God’s Peace Program by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Oct 25, 1906

God’s Peace Program

By C. M. S.

From remotest times men have been seeking to make a ladder of their own by which to reach the skies and regain paradise. That was their central purpose in their Babel tower (Bab-il), which they termed the gate of God. Even Cain thought his own provision for a typical offering as good as the way that God had specified. The result was that Cain was sent out from his place, a wanderer in the world, and the Babel builders were scattered like chaff at the breath of the Lord.

These were plants which God had not planted, so their planters could not expect them to abide. “Every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up,” says our Saviour; and these were uprooted. Every idolatrous worship is such a plant. Every plan of man to “bring about God’s will” in human ways is that kind of plant.

God’s ways are the ways of peace and righteousness. Peace does not reign now, and righteousness is far from universal.

Recognizing these facts, men have sought to bring about righteousness by law, and to usher in universal peace by confederating nations together under promise to keep the peace. They would make peace prevalent by the power of their own wills. But the promoters of such a plan have forgotten the one great essential of true peace.

Peace is the promised portion of every child of God. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” John 14:27. Jesus had peace, even when his enemies were conspiring against his life. The secret of that peace lay in his attitude toward the law of God. Here it is as specified by Inspiration:—

“Lo, I am come; In the roll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do thy will, O my God; Yea, thy law is within my heart.” Ps. 40: 7.

Let us place alongside of this another scripture:—

“Great peace have they that love thy law; And they have no occasion of stum- bling.” Ps. 119: 165.

Jesus’ attitude toward that law was the attitude of delight in the performance of all its requirements. It was with him as expressed by the psalmist:—

“O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.” Ps. 119: 97.

That brought the great peace which he had, and it is that great peace which he designs each of his followers should enjoy. He had “no occasion of stumbling,” because—

“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, And a light unto my path.” Ps. 119: 105.

It is impossible for men to bring themselves into harmony with that which they dislike and oppose. They can not shape their characters after a pattern which they consider abolished; and so it is impossible that men should have peace who are out of harmony with God’s law, or do not believe in its existence. The wicked man can not have peace because he is a transgressor of God’s law. “There is no peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked.” Isa. 48:22. The man who believes in the abolition of the law of God can not have true peace. He does not love that law, and it can not be said of him that he has “no occasion of stumbling;” for he has extinguished the lamp which would have lighted his pathway and revealed every obstruction.

At the time when “sudden destruction” is about to burst upon the world, the people of the world will be crying, “Peace, peace,” and making plans to insure universal peace; but the Word says there will be no peace for them in that time. The reason is that they have slighted the peace plans of God, and substituted peace plans of their own, which ignore the law of God in its application to the individual soul. They have no surer way of achieving peace than the Babel builders had of recovering paradise by building a tower to the skies. There is no enduring peace outside of God; and all plans that ignore him and his law,—all human plans,—are outside of him. Man can not force his way into the garden of peace any more than he can fling his form into the skies and abide. Peace of man’s making is a delusive hope. Nations will confederate for peace; but the day is not far distant when, with all who trust in such hopes, they will be broken in pieces as a potter’s vessel.

The prerequisite of peace enduring and life everlasting is the imputed righteousness of Christ, and that will be imputed only to those who have allowed his mind to become their mind, spirituality to take the place of carnality, self-sacrifice to take the place of self-service, and all the body’s actions and the soul’s desires to be molded, by his power, in conformity with his holy law.

That brings a peace which the world does not understand, and by a process which it does not desire and will not adopt. Let us not forget the one great requisite of true peace: “Great peace have they that love thy law.”

C. M. S.