p. 85 | THE PEACE OF GOD by Lyman Abbott

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 11, 1889

THE PEACE OF GOD.

By Lyman Abbott

THE peace of God is the peace God gives to those who are trying to do God service, and so a peace we come into by faith; not by that miserable pretense of faith which consists in believing that God will do what we want him to do, but in that real faith which links us to God, and makes us one with him in the purpose and desire of our living. We come into peace when we rise above the tempest. We come into peace when we go down, following the figure of that beautiful poem of Mrs. Stowe—down beneath the storm line, where "the silver waves chime ever peacefully." Oh, it is possible so to live that the storm shall not, after all, disturb you, though you are in the midst of it. It is possible to rise above it in thought, in feeling, in aspiration, in power, in the experience of your heart and soul.

I have stood on the top of the mountain, and have seen the clouds gather around its top, and have seen them settle down upon the valley below, and have heard the thunder muttering there, and have seen the lightning flashes playing below my feet, and have seen the birds come flying up through the clouds, singing on the mountain-top, while the thunder was threatening and the lightning was playing havoc in the valley. So learn to fly above these lower earthly storms that lie only in the hollows, and find that song always to be found in the mountain-top and in the sunlight. It is possible. We can do it. Men and women have done it.

This peace that I have talked to you about this morning is not a peace from trouble; and when we try to find the peace from trouble we always fail. It is peace in trouble. It is hinted at in that word of Christ, "In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world." We would have God lead us through no dark valley and shadow of death. But he gives us no promise of that kind. What he says is this: Though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, my rod and my staff they shall comfort you. We come to the deep water, and shrink back, saying, "Not into that river, not into that river!" We come to the furnace of fire, saying, "Not into that flame, not into that flame!" But the answer is this: "Though thou walkest through the deep waters, they shall not overflow thee; thou thou walkest through the flame, it shall not consume thee." And so we are to find our peace, not by exemption from trouble, but by living in the midst of trouble. Yea, baring our breast to the trouble, yet rejoicing in trouble, for they that are exercised thereby are they that follow after peace and find it.—Lyman Abbott.