Christian Books on Peace and Joy: 12 Classics for a Restless Heart
If you feel restless and want one short book, read Henry Drummond's Pax Vobiscum. It takes under an hour. Drummond says rest doesn't come by chance or by trying harder. It comes when you take Christ's yoke and learn His meekness and lowliness of heart. If your lack of peace is about God himself, whether He has really forgiven you, read Horatius Bonar's God's Way of Peace instead.
The classic writers saw two kinds of peace, and they kept them in order. First comes peace with God: the conscience at rest because Christ bore our sin. Nothing in our own character can give that; only the cross can. Then comes the peace of God: a quiet heart that trusts its Father day by day and stops fretting. Joy grows from the same root. It is not the same as good feelings or easy times. Paul wrote his letter of joy, Philippians, from prison. Joy, these writers said, is what a heart feels when it is right with God, and it shows itself in praise.
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
Here are twelve of the best books in TheWay Library on peace and joy. Start with the short ones.
Start here
1. Pax Vobiscum, by Henry Drummond
Drummond once heard a sermon on rest that never said how to get it. This is his answer. Restlessness comes from a self-centered life. Christ's yoke isn't a burden added to life; it is His way of carrying the load we already have. The last chapter applies the same law to joy and the other fruits of the Spirit.
A yoke is not an instrument of torture; it is an instrument of mercy.
Pax Vobiscum, What Yokes Are For
The same address is in The Greatest Thing in the World and Other Addresses. See Henry Drummond's books. Read Pax Vobiscum.
2. God's Way of Peace, by Horatius Bonar
A book for the anxious seeker. Bonar shows that peace with God can't rest on our own character, our feelings or even our earnestness. It rests on God's character and on righteous grace: God forgiving in a way that honors His law, through the cross. Then he says, believe now. The lists of Bible references that open each chapter have some scanning errors, but the chapters read well.
You are in earnest now; but I fear you are making your earnestness your Christ, and actually using it as a reason for not trusting Christ immediately.
God's Way of Peace, Believe Just Now
See Horatius Bonar's books. Read God's Way of Peace.
3. The God of All Comfort, by Hannah Whitall Smith
An agnostic once told Smith that Christians carry their religion like a headache. She wrote this book in answer. Most of our discomfort, she says, comes from wrong ideas of God, so she works through His names: Shepherd, Father, the Lord who fights for us, our dwelling place. Later chapters deal with discouragement and morbid self-examination.
The last and greatest lesson that the soul has to learn is the fact that God, and God alone, is enough for all its needs.
The God of All Comfort, God Is Enough
Her better-known The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life is in our guide to Christian books on faith. See Hannah Whitall Smith's books. Read The God of All Comfort.
The letter of joy
4. Philippian Studies, by H. C. G. Moule
Bishop Moule takes Philippians a passage at a time, warm and devotional, with a hymn or prayer at the head of many chapters. He notices that the joy of this letter is a joy that has known sorrow.
A peculiar sort of joy, which is impossible without at least the experience, if not the presence, of sorrow, rests and shines over the whole.
Philippian Studies, Introductory
See Handley Moule's books. Read Philippian Studies.
5. Maclaren's Expositions: Second Corinthians to First Timothy
Maclaren preached a long series on Philippians, and this volume holds it, along with sermons on Galatians, Colossians and Thessalonians. Read "The Lord of Peace and the Peace of the Lord" and the sermons on the fruit of the Spirit and rejoicing in the Lord.
To be at peace with God is the beginning of all true tranquillity, and that can be secured only by faith in Jesus Christ.
Expositions of Holy Scripture, The Lord of Peace and the Peace of the Lord
See Alexander Maclaren's books. Read the Expositions.
A quiet heart
6. A Discourse on Meekness and Quietness of Spirit, by Matthew Henry
The commentator's short book on the grace that governs anger and stops fretting. Henry shows that meekness pleases God, does good to the soul and adorns the gospel. Then he gives patterns from Moses, David and Christ, and plain rules for getting a quiet spirit.
