ing to be His sons. His will towards us changes not. His name remains for ever the same. But we cannot know His will, we cannot claim His name, if we reject His love. To them who reject His love, His will is no longer one of love, but of wrath; His name is no longer a name of endearment, but of terror. It is of the nature of the Divine Love that it should not spare the impenitent and unbelieving, the contemptuously selfish and guilty, who say in their hearts," Who is the Lord that He should reign over us?" It belongs to the idea of Divine Fatherhood that it should cast from its embrace those who disown its solicitations; who turn away from its light and love the darkness, because their deeds are evil. The more "Our Father in heaven" loves us, the more fearful it is for us by wilful sin to reject His love-the more must we suffer if we do so. Brethren, it is the very love of God which, despised, makes the wrath of God. It is the very Fatherliness of the Divine which makes it a "consuming fire" against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men. 48 III. THE PEACE OF CHRIST. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, give I unto you."-JOHN, xiv. 27. THERE is a singular beauty and depth of meaning in these words. Every spiritual mind owns this directly, whatever difficulty it may have in analysing and entering into all the meaning. Like many words of St John, they address more directly the spiritual instinct than the spiritual intelligence. We feel them more than we can explain them. They meet our silent aspirations. They give an answer to our deepest longings. Christ came to give peace on earth. The promise of the Advent was, "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth Peace." The promise might seem to have failed of its fulfilment. Men strive for the mastery as of old, and amidst the movements of human ambition, and the contradictions of human opinion, peace seems as far off as ever. This is true, and yet the text is also true. The peace which our Lord came to give -which He left with His own when He went away—which He gives now-not as the world giveth-to all that ask it, is not peace as men often mean by the word. It is not external quiet, or ease, mere composure or comfort such as men desire and crave after. The Gospel is nowhere said to be a Gospel of earthly comfort. The happiness which Christ promised is not happiness in the sense of exemption from trouble, or danger, or sorrow. On the contrary, the Lord assured His followers that in the world they would have tribulation. Even as He had been tried and suffered, so would they. The servant was to be as his Lord, the disciple as his Master-in this respect and in others. Yet they were assured of peace. The " weary and heavy laden"-those on whom the burden of care or sorrow might fall most heavily-were to have "rest" unto their souls. Their peace was to work through patience and suffering. It was not only to be compatible with conflict and danger and toil, but in and through these it was to come; and while all things were shaken Ꭰ around them, and "without were fightings, within were fears,"*"the peace of God, which passeth all understanding" was to "keep their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." + What we think of most naturally in connection with such a subject is our Lord's own life -so majestic in its repose-so grand in its peacefulness-with such a pervading depth of calm in it, and yet so troubled outwardly. And here no doubt is the key to the meaning. Our Lord's own life-His spiritual manifestation in life and death-is the best interpreter of all His profoundest sayings. For the Christian lives. only in Christ. He has no life apart from Him. All Christian thought is hid in Him. All Christian experience grows out of Him. According to the terms of the text, our Lord makes first an explicit promise of peace as His gift to His disciples; and then sets in contrast with His own gift the gifts of the world. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.' We will best bring out the meaning of the divine gift by placing in front the gifts with which it is contrasted. I. Christ frequently draws in sharp and de† Philip. iv. 7. * 2 Cor. vii. 5. cisive terms the contrast betwixt Himself and the world. We "cannot serve," He tells us, "God and mammon." "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”† It is nowhere said that the world is worthless, or that mammon is unattractive. On the contrary, the very sharpness of the antagonism drawn by Christ implies that what is called the world has powerful attractions for man. It has fair and promising gifts to offer him; otherwise there need have been no such decisive contrast drawn betwixt Himself and it, and no such solemn warning that we cannot serve both Him and it. Now, what are the gifts of the world? What is meant by the world, and the attractions by which it lures man? There can be no doubt of the general meaning. The world is the outside life of man. Its gifts are possessions dear to his senses, his intellect, and even his heart. It rewards with its own. If we serve it, it will not disown us. To the ambitious man, who knows how to use skilfully the instruments of ambition, it gives influence and authority. To the selfindulgent man, it gives the means of indulgence. It tempts the sight with seeing, and the ear with * Matt. vi. 24. + 1 John, ii. 15. |