its source. This determines its quality. The laws of the human mind are such that our happiness will partake of the character of the object from which it is derived. If it be from an uncertain and unsatisfying world, it will be just as uncertain and unsatisfying; if from the eternal and immutable God, it will be undisturbable. As to both his temporal and eternal necessities, the believer's Helper is omnipresent and omniscient, all-wise and all-merciful. What, then, can he fear (Ps. xxvii. 1) 2. In its measure. It rises like a river, and swells and rolls onward until it bears sin and sorrow away into the land of forgetfulness. 3. In its adaptation to our needs. These do but afford the occasions for its triumphs. It comes in when all other joys go out, and erects its brightest monuments on the ruins of earthly hopes. There is no trial which it cannot enable us to endure (a). No wonder that Jesus calls it His peace (John xiv. 27), and bequeaths it to His disciples as the best legacy which it is in His power to bestow. That very repose in God which so filled and cheered His own bosom He delights to share with all who love Him.

III. If this perfect peace is to be ours, we must link ourselves on to God by a simple, earnest, childlike faith. As sinners we must begin by the exercise of a personal faith in His Son as our Saviour. 1. This is essen tial. Nothing else will answer the purpose. Whatsoever was the strength of the ark built by Noah, or its fitness to float on the water, it could save from the deluge those only who entered it; and so Christ's death on the cross to procure peace for us will avail us nothing unless through Him we seek reconciliation with God. 2. This is sufficient. Let this be done in the first instance, and be repeated as often as clouds overcast the mind and doubts arise in the heart, and there can be nothing to hinder the enjoyment of peace. Nothing more is needed. Once let a simple trust in the merits of the Saviour take possession of the bosom, and it will go further to produce

abiding tranquillity than all the tears and vigils of the most perfect devotee. The peace thus coming to us will never end. Let the penitent sinner but stay himself on the Lord and trust in the God of his salvation, and though he "walk in darkness, and see no light," he is just as safe for both. worlds as the power and grace of God can make him.

We must not

IV. We have to acknowledge that many who hope for salvation through Christ are not possessed of "perfect peace." Many believers are "in heaviness through manifold temptations," and their peace is more like an uncertain brook than a perpetual river moving calmly into the ocean. Why is this? 1. Sometimes, though rarely, because God has been pleased to withdraw the blessed feeling of undisturbed tranquillity, in order that He may produce a deeper sense of dependence on Him. In such cases, peace will be reached again through humble submission to the divine will concerning us, and trust in the unchangeableness of the divine love. give way to despondency. We must be on the alert to hear God speaking comfort to us through His word. 2. Sometimes the believer's peace is interrupted by a derangement of the physical or mental system. Let us remember that while we are in the flesh we are liable to such trials, and that our salvation does not depend on our feelings, which are changeable as the clouds, but on the Rock of Ages. 3. Sometimes we permit our attention to be turned away from God and engrossed by our trials. It is with us as with Peter (Matt. xiv. 30). But then, like him, let us cry to the Lord, let us obey the exhortation of our text, and we shall find that He can give us both deliverance and peace. 4. Sometimes, alas! we forget that the faith to which peace is promised is a faith that shows itself in patient continuance in well-doing" (Rom. ii. 7; James ii. 26). Let us not be surprised if, then, our peace departs. Let us return unto the Lord, and beseech Him to heal our backslidings.

Restored to the paths of righteousness, we shall find that they, and they alone, are "paths of peace."

V. It is the duty, as it is the privilege, of all believers to seek for "perfect peace." With any lower measure of this blessing, we should not be content. 1. Without it, we cannot possess the comfort which God desires that all His people should enjoy. 2. Without it, we cannot help our fellow-men as we ought. It is our duty to reveal to them the power of the grace of God; and in few ways can we so effectually stimulate our fellow-men to seek Him whom they need, as by manifesting that tranquillity they so much desire, and can find only in Him. 3. Without it, we cannot glorify God as we ought. What we are should move onlookers to praise Him, as a lovely landscape uplifts the thoughts of beholders to the Creator of all; but this can be only when the purposes of God in regard to us are fulfilled, and we are rejoicing in the possession of purity and "perfect peace."-David Magie, D.D.: American National Preacher, vol. xxv. pp. 221-231.

