Peace of God

“ God, I say, will help you, by His Holy Spirit the Comforter, to do your duty, and to be at peace. And then the peace of God will rule in your hearts and make you kings to God. For He will enable you each to rule, serene, though weary, over a kingdom—or, alas! rather a mob, the most unruly, the most unreasonable, the most unstable, and often the most fierce, which you are like to meet on earth. ”

“ The truth is the same: it is equally the peace of God and the peace of Christ—a Divine tranquillity filling the soul with a calm that no mere worldly power can give or take away, and that the ocean-surges of trouble can never diminish or disturb. Christ hath made peace through the blood of His cross and left it as a sacred legacy to all His disciples through all time. In its essence it is the peace that Christ Himself enjoys—a sublime calmness similar to that which pervades the Divine bosom. ”

“ But it is told you that you can have what Moses had not; you can have a living Christ within you. And are you going to believe that, apart from any experience, and apart from any consciousness of strength? If the peace of God is to rule in your heart, it is the God of peace Himself must be there to do it. The peace is inseparable from the God. ”

“ God gave thee power to comfort and to teach, And lift souls up to heights they strive to reach, And yet thy prayers ascend to His white throne, Pleading for comfort for thyself alone; Thou prayest too for wisdom and release, And hands to draw thee upward into peace, Forgetting that which Christ would have thee know,— Peace comes to those who make peace here below; Forgetting that His arms shall draw thee near Only as thine are held to others here ”

“ O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you, bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit upon all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. ”

“ Yes, thou art the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace; and who so calculated to make peace between God and man, as he in whose person they are both united? He has peace to make between heaven and earth. He can know and satisfy the honour of God, for he is God; he can feel the wants and sorrows of man, for he is "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh." When he entered our world, was there not a proclamation of peace on earth, and good will to man? ”

“ I desire to live upon this earth till I see righteousness established. Is there a Saint who wishes to see disorder and confusion here? No: all wish to see the peace of God constantly resting upon the people. ”

“ We may have ‘peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation.’ Do you remember how the Apostle, in another place, gives us the same beautiful—though at first sight contradictory—combination when he says, ‘The peace of God shall garrison your heart’? ”

“ We need the peace of God in our heart just as really for the doing well of the little things of our secular life as for the doing of the greatest duties of Christ's kingdom. Our face ought to shine, and our spirit ought to be tranquil, and our eye ought to be clear, and our nerves ought to be steady, as we press through the tasks of our commonest day. ”

“ The true peace of God begins at any spot a thousand miles from the nearest land; ”

“ Admire more and more the free grace of God, in so loving the world as to give his only Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish but have everlasting life. So shall the sense of the sinfulness you feel on the one hand, and of the holiness you expect on the other, both contribute to establish your peace and to make it flow as a river. So shall that peace flow on with an even stream, in spite of all those mountains of ungodliness, which shall become a plain in the day when the Lord cometh, to take full possession of your heart. ”

“ To be at peace with God is the beginning of all true tranquillity, and that can be secured only by faith in Jesus Christ.
So, because He brings the reconciliation between man and God, because He brings the rectification of our relation to circumstances and men, because He brings the control of desires and passions and inclinations, and because He satisfies all the capacities of our natures, in Him, and in Him only, is there peace for us. ”

“ But as we shall one day be made to participate, according to our slender capacity, in His peace, both in ourselves, and with our neighbour, and with God our chief good, in this respect the angels understand the peace of God in their own measure, and men too, though now far behind them, whatever spiritual advance they have made. ”

“ It is true—though some of our readers may be permitted to doubt it—that a peace the sweetest, the most delightful, the most constant, and the most sure does not depend on what excites and passes so quickly from earth, but on the true, salutary, and Christian manner in which the soul, wise and resigned, puts itself in harmony with the exigencies of its destiny and the will of its God. ”

“ Grace and peace are inclusive of the best blessings Heaven can bestow or man receive. They are Divine in their origin and nature—“from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Grace is the spontaneous outflow of Divine love in the redemption of the race and is the more precious because unmerited; and peace is the conscious experience of that grace in the believing soul—peace from outward dissension and inward fret, peace of conscience, peace with God and man. The blessings the apostle desires God is ever eager to bestow. ”

