The Peace of God.

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THE PEACE OF GOD.

Rev. Thomas E. Peck

"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Phil. iv. 6, 7.)

CARE is the necessary result of a sense of responsibility combined with a sense of weakness. The brutes that perish know nothing of the burden of care, because they know nothing of responsibility. The end of their being is accomplished in obeying the impulses of a merely animal nature ; and looking neither before nor after, their satisfaction is disturbed by no remorse for the past, nor anxiety for the future. The angels that excel in strength know nothing of care, though possessing the keenest sense of responsibility ; because they know nothing of weakness. They are creatures, indeed, and, as such, are perfectly conscious of limitations upon their powers ; but they know nothing of weakness in the sad significance of that word to mortal men. Their powers are exactly and critically adjusted to the measure of their obligations, and whatever they are bound to do is done with ease, and therefore with delight. But man is a

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sinner, weak, as well as responsible, and consequently cannot but be burdened with care.

By the very constitution of our nature, it is impossible for us to exist, much more to attain the highest ends of existence, in a condition of isolation or solitude. The author of our nature has ordained society as the sphere in which we are to live, and move, and have our being. But society gives rise to manifold relations, and these relations to manifold

' This sermon was preached March 8, 1863. 86

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duties ; and these duties bring with them a sense of responsibility so great as to be often harrassing and well-nigh intolerable. Man is born to care as the sparks fly upward. It is further worthy of remark that an increase of care is the necessary condition of the development of the individual man, and of the progress of society. The social relations of a savage state are few and simple. The man of the forest
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or the desert is roused to exertion by the pains of hunger, or the cries of his wife and children for food, or by the necessities of defence against the violence of his fellow-savage or the ferocity of the beasts of the field. His j)ressing wants in regard to sustenance or protection being satisfied, he relapses into a condition of torpor amounting almost to insensibility. The man of civilized life sustains many and complex relations which make the burden of care incessant ; and in proportion as he rises in the scale of usefulness and honor, as his relations and duties are multiplied, his responsibilities become graver, and his cares heavier. No such cares as afflict the heart of the President of the Confederate States, in the present perilous times, are known to the chief of a savage tribe.

Care, then, being the inexorable law of our condition here, and an increase of care the law of development and progress, it seems strange that we should be exhorted to "be careful for nothing," and that, too, by a man exalted to such a pitch of usefulness and honor as to be burdened with "the care of all the churches." Must we understand it as an exhortation to abandon ourselves to a light-hearted epicurean disregard of the stern responsibilities of life ? Are we advised to adopt the philosophy of the stoic and fortify ourselves against the
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assaults of care by a heroic resolution to recognize no distinction between pain and pleasiu-e, and to accept all evil as only partial good? By no means. What, then, must be understood by this, "Be careful for nothing"? I answer, that the "word rendered "careful" in the original signifies, according

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to its etymology, to "divide," and generally expresses that sort of care which divides or distracts the mind. It isopposed to the "peace which passeth all understanding.'* The epicurean notion of serenity, or tranquility of mind, in which the philosophers of that atheistic school asserted the chief good of man to consist, was an entire freedom from all care, a serenity incompatible with any serious views of human life, with any just views of its responsibilities, or any earnest endeavors to fulfil them. It was the balance of the two sides of an empty pair of scales. The "peace which passeth all understanding" is founded upon a conviction that, great as the burden of care may be, there is a counterbalancing support in the presence and sustaining power of a personal God. It is the equilibrium of the two sides of a
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pair of scales produced by heavy but equal weights in both. The soul is not relaxed, but tense. It is earnest and glowing in the discharge of its manifold duties, but dwelhng safely, as in a garrison (see verse seven in Greek), from the assaults of torturing care.

I. But how is this peace to be obtained ? By prayer, is the answer of the apostle in the text: "but in everything by prayer," etc.

The efficacy of prayer in relieving us from distracting care^ and in securing the "peace which passeth all understanding," may be shown in several ways.

