+I. His mission on earth was one of peace.+--"And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh" (ver. 17). His advent was heralded by the angelic song, "Peace on earth, and goodwill toward men." The world is racked with moral discord; He is constantly striving to introduce the music of a heavenly harmony. It is distracted with war; He is propagating principles that will by-and-by make war impossible. The work of the peacemaker is Christ-like. Shenkyn, one of whose anomalies was that with all his burning passions he was a notorious peacemaker, and had means of pouring oil upon troubled waters, once upon a time was deputed to try his well-known skill upon a Church whose strife of tongues had become quite notorious. He reluctantly complied and attended a meeting which soon proved to his satisfaction that the people were possessed by a demon that could not easily be expelled. The peacemaker got up, staff in hand, paced the little chapel, and with his spirit deeply moved, cried out, "Lord, is this Thy spouse?" Faster and faster he walked, thumping his huge stick on the floor, and still crying out, "Lord, is this Thy spouse? Slay her!" Then there came, as it were from another, a response, "No, I will not." "Sell her, then!" "No, I will not." "Deny her, then!" Still the answer came, "I will not." Then he lifted up his voice, saying, "I have bought her with My precious blood; how can I give her up? How can I forsake her?" The strife had now ceased, and the people looked on with amazement, crying out for pardon. +II. He made peace between man and man.+--"For He is our peace, who hath made both one; . . . to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace" (vers. 14, 15). The hostility of Jew and Gentile was conquered; the new spiritual nature created in both formed a bond of brotherhood and harmony. The Jew no longer despised the Gentile; the Gentile no longer hated and persecuted the Jew. Where the Christian spirit predominates personal quarrels are speedily adjusted. +III. He made peace between man and God.+--"That He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross" (ver. 16). The enmity of man against God is disarmed and conquered by the voluntary suffering of Jesus in man's stead, and by Him thus opening up the way of reconciliation of man with God. God can now be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. The violated law is now atoned for, and the violator may obtain forgiveness and regain the forfeited favour of the offended God. There is peace only through forgiveness.