The great God overlooks heaven and earth, to give a favorable look, to the meek and quiet soul.
A Discourse on Meekness and Quietness of Spirit, The Excellency of Meekness
Read A Discourse on Meekness and Quietness of Spirit.
7. The Master's Blesseds, by J. R. Miller
A devotional study of the Beatitudes, the word "blessed" meaning deeply happy. Every heart wants happiness, Miller says, but Christ's road to it runs the opposite way from the world's: poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger for God.
Not the soul at ease, content, satisfied, but the soul thirsting for God, is the scriptural ideal of Godlikeness.
The Master's Blesseds, The Beatitude of Hunger
See J. R. Miller's books. Read The Master's Blesseds.
8. The Present Tenses of the Blessed Life, by F. B. Meyer
Short meditations on what Christ is doing now: He is with us, cleanses, works, loves and reigns. The first, on "Lo, I am with you alway," tells of Brother Lawrence practicing God's presence among the pots and pans. A good antidote to living anxiously in the past or the future.
There is a sense in which we are all living in the light of Christ's love; but we do not all enjoy it as a living practical experience.
The Present Tenses of the Blessed Life, Loveth
See F. B. Meyer's books. Read The Present Tenses of the Blessed Life.
Joy that lasts
9. God's Perfect Will, by G. Campbell Morgan
Morgan argues that the will of God is good for us: it makes us whole, it gives true pleasure, and it lasts, because it rests on the eternity of God. Many people fear God's will. This book shows why it is the way to happiness. The short poems at the head of each chapter have some scan errors.
Nothing is more restful to the heart of man than the sense of the eternity of God.
God's Perfect Will, Promises Perpetuity
See G. Campbell Morgan's books. Read God's Perfect Will.
10. The Christian Life and How to Live It, by W. H. Griffith Thomas
Plain addresses on believing, surrender, service, prayer and the Bible. Chapter IX, "Joy and Praise," is the reason it's here. Thomas traces the joy of trust, the joy of assurance and the joy of love, and shows how each turns into praise.
It cannot be too strongly emphasised or too constantly remembered that joy is the immediate and necessary outcome of a heart that is right and a life that is straight with God.
The Christian Life and How to Live It, Joy and Praise
See W. H. Griffith Thomas's books. Read The Christian Life and How to Live It.
11. Roots and Fruits of the Christian Life, by William Arnot
Sermons full of pictures from nature and trade. Read chapter XXVIII, "The Peace of God Ruling in the Heart," first. Arnot says the power to rule a troubled heart comes from looking at the cross.
The power lies in the cross of Christ; and if you would see it, you must look unto Jesus.
Roots and Fruits of the Christian Life, The Peace of God Ruling in the Heart
Read Roots and Fruits of the Christian Life.
12. The Friend on the Road, by J. H. Jowett
Short meditations on the Gospels, each a few pages. "Evils That Never Arrive," on needless worry, and "The Gift of Peace" are the ones for a worried reader. A few chapters lost their opening words in scanning.
Simplicity is one of the great characteristics of the supreme life as taught and revealed by Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Friend on the Road, The Simplification of Life
See J. H. Jowett's books. Read The Friend on the Road.
More to explore
Jowett's The High Calling, thirty-odd meditations on Philippians with chapters on "The Cure for Care" and the secret of contentment, is worth reading though the scan is rough. J. Wilbur Chapman's The Secret of a Happy Day takes Psalm 23 a phrase a day. For peace in grief, F. B. Meyer's Peace, Perfect Peace and Bonar's The Morning of Joy are in our guide to Christian books on grief. And for peace in hard times, see Christian books on suffering and comfort.
Where to start
- Restless and tired: Drummond's Pax Vobiscum.
- Unsure you're forgiven: Bonar's God's Way of Peace.
- Joyless in your faith: Hannah Whitall Smith, then Moule on Philippians.
- Quick-tempered or fretful: Matthew Henry on meekness.
More books are on the peace and joy topic page.