessing; something interferes with their full enjoyment of peace, and they go doubting and unhappy from day to day. It ought not to be so, when Christ freely gives His peace. To lay hold of His fulness, to have a clear view of the sufficiency of His sacrifice, to cling simply to His cross, and to abide in Him, is the true way of peace. Come forth, and dwell in the noontide glory of the Divine love as revealed in the Saviour, and peace will surely flow into the soul-the very peace of God, which passeth all understanding. Receive it, that it may dwell in your hearts, control and order all things there; let it be the central, superintending, and regulating force within. The word* used is one which described the duty of the arbiter or umpire at the ancient public games, and the meaning here seems to be well translated rule-let it exercise supreme authority, and regulate all things in your souls. We may at first, perhaps, wonder how the peace of God is to exercise such a power as this, how it is qualified to be the umpire and arbiter of all things in the soul; yet a very little thought will help us to see its adaptation for this position. It wields a power within which perhaps nothing else can exercise. It has the power of stimulus. When it fills the heart, a new consciousness dawns within it, and a power

*

Βραβευέτω. "Where there is a competition in the heart between two rival passions, Good and Evil, Love and Hatred, let Peace sit there as Arbitress."-Wordsworth's Gk. Test. in loc.

descends which thenceforth lifts up the soul to God in affection, desire, and hope. A taste of true blessedness is realized, and a sense of Divine calm is diffused, which forms the mightiest help on the side of piety and holiness. It is a peace which leads and lifts the soul to Him from whom it comes. Thus it strengthens for every holy duty, stimulates to every holy pursuit, and encourages to every holy enterprize. The more that it possesses and fills the heart, the more fitness will there be for spiritual attainment and progress. man tossed with doubt, and having no clear apprehension of the favour of God and the forgiveness of sin, is in no condition to fight with evil, to rise above the world, or to gather the beauties of holiness into his character.

A

This peace of Christ has also the power of defence. Most successfully will it resist all alien and hurtful influences in their assaults upon the soul, whether from the world, the flesh, or the devil. The consciousness of peace with God is the greatest and surest moral fortification of manhood. Many a Christian may be a poor logician, and may have very little acquaintance with the historical evidences of his faith; but if Divine peace rules in his heart, he has really a stronger defence than all the arts of reasoning or the learning of the schools can supply. It is the strongest bulwark against temptation, and a potent safeguard against every form of sin. As master of the soul it has the power of control, and is a wise and safe monitor, the holy regulator of the affections and desires. With a true and Divine instinct it decides on that which is right and good, and shuns what would be injurious and wrong. Often you hear, and perhaps propose, questions of a casuistical character, touching the lawfulness of this pursuit or that amusement, when there really can be no arbiter in the case but the peace of God in the heart. Is it right for me to do so? to form this alliance-to visit this scene to make this engagement-to join this company?