I. All true spiritual peace originates in rconciliation with God. The grand object of the Gospel is to bring about this peace (Luke ii. 14). Jesus Christ is designated "the Prince of peace;" the Father, "the God of peace." God is really reconciled, i.e., is peaceably disposed towards us, "waiting to be gracious;" but men are not reconciled, not willing to renounce their rebellion and yield themselves to Him. They can have no true peace until they cast away their sins and cast themselves on the Divine mercy, as it is offered to us in and through Jesus Christ. But doing this, it and all other spiritual blessings shall be theirs (Isa. lv. 7; Rom. v. 1).

II. We attain to true spiritual peace precisely in proportion as we attain to perfect harmony with the Divine will. When we first become at peace with one with whom we have previously been at variance, it does not follow that we can at once fall in with all

that is required of his household, however justly. So the peace of the regenerated man is not at first perfect, because his submission to the Divine Will is only partial. Afterwards, when he can truly say of all God's proceedings, "Thy will be done," and his mind is fully "stayed on God," even when perils threaten and sharp sacrifices are demanded, then his peace "flows like a river," and grows into "the peace of God which passeth all understanding."

III. All true spiritual peace is supernatural in its origin. To grant this deep and abiding peace is the prerogative of the Divine Saviour. Friends may leave us houses, lands, gold, but only Christ can give us peace (John xiv. 27). "My peace !" What is Christ's peace? Not the peace of re-. conciliation, for with God He never was at variance (Heb. iv. 15; 1 Pet. ii. 22). "My peace" could only mean that mental peace which flows from perfect harmony with the Divine will. Such peace can come to us only through the educational power of Christ. The more we obey the Master, the more implicit will be our submission to God, and the deeper our peace. Only then shall we know "perfect peace." Such peace, like every Christian grace and holy virtue, being beyond the reach of nature, is supernatural (James i. 17). The child of God, calm amid a tempest of trouble, often excites the wonder of the world. Such quietness of soul is not the result of temperament or of training. It is God's work: "Thou wilt keep," &c.

IV. All true spiritual peace is practical in its results. Though in its Divine creation it is "past finding out," it is not a mystical rapture, a thing in the clouds; it is a reality, a living principle arousing itself for the battle, and standing on the watchtower amid the struggles and trials of daily life (Phil. iv. 7; R. V.) As a garrison seizes and retains a stronghold, so "the peace of God" takes military possession of the soul, and beats off all outside assailants. It has an active as well as a passive side, like

a staff which we can draw forth for a fight as well as lean on for rest. 1. It protects the mind. Sceptical thoughts, atheistic objections, may invade the mind and perplex the reason, but then we fall back on this peace. We know that we are never so calm and strong as when we obey the will of God, and keep conscience on our side. Rectitude bringing peace, is an evidence of the divinity of our religion stronger than any sceptical objection that can be brought against it. 2. It protects the heart. Affection allures it; joy and sorrow, hope and fear assail it; but the Christian can withstand these assaults, because he opposes higher things to lower; Divine pleasures to human, riches to riches, honours to honours. He can realise the meaning of the Master's words (Matt. xix. 29). Resting on such promises as these, he is "kept in perfect peace."-G. R. Miall.

I. Peace is at once a blessing, and a mother of blessings. How many spring from her! How the poets have sung of her! Peace is needed by

every man; every man is conscious of disturbing influences without and within. Peace is earnestly sought by most men. What sanguinary wars have been waged to obtain peace!

II. The idea of "perfect peace," presented in the text, seems to most men at the most a beautiful dream; in proportion to their experience of life is their disbelief that it can be theirs. But it is declared here that God bestows it on every man whose mind is stayed on Him.

What interpretation are we to put upon this declaration? The experience of God's people must be our guide in answering this question. This makes it abundantly clear that the peace which God secures for His people does not consist in freedom from assault. This is sometimes vouchsafed them; their foes are scattered, and songs of triumph are given them, such as this chapter. But their experience, taken as a whole, may be said to be a continuous verification of our Saviour's declaration: "In the world ye have tribulation."

Instead of caring to secure for His people freedom from assault, He seems rather often to prefer to expose them to it (Matt. iii. 16; iv. 1). He prefers rather to teach them to fight and to conquer; to develop and discipline their virtues by struggles in which they are tried up to the very last point of endurance. For this end, He turns a deaf ear to their prayer, "Lead us not into temptation;" and lets loose upon them foes bent upon their destruction.

