Expositions of Holy Scripture: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and First Book of Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, and Second Kings chapters I to VIIMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and First Book of Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, and Second Kings chapters I to VII
In connection with this rapturous discovery, and to Gideon strange new
thought, we may gather the lesson that peace with God will give peace
in all the soul. The 'peace with God' will pass into a wider thing, the
'peace of God.' There is tranquillity in trust. There is rest in
submission. There is repose in satisfied desires. When we live near
Him, and have ceased from our own works, and let Him take control of us
and direct us in all our ways, then the storms abate. The things that
disturb us are by no means so much external as inward; and there is a
charm and a fascination in the thought, 'the Lord is peace,' which
stills the inward tempest, and makes us quiet, waiting upon His will
and drawing in His grace. The secret of rest is to cease from self,
from self as guide, from self as aim, from self as safety. And when
self-will is cast out, and self-dependence is overcome, and
self-reliance is sublimed into hanging upon God's hand, and when He,
not mine own inclination, is my Director, and the Arbiter of my fate,
then all the fever of unrest is swept wholly out of my heart, and there
is nothing left in it on which the gnawing tooth of anxiety or of care
can prey. God being my peace, and I yielding myself to Him, 'in
quietness and confidence' is my 'strength.' 'Thou shalt keep him in
perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Thee, because he trusteth in
Thee.'
II. We may look upon this inscription from another point of view, as
suggesting the thought that God's peace is the best preparation for,
and may be experienced in the midst of, the intensest conflict.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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