PEACE—INTERNAL, EXTERNAL, ETERNAL.
By H. A. St. John
Jesus left peace for all His disciples till the end of the world. He said, “My peace I leave with you.” Around about his followers there would be tribulation, trials, commotion, disturbance, turmoil, and war, but however much of all this there may be, it is all external to the Christian. In the world they may, and will, have tribulation, but in Christ, they may and will have a constantly abiding peace, which the world can neither give nor take away. It is an internal peace, which oceans, or floods, of external strife can not drown. It is a peace that rules the heart, and passeth all understanding. It is the peace of God. It is the only true peace—the only peace worthy the name. But this internal peace is not all the peace that God has in store for His children. If this internal peace is received into the soul, and is there cherished, and permitted to abound more and more, constantly broadening, and deepening, and flowing on like a river, the time will come when God will banish all evil from the earth, sweep away, as chaff, all discordant elements, and restore to the earth the harmony and peace of Heaven. Then will come the time when every power and every being in the universe of God will dwell together in the most perfect peace. Then the long-cherished internal peace of the redeemed will be enhanced, augmented, fortified, and re-enforced by an all-pervading external peace. Then, when the redeemed of the Lord shall have had their vile bodies changed, and fashioned like unto the glorified body of their Redeemer, according to the working whereby He will subdue all things unto Himself—then will they delight themselves in the abundance of peace internal, and peace external, ever sweeping over them in fathomless billows of love. But this is not all. Unadulterated and unbounded internal and external peace is secured. Is it also assured?—Yes, praise be to God, it is all forever assured. It is written, that when the Prince of Peace shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth and forever, that of the increase of His government and peace there shall be NO END. Methinks that one strain in the everlasting song of the redeemed will be, peace, peace, wonderful peace, internal, external, and eternal peace, is flooding with glory my soul.