p. 3 | The Blessedness of His Peace

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 21, 1907

The Blessedness of His Peace

No storm of this world has power to overwhelm the soul when Christ has spoken peace. No soul needs to fear being overwhelmed so long as he has confidence in the promise and the power of Jesus Christ. He who can smooth out the angry billows with a word can just as easily put quietness and peace in the human breast. The power he had on Galilee he has to-day. He was with his disciples then in visible presence; but his promise, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,” insures his presence with us just as truly. Because of that fact, we may know that the only thing that can stand between us and the peace of heaven is our own self, our own will. Eliminate self, let the mind of Christ take the place of our will, and there is no promise of God that may not be fulfilled to us. When we have thus come to him in faith, believing his Word, submissive to his will, the cares and troubles and sorrows of this world lose their power to worry and distress the soul. In one way they are like the poisonous serpent that has been robbed of its sting. They have no more power to do us injury. But the simile is not broad enough to cover the actual experience; for they have not only lost their power to do us injury; they have become real stepping-stones to our success in the divine life. It makes a vast difference to us whether we conform to the divine plan for us and make helps of our hindrances, or whether we let the natural heart have its way, letting obstacles remain obstacles, and enlarging them into perpendicular mountain walls. We break our own wings when we turn our backs on Christ and let self rule. Then comes trouble that has no lotion for its bruisings, and the soul worries and frets and beats against the bars of the prison its own hands have built.

With Christ in the heart, all that is impossible. Stumbling-blocks are stepping-stones; snares set for our feet become ropes to lift us over the cliffs; rebuffs soften our own actions toward others; temptations strengthen our powers to resist; poverty brings us into sympathy with the poor, and thus nearer to the heart of Christ; we “gather warmth from others’ coldness;” in the face of their unbelief our faith grows stronger; and while the billows of this world’s trouble mount higher, our bark rides safely on His “Peace, be still.”

Says the apostle, “Let the peace of

Christ rule in your hearts.” Now, Christ has bequeathed peace to his followers just as much as he commanded peace to the waves of Galilee. They obeyed the command. Shall we accept the bequest? He says, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27.

The peace of Christ is a harbinger of heaven, a foretaste of the blessings of the redeemed. Let it “rule in your hearts.”