(1), As care is the result of a combined sense of responsibility and of weakness, prayer relieves us, because, while it brings us into the immediate presence of that God whose will creates the responsibility, it also assures us of his ability to help our weakness. It brings us into contact with a God whose providence cares for us in our minutest concerns. This is the argument of Peter (1 Peter v. 6, 7): "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time ; casting all your care upon him ; for he careth for you"; and of the Psalmist (Iv. 22): "Cast
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thy burden upon the Lord, and lie shall sustain thee; he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved" ; of the Saviour himself (Matt. \i. 25-34), where the word rendered "Take no thought," is the same as that rendered in the text, " Be careful for nothing." He "helps our infirmities," or (as the figure seems to be in Rom. viii. 26) takes hold of one side of the burden, while we carry the other. And here I beg you to note the immense contrast between Paul and the philosophers who undertook in his day to reheve the burdens of mankind. The two schools of philosophy which were most popular in the Eoman Empire, where he was publishing the glad tidings, were those already alluded to, the Epicureans and the Stoics (Acts x\di. 18); more popular than the more ancient and noble schools of Plato and Aristotle, because more ethical and practical. It was a time of trouble. The glory of the Greeks had departed; their liberties had perished first under the iron heel of the Macedonian, then of the Roman. The nobler class of the Romans themselves mourned over the extinction of the republic and the erection
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of a splendid but cruel despotism upon its ruins. Men's hearts were filled with disappointment and oppressed with gloomy forebodings. They looked to the philosophers for comfort. The Epicureans told them that all things, including the earthly lot of men, were the sport of chance, and that serenity of mind could only be found in seizing the pleasures of the passing day. " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die !" This was the favorite philosophy of the Greek, mercurial, and fond of pleasure and excitement. The sterner and nobler Roman was more inclined to listen to the oracles of the Stoic, as he taught that all things, including not only the destiny of men, but the destiny of gods, were the slaves of a bhnd and remorseless fate, and that serenity of mind was possible only for those who stubbornly ignored the existence of pain and evil, who regarded all things as equally normal developments of the universe. Neither Epicurean nor Stoic spoke of

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prayer as an antidote of human care. Alas ! they knew no God who could see, or hear, or help. The cries which agonized nature extorted from the sufferer were poured forth to
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an idle divinity, who ""took no part in administrating, as he he had taken no part in creating, the universe ; or to a mysterious impersonal power, whose movements were at once necessary and resistless; or, at best, to "an unknown God." In contrast with these gropings in the dark, these desperate utterances of an earth-born philosophy which could find no remedy for the woes of man except in unmanning him, in annihilating and mutilating his nature ; in contrast so sublime and exalted as to force the conviction upon us that he spoke by the inspiration of the Almighty — Paul announces the remedy in the text. Let us praise God, my fellow-travellers, through this vale of tears, that we have this clear shining in this dark place, till the day dawn and the day-star arise in our hearts! Let us praise him in these perilous times, when our liberties are threatened with a deluge from the North, and the dragon stands ready to devour the new-born manchild of the South ; let us praise him that we can appeal to the righteousness of his throne and the might of his arm! Let us praise him, my fellow-Christians, not only that we have this revelation of God and his providence, but that he has enabled us, by his Spirit, to recognize it and to rejoice in it, while so many, even now, with the Bible in their hands, are drivelling still about chance, or fate, or force, or law, as the controlling agency in human affairs ! Let us praise him that
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we know him not as the logical, abstract, passionless God of the schools, but as the living, feeling, yearning Father of the Bible, whose " soul is grieved for the misery of Israel," who sees the returning prodigal afar off, and runs and falls upon his neck and kisses him! who, in all our affliction, is himself afflicted ; who says that whosoever toucheth us toucheth the apple of his eye !

We are abundantly justified in ascribing to prayer such an efficacy in relieving the burden of care, because.

