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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Aug 1, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 31.

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Editorial

By Editor

The Peace of God

IN these days of intensity and strenuous living, of strife and turmoil and tumult, how much we need to cultivate in our hearts the peace of God! This peace Christ promises to his church. He says to his disciples, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27. And again, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16:33.
The peace of the world is dependent upon circumstances and conditions. There must be absence of pain, of trial, of obstacle, and of inconvenience. Not so, however, with the peace of God. This peace can keep us calm in all the storm and stress of life. It can maintain in our hearts hope and happiness even under the most naturally discouraging and depressing conditions. It will create light in the darkness, and give us songs in the night, even as it did to Paul and Silas in the prison at Philippi.
We see in the world at the present time the very opposite of peace. Anxiety, worry, distrust, discouragement, fill the minds of men. Blind impulse and unreasoning passion bear sway. Theft, robbery, murder, suicide, and every allied evil are rampant. Men know not what may wait on the morrow, what strange, mysterious providence will shape their course, what startling changes a day may bring forth.
The fact that in the United States alone, during 1911, fifteen thousand men and women were led through impulses and motives of varying character and degree to take their own lives, indicates the terrible unrest that is taking possession of the minds of men. These figures are furnished by Frederick L. Hoffman, the vice-president of the American Statistical Association. The causes of this large number of deaths Mr. Hoffman traces to disease, nervous trouble, alcoholism, etc. Many suicides, however, he claims are not attributable to any special affliction, either mental or physical, but to an unwillingness on the part of men and women longer to endure existing conditions of living. Add to these figures the large number of murders committed last year, and it must be evident to every one that human life is coming to be estimated as of very little worth.
How many of earth's inhabitants to-day are possessed of some mania, some wild, unnatural spirit! We see the mania for amassing wealth, the mania for indulgence in sports and pleasures, the mania possessing women striving for social prestige, and men engaged in the battle for political preferment, to say nothing of the intensity of spirit felt by the great multitude with whom life is a struggle for existence. When we think of these conditions, we must recognize some of the principles at work, and the manner in which the enemy has marshaled his forces, to drive from the hearts of men peace, and goad them on to the discarding of spiritual hope and the sacrifice of every eternal prospect.
But in the midst of all this strife and turmoil the disciple of the Lord Jesus may so relate himself to God that "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding," shall keep his heart and mind through Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:7. We need to-day to heed the exhortation of the Lord when he says, "Be still, and know that I am God." Ps. 46:10. God's hand is upon the helm. He is keeping watch above his own. In the great conflict between truth and error, light and darkness, his eye is upon this earth.
We may be surprised, but God never can be taken unawares. He is working out his eternal purpose; and in the great, surging, struggling mass of humanity his eye marks each disciple. He sees me, he sees you, amid the busy throngs of earth. His hand is reached down to save us. His grace is ministered to us individually. We have direct and personal communication with heaven. O, let us remember this! Let us find in his Word, in the keeping power of his Spirit, a shelter from the tempest, a covert from the storm. He will prove our rock of defense, and in him we may feel safe and secure. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee."
Enjoying this confidence and peace ourselves, let us become harbingers of peace to the storm-driven and tempest-tossed ones. Mankind to-day long for rest and peace, but know not the fountain source of blessing. They need God, but are blind to their condition. They grope in darkness like blind men, seeking the gate of deliverance from the thraldom of sinful conditions and environments. Let us seek to lead them back to the Father's house. Let us point them to the one sure haven of refuge, where in these days of intensity they may find the peace and quietness that their hungry souls crave.
F. M. W.