February Seventeenth.
HEAVENLY PEACE.
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you"—John xiv. 27.
THE peace that Jesus gives is the peace of God, which passeth all understanding! it is a peace within, attuning all our affections and thoughts to the harmony of heaven, from whence is drawn a continual feast. The real Christian, possessed of heavenly peace, knows that angels have no cares, no disturbing anxieties, about anything; and why should we have any? The same Being who preserves them, feeding them with living bread, and clothing them with garments of light, preserves us. There is but one common Father for universal creation, whose love is extended to all, and whose bounty provides for all. There is but one Providence, because but one God. Angels are in it, and so are men; for "angels are but men in lighter habit clad, and men are angels loaded for an hour with mortal coil." We are all in this one Providence, and with the peace of Jesus we are safe amidst all the changes of this world. O "mark the perfect and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." (Psalm xxxvii. 37.)
Peace is the just arrangement into heavenly order, of all our affections and thoughts. The supreme, being the love of God; the subordinate, the love of each other; whence result peace and wisdom. If the philosophy of mind were studied and carried out into practice, it would change deserts into fertile fields, and the din of war into the mirth of joy and gladness. Order