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(2), In the second place, it not only brings us into contact with a God who exercises a special and benignant providence over our concerns, but because it brings us to a God who sustains a special covenant relation to all who are in his Son Jesus Christ. The phrase "through Jesus Christ," with which Paul closes the exhortation, determines the complexion of all its parts. It is through Christ Jesus we are to make knowTi our requests unto God, because he is the trustee of the covenant, and all its exceeding great and precious pro9

mises are in him yea, and in him Amen. He is the heir of all things, and in him all things are ours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or Ufe, or death, or things present, or things to come ; all are ours, and we are Christ's, and Christ is God's. " I will be thy God " is the formula of the covenant. God has given himself to his people as their all-comprehending good as well as their all-disposing Lord. He is their sun and their shield; he will give grace and glory ; no good thing will he withhold from them who walk uprightly. The warrant and measure of our prayers, therefore, is this boundless covenant with all its promises, a covenant formed in the depths of eternity, sealed with the blood of the Lamb, and confirmed by an oath. (Heb. vi. 13, etc.) Having such promises (and these are only a few out of an almost countless number in the word of God), having such promises to plead in prayer under the pressure of our cares, how can we fail to find relief, and to experience that " peace which passeth all understanding." For all spiritual blessings, faith, love, repentance, gratitude, patience, increase of grace and perseverance therein to the end, we may pray without limit or condition. The fountain is infinite, and the only limitation upon our blessing is our capacity to receive. "According to your faith be it unto you," is the comprehensive charter. "All things are possible to him that believeth,"
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We are not straitened in God ; we are straitened in ourselves. But in reference to temporal blessings, health, food, civil

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liberty, etc., we have no absolute expression of the purpose of God, our Father, and must, therefore, pray in submission to his unknown will. We have the absolute assurance, however, that he will withhold "no good thing" from them that walk uprightly. When he denies us anything, then, he denies it because it would not be good. We know not what is good for ourselves all the days of our vain life which we spend as a shadow; and like passionate children we often cry for that which it would be ruin to obtain. When we go to our heavenly Father with our cares, we may go with the utmost confidence that he will either do what we ask or something far better ; that if it should not please him to remove them, he will convert them into a salutary discipline for our distempered natures ; that he will either take away the burden, or make it such a burden, to use the expression of one of the old fathers, as sails are to a ship or wings to a bird, serving to waft us the more swiftly to our home in the bosom
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of Christ. We know with a transcendent certainty that he who has given the greater will not withhold the less ; that having spared not even his only Son, he will freely give all other things which his wisdom sees needful for us. "For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose." And now, beloved, in reference to the dark shadow that rests upon our whole country, deeper, like the shadow of an eclipse, in some parts than in others, but gloomy and portentous in all. Here is the faith and patience of the saints. It is the work of him who bought us with his blood. The same voice that uttered amidst the dying agonies of the cross that memorable prayer, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," has now mustered the hosts to battle. All power is given him in heaven and earth, and in the exercise of this power he is working out upon fields of blood, in desolated homes, in chambers of bereavement and sorrow, by scarcity of food and all manner of straits and necessities,

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the wondrous purposes of his grace. And in like manner as
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the devil was taken in his own devices in procuring the crucifixion of the Sou of God, and was conquered in the veryhour of his imaginary triumph, so, I doubt not, it will be manifest in the end, that this war, barbarous and cruel, which by his instigation our enemies are waging against us, is only another example of that righteous judgment of God by which the wicked and their master are snared in the work of their own hands. It is a time of winter with the people of God, of windstorm and tempest; the trees of his garden are stripped and bare, to all appearance dead; but glorious summer will succeed, and the golden fruits which will then adorn those new naked boughs will demonstrate the wisdom and the goodness of the great husbandman. The multiplication of their cares has multiplied their errands to the throne of their Father in heaven, and they have been strengthened with strength in their souls.

This great fact that God is our God in covenant is not only our consolation and support under the pressure of present cares, but the bulwark against torturing apprehensions of the future. He is not only the " I am," but the " I will be." He is known by his name Jehovah. His covenant name embracing in its composition the past, the present, and the future, "the Lord God Almighty, who is, and who was, and who is to
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come." Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have ; for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say,' " The Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man can do unto me." (Heb. xiii. 5, 6.) The promise contained in these words is full enough to keep house upon in the darkest times. Our version gives a very inadequate impression of strength. Two or more negatives in Greek strengthen the negation, instead of destroying it as in English. Now, in this promise, as expressed in the original, there are no less than five negatives. We might have a

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feeble imitation of tlie foim by repeating the negations, tbus : ** I will noti 1 will not leave thee; I'll never, no never, no never forsake thee."

