The Peace of God

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · May 7, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 18.

PAUL says, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." God has called us to peace; he wants us to enjoy it; he wants us to let it rule in our hearts; but we allow so many things to come upon our hearts to perplex and annoy, that his peace cannot rule, we do not let it. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee." Isa. 26:3. Our minds must be stayed on him; our trust must be in him; then, and for this reason, it is that he can and will keep us in perfect peace. It is upon these same conditions that Paul bases our enjoyment of the peace of God which passeth all understanding. He says, "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." We are to yield to him implicitly, to trust to him wholly, and count his choice the best; to say freely and from a full heart, "Thy will be done." Does not he know more about us than we know about ourselves? Does not he know all that awaits us, before it comes to pass, while we know nothing about it? While we know not what a day may bring forth, he knows the end from the beginning. Then is not he the only one to trust? "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is." Jer. 17:7.

JESUS again and again presses this thought upon us. And he tries his very best to show us how abundant, how far-reaching, and how intricate the care of our Father is for us. The texts are familiar to all, but the lesson of the texts is familiar to very few. He instances the birds of the heaven, and that "your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they?" If he feeds the birds, and we are of much more value than they, then will he not "much more" feed us without our wearying ourselves with anxiety about it? Then he says, "And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; . . . yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." See Solomon arrayed in his robe of snowy whiteness, his jeweled kingly crown upon his head, sitting on his royal throne of ivory and gold, of which "there was not the like made in any kingdom;" or see him in his chariot of the cedar of Lebanon, his spokes of solid silver, "the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple," drawn by the most beautiful horses, and surrounded by sixty of the finest young men in the kingdom, clothed in garments of Tyrian purple, and their long hair sprinkled with gold-dust so that it sparkled with the reflected sunbeams. It required a great deal of anxious thought to set Solomon in all this glory, yet what was it all compared to the "tint that decks the rose, or paints the lily fair"? Nothing. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. "Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you?" Matt. 6:30.