Notwithstanding, they may have "perfect peace." "In the world ye have tribulation: in Me ye have peace." Not merely that the peace is to succeed the tribulation; the two may co-exist. It is quite possible for peace to dwell in the heart of the chief ruler of a nation waging a terrible war (8); or in the heart of the captain of a vessel storm-driven; or in the heart of a merchant in the midst of a commercial panic, because he knows that the struggle will for him end in victory. So in the midst of all the conflicts of life, a Christian may have "perfect peace."

III. A Christian; he, and no other! Not every profound peace is "perfect peace." The contemporaries of Noah and of Lot; Belshazzar and his court were in "perfect peace," as far as their feelings were concerned, in the very hour that destruction came upon them. But however much the feelings may be soothed, there is no "perfect peace', that has not a sure basis of fact. For the peace of the wicked there can be no such basis; God and all the forces of the universe are arrayed against the wicked, and their ultimate destruction is sure (Isa. xlviii. 22; Rom. ii. 8, 9). Repentance and reconciliation with God through Christ are the essential preliminary conditions of "perfect peace."

IV. But is "perfect peace" the possession of all who have complied with these conditions? No. Why? Because they have not yet learned to stay their minds on God. They have faith, but it is yet in the germ, and they have not yet been trained in its exer

cise (Matt. xiv. 31; xvi. 8). Not upon God exclusively are their hopes set (Ps. lxii. 5); it is but seldom that they do look up to Him, and hence their faith is imperfect and intermittent. It remains in the power of their foes to distress them; anxieties as to their temporal necessities, sad forebodings as to their eternal welfare, harass and weaken them. (For other reasons, see preceding outlines.)

But there are those who have passed through and beyond these elementary stages of Christian experience, and, steadily pursuing the paths of righteousness, they have "perfect peace." Their circumstances may be adverse and threatening, but they possess a tranquillity of soul that is undisturbable (2 Cor. iv. 8-10); nay, is even triumphant (Rom. v. 3; Acts xvi. 25; Hab. iii. 17-19).

V. In this "perfect peace" these "these rare souls rest, because they are kept in it by God Himself: "Thou wilt keep," &c.

1. How? (1.) By means of the deliverances which from time to time He works for them. Memory becomes a treasure-house of Divine faithfulness and mercy, and out of it their souls are fed and sustained when a season of famine and danger has befallen them. Then they know that He who has delivered will deliver, and they wait upon Him with calm, joyful expectation. (2.) To these souls the records of God's deliverances of His people in ancient days become prophetic of deliverances He will still work for His people right on to the end of time. By His Spirit He works in them an immovable, soul-inspiring confidence in His own unchangeableness. To them He is "the living God," acting to-day precisely as He did in the days of old. (3.) But, above all, He produces in their souls, as the chief safeguard of their tranquillity, a childlike confidence in His personal love for them. There is nothing they are so sure of as that God loves them, and being sure of this, all the rest follows as a matter of course. They never forget what proof God

has given of His love for them, and hence they reason precisely as St. Paul did (Rom. viii. 31-39). This priceless revelation He makes to many who are "babes" in this world's wisdom (Matt. xi. 25), and to others also who know all that science has to teach them of the vastness of the universe and of their own relative insignifi

cance.

2. Why? (1.) Because it is a state of soul in which He delights. "The God of peace" desires that in this, as in all respects, His people-His children-should be like Him. (2.) Because they trust in Him. Devoting themselves to His service, and putting themselves into His care, His honour is pledged to the defence and maintenance of their welfare. Will He forfeit it? Men are far gone in depravity when they willingly disappoint those who trust in them: guides of the blind, lawyers and their clients, doctors and their patients, widows and their business advisers (7). What sacrifices we make to fulfil the expectations we have encouraged our children to form! Will it be otherwise with our Father in heaven? Never!

VI. What then? 1. "Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." There is more than "strength;" but there is the "strength to carry out His wise and loving purposes towards His people." He can do more than pity. 2. Let us cultivate the habit of trusting IN THE LORD, and of doing this in all the vicissitudes of our lot, "for ever." 3. And that this habit may become to us invariable and its exercise easy, let us accept with all simplicity the revelation which He has been pleased to make of Himself as our Father in heaven. Precisely in proportion as we do this we shall stay our mind on Him, and we shall enter into that "perfect peace" which He desires should be the inheritance of all His children.

(a.) Can we turn aside and see what light this peace of God can diffuse through the chamber of disease; how it can tranquillise the bosom of the poor widow surrounded with