Peace by Jos. Clarke

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 22, 1875

Peace.

By Jos. Clarke

How sweet are the blessings of peace! Whether it be in the home circle, in the neighborhood, in the body ecclesiastical, or the body politic, the blessings of peace are many and very great.

On the contrary, how many are the miseries of war, and how multiplied its evils, from the neighborhood wrangle and dispute, up to the drawn battle of armies whose tumult is heard from afar!

But to have peace in society, in the family, neighborhood, or State, there must be mutual forbearance; provocations and offenses will come, and must be met by the spirit of war or the spirit of peace; and as they are met, so will be the event. To have permanent peace, you must make up your mind to have it at the cost of many sacrifices of personal pride and feelings; and recollect that only extreme cases of wrong will justify war. Principle cannot be sacrificed; but it is only once in a hundred generations that such a case occurs; and no doubt that all wars, disputes, and quarrels, would be best disposed of by arbitration.

Make it a rule not to speak an unpleasant word to any one, however much you may be annoyed by foolish quarrelsome people; no matter if you are wronged and abused, it will not help your case to become angry and say things in an excited tone; no, it will only set your cause so much the more in the dark. Keep cool; look at the matter from the stand-point of your accuser. Make his case your own. Take his part just for awhile, as an experiment, and see how it will modify matters.

“As ye would that others should do unto you;” do not forget this beautiful law. If you feel the storm of passion arising within you, then do not speak until it is over. An angry man is only an insane man.

Bear affronts and insults just as Christ did his. When spit upon, he only wiped his kingly brow. Thus he retained the stamp of nobility, and thus you must retain it. When insulted by impudence, he allowed the old purple robe to remain, and the thorny crown to lie upon his brow, until his enemies themselves removed them. Thus he would that you should be insensible (apparently) to insult and scorn, and that you should fervently pray to God for the pardon of enemies.

Say you that you cannot endure abuse to such an extent? Say you that it is the last feather that breaks the camel’s back? Did Christ say so? Did he have some point which he could not pass? Did he say that he could not pass over certain insults of the mob? Nay; he let them commit the worst possible acts of hostility, until he hung a mangled corpse upon the wooden cross of a felon. Disgrace, infamy, contempt, torture, did their worst; and he did not assert his right, but bore it all calmly, sweetly, to give his followers a good, lasting example. What do you say? Will you follow his example? Jos. CLARKE.