p. 2 | Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 18, 1916

Note and Comment

Our Peace Not Dependent on Outward Conditions

Dr. Henry van Dyke, for a number of years United States minister to the Netherlands and Luxemburg, has recently returned to the pastorate of his former church in New York. Speaking of the great European conflict and its effect upon true religion, he said in his first sermon:—

“There are some who say, and more who secretly fear, that these dark, stormy days through which we are passing will be fatal to religion. John Galsworthy recently wrote, ‘Whatever be the result of the present conflict, it means the end of Christianity.’ What folly! Christianity was born in darker, bloodier time than this. It has lived and grown through times more trying than these.

“True peacefulness in human experience is not an affair of outward circumstances. It belongs to the heart and the mind. It may exist in the noise and tumult of the market place, the roar and strain of the factory, in the confusion and anguish of the battle field, while a recluse dwelling in his cell, a Sybarite in his quiet garden, may be eating his own heart out with unrest.”

The peace which God gives is not dependent upon outward conditions. It rests securely amid the storm and tumult of this world’s unrest.