My Peace I Give

John xiv. 27.

f HESE words from such lips, and at such a time, were something more than a common Eastern salutation. They contained Christ’s parting benediction to those whom He loved better than His life. And at the moment of speaking, He did forever allot to His beloved disciples, and to the believers of all time, a legacy of Peace, such as filled His own breast with unruffled calm. They might not realize all that His word involved; but their failure did not annul the wealth or glory of the bequest.

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And, as the years passed on, they only revealed more and more of the depths of meaning which lay concealed in these unfathomable words.

. We should carefully accentuate that pronoun, “My.” It is not so much of the Peace that He purchased with His blood, nor of the Peace of heaven — that our Saviour h-re speaks: but of the very peace that filled His own glorious nature, and kept it so calm and still amid the storms that swept around His pathway through the world. This Peace He waits to give. Standing beside some reader of these lines — who, it may be, is careworn and anxious, the head aching with anxious thought, the heart sick, and the brow furrowed with deep lines of care — He speaks and says, “My peace I give unto thee.” Let us take Him at His word, and appropriate the gift with rejoicing faith.

If we now turn to John xx. 19, 21, “flDg Peace 3 Oivc”

26, with its threefold benediction of peace, we may be able to distinguish some three further shades of meaning in the peace which Jesus offers.

I. There is, First, The Peace of Forgiveness (19th verse).

This is the peace of the Evening. When the day is done, with its rush of business and care, its multitudinous demands on heart, and head, and hands, what a relief it is to shut the doors, to exclude all intruders, and to meet with beloved and familiar faces! And yet, even at such times, there are thoughts which we cannot exclude. The disciples might shut the doors of the upper chamber, for fear of the Jews; but those doors could not exclude the memory of their late unfaithfulness and cowardice, their treachery and desertion. And these bitter thoughts were more terrible to endure than their fear of hostile intrud-Jforgiveness. ers. Such is often our own experience. The day that opened so bright and fair has become marred by many sad and painful incidents, which we have been able to disregard amid the impetuous rush of life, but which refuse to be longer ignored, and return to oppress and sadden our hearts, like a recurring nightmare, as we sit down to rest in the quiet of our own chambers, beneath the fall of night.

Some impatience or outburst of irritability; an unkind word; a look of annoyance; a selfish preference of ourselves to others whom we really love; some indulgence, however momentary, of evil imagination and unholy desire; some acts of meanness or overreaching in our business. Ah, it all comes back to us afresh! What would we not give not to have yielded so weakly; or to be abl to live the time over again! But, alas! it is beyond recall. And our only comfort is in the presence of “Obv peace 3 Oivc”

the Peace-giver, who, standing bej?de us, says gently, “My peace I give unto you;” and shows us His hands and His side, marked still by the wound-prints of Calvary, the pledge and guarantee of forgiveness through His blood. At such times let us gratefully accept what He brings; and wrap ourselves about in the mantle of His tender, forgiving grace, as the dark brown earth of winter wraps itself in the mantle of soft, white snow.

The great enemy of peace is the consciousness of sin. He who would give us peace must deal with that first. And our Saviour is equal to the task, coming fresh from Calvary, “a Lamb as it had been slain:*’ revealing the warrant and ground of Justification; so that we may say with the Apostle, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God;” and may lay down to sleep with the Angels of peace and forgivetrbe Enems of peace. 23

ness watching us through the hours of unconsci ousness.

II. There is, next, Peace in Service (21st verse).

This is the Peace of the Morning. We should never leave our room until we have seen the face of our dear Master, Christ, and have realized that we are being sent forth by Him to do His will, and to finish the work which He has given us to do. He who said to His immediate followers, “As My Father hath sent Me, even so I send you,” says as much to each one of us, as the dawn summons us to live another day. We should realize that we are as much sent forth by Him as the angels who “do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word.” There is some plan for each day’s work, which He will unfold to us, if only we will look up to Him to do so; some mission to fulfill; some minispeace 3 <3hpe,”

try to perform; some irksome task to do better for His sake; some Jesson patiently to learn, that we may be able “to teach others also.”

Is it not very helpful to hear Him say, morning by morning, as He reveals His plan, and gives His strength, and sends us forth, “My peace I give unto thee!” And that Peace the world cannot take away. Amid its wildest alarms and tumults “the peace of God, that passeth all understanding,” sentinels the heart and mind. “In the world ye shall have tribulation: these things I have spoken unto you that in Me ye might have peace.”

Our peace is often broken by the demands of service, and in two directions. On the one hand, we do not exactly know what to do and on the other, we are doubtful as to whether we have adequate strength for the fulfilment of the task set us. But each of these breakers of peace can be met lpeace In Service* and silenced by the words before us. As to our plans we need not be anxious; because He who sends us forth is responsible to make the plan, according to His infinite wisdom; and to reveal it to us, however dull and stupid our faculties may be. And as to our sufficiency, we are secure of having all needful grace; because He never sends us forth, except He first breathes on us and says, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” There is always a special endowment for special power. The breath is so gentle and light, that we are often ignorant of it; it passes as the zephyr over the flowers and is gone. But it is not withheld from any true heart, who is eager to do Chrises work on Christ’s plan, and in His strength.

III. There is, Lastly, Peace in Sorrow (26th verse).

This is the peace of Dark Hours.

Such sorrow has seldom darkened human hearts as that which settled on these men, and especially on Thomas. The agony of his doubt was in proportion to the strength and tenderness of His love (John xi. 16.) He could not believe. And sometimes we have passed through phases of experience which have enabled us to understand the bitterness of his soul. When a whole storehouse of blessings has awaited our turning the key of faith in the golden lock, but we seem to have utterly lost it, and can only lie helpless at the feet of Christ, bemoaning our inability to believe — at such times Jesus comes to us, and stands beside us, within reach (“Reach hither,” John xx. 27,) if not within sight (“have not seen,” verse 29.) He suits Himself to our need; and stoops to fulfill our conditions; and tenderly lifts up the bruised and broken soul; whispering as He does so, “My peace I give unto thee.”

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Dark hours come to us all; and if we have no clue to a peace that can pass unbroken through their murky gloom, we shall be in a state of continual dread. Any stone flung by a chance passer-by may break the crystal clearness of the Lake of Peace, and send disturbing ripples across it, unless we have learnt to trust in the perpetual presence of Him who can make and keep a “great calm” within the soul.

Only let nothing come to you, which you shall not instantly hand over to Him; all petty worries; all crushing difficulties; all inability to believe. Tell them all to Him, “who knows all, and loves us better than He knows.” And, in response, He will hush our troubled heart, and drive away its fears, lulling us as a mother soothes her babe. “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you.”