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose

I will not, I will not desert to its foes ;

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That soul though all hell should endeavor to shake,

I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake.

Surely such a God may well say unto us, " Take no anxious thought for the morrow!" The morrow of trouble, such as your gloomy forebodings depict it, may never come ; but if it should come, God will be with it and with you in it. If prayer brings us into communion with such a God, it may well produce that "peace which passeth all understanding."

(3), As God chooses our cares for us as our covenant-God, and as prayer compels us to recognize that fact, so also prayer is the antidote to care, because it brings us to an issue with ourselves and compels us to recognize the fact that not only were those relations and conditions which are the source of our cares chosen, for the most part, by ourselves, but that they are still chosen, notwithstanding the cares they bring with them. Illustrate by children and servants. Dr. Palmer, in presenting this point, refers to the vision in the Spectator, in which men were seen depositing their burdens in separate heaps, and, upon being allowed to choose freely any of them, were seen each to choose again that which he had laid down before.
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(4), The eflScacy of prayer as the antidote of care may be further illustrated by its effect upon the general tone of the Spirits Every scholar knows the effect upon his own mind of communion with some master-spirit of our race, whether that communion be enjoyed with the living person through the medium of speech, or with the departed genius speaking through the written or printed characters, in which his precious life-blood has been embalmed and treasured up in

' See Palmer's Sermon on this text.

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order to a life beyond life. He is gradually lifted up out of his own lower sphere into that of the Spirit of a nobler mould. The range of thought and feeUng is widened and elevated. He is placed upon an eminence, from which he looks down upon the objects which formerly engaged his attention, diminished and dimmed by the distance, and descries new and more commanding objects, which the lowness of his position before would not permit him to see. The
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atmosphere is bracing, and an athletic tone is imparted to the whole man. The whole soul beats with a quicker and stronger pulse, and the man is amazed that trifles light as air could have hung like dull weights upon him.

If such, my friends, be the effect of communion with a superior human soul, a Bacon or a Milton or a Howe, what may we not expect from communion with the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning? The loftiest genius of earth is but a spark from that eternal mind ; the noblest and most magnanimous sentiments that ever glowed in the hearts of apostles, prophets, and martyrs are but faint reflections of the love and majesty which reside in the bosom of God. Behold how the man who once breathed threatening and slaughter against the innocent followers of the Lamb now burns with generous indignation against the wrong done to the weakest and meanest of the saints. See how the soul once absorbed with the low ambition of upholding the glory of a narrow pharisaical bigotry now expands and swells with the great thoughts of redemption and pours itself out a libation upon the offering of the whole Gentile world unto God ! How^cheerfuUy he endures the ignominy of scourging, when by the simple utterance of the magic words, "I am a Roman citizen," he might
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have escaped it, and all for the honor of Christ and the safety of the little band of believers in Philippi ! How gloriously does his triumph over the dungeon and the stocks express itself in rapturous songs of praise to him whose grace

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was thus magnified out of the very "bellj of hell"! And why this change? The soul of Paul had been living in unceasing, prayerful communion with the Father of glory.

(5), Lastly, prayer is the remedy for care because, as is contained in the text, thanksgiving is a part of prayer. We cannot pray for more without being thankful for what we have already received. " In everything give thanks," in want and affliction, in prosperity as well as in adversity. A thankful spirit is a peaceful spirit from the very nature of the case. Balance your mercies against your cares, and you cannot fail to see that your mercies greatly preponderate. You concede this yourselves by still choosing as beforesaid the relations and conditions which are the occasion of your cares. Those relations and conditions must be attended with many mercies
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if you still choose them, in spite of the cares they bring.

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