“ Paul writes: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” To attain peace and holiness is to recognize the divine presence and allness. Jesus said: “I am the way.” Kindle the watchfires of unselfed love, and they throw a light upon the uncomplaining agony in the life of our Lord; they open the enigmatical seals of the angel, standing in the sun, a glorified spiritual idea of the ever-present God — in whom there is no darkness, but all is light, and man's immortal being. ”

“ But not from this source alone is the Divine peace; for peace is the certain concomitant of inherent goodness. God is the impersonation of every virtue and every grace; consequently He has the blessed satisfaction and peace of conscious moral perfection as well as inherent wisdom and power.” (Z. '95-153.) “During the seventh millennium, according to the Divine purpose, it will be the joyful privilege of our Lord Jesus to fully manifest to all creatures in Heaven and in earth the Father's glorious character. ”

“ O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. ”

“ If God be at peace with us, all peace results from it: peace of conscience, peace with angels, peace between Jew and Gentile. Peace is here put for all good, all that good which flows to us from the incarnation of Christ. All the good we have, or hope, is owing to God's good-will; and, if we have the comfort of it, he must have the glory of it. Nor must any peace, and good, be expected in a way inconsistent with the glory of God; therefore not in any way of sin, nor in any way but by a Mediator. ”

“ For the individual He brings peace with God, peace in the else discordant inner nature, peace amid storms of calamity—the peace of submission, of fellowship with God, of self-control, of received forgiveness and sanctifying. ”

“ God forbid, I should need to exhort you to peace, which is the bond of perfection, and by which all good is tied together, and without which it is scattered. Have peace with God first, by faith in his promises, good conscience kept in all things, and oft renewed by repentance ”

“ That calm, unruffled peace was the fruit of His constant trust in God and dependence on Him. And this peace He wants us to enjoy. In a world full of tribulation, anxiety and care, a world full of increasing evils, conflicts and sufferings, He wants us to have His own peace. The enjoyment of this peace of our Lord Jesus Christ depends on our communion with God and the realization of our union with Him. On that blessed evening of the resurrection day the Lord spoke a second time, “Peace be unto you.” ”

“ It is itself peace, and the effect of it is quietness and assurance for ever, that is, a holy serenity and security of mind, by which the soul enjoys itself and enjoys its God, and it is not in the power of this world to disturb it in those enjoyments. Note, Peace, and quietness, and everlasting assurance may be expected, and shall be found, in the way and work of righteousness. True satisfaction is to be had only in true religion, and there it is to be had without fail. ”

“ Here lies the secret of abiding peace—God's peace. We give ourselves to God and the Holy Spirit takes possession of our breast. It is indeed “Peace, Peace.” But it is just then that the devil begins to turn us away, and he does it through our thoughts, diverting or distracting them as occasion requires. This is the time to prove the sincerity of our consecration and the singleness of our heart. If we truly desire His Presence more than all else, we will turn away from every conflicting thought and look steadily up to Jesus. ”

“ Even those true friends and lovers of God who enjoy so glorious a peace have disquiet and trouble of their own in that they cannot be towards their faithful God all they would, and in that even what God giveth is less large than their desires.’
‘In the highest stage of divine comfort is that peace which is said to pass all understanding. When that noblest part of the soul to which no name can be given is completely turned to God and set on Him, it takes with it all those faculties in man to which we can give names. ”

“ Peace with God. Sin has thrown human nature into a state of discord and enmity. The reception of grace must ever precede the enjoyment of peace. The universal mistake is, in first seeking, through many avenues, the happiness which peace [p. 378] with God alone can bring, instead of accepting humbly, penitently, believingly, the grace of God in Christ. Peace with each other—peace in the Church. How great a blessing is this! One turbulent spirit can ruffle the tranquillity of thousands. ”

“ All the discords of our nature and circumstances can be harmonized by that grace which is ready to flow into our hearts. Peace with God, with ourselves, with our fellows, repose in the midst of change, calm in conflict, may be ours. ”

“ Our peace with God is what we are trying to feel after, if, peradventure, we may find the correct way of life, of religion, of government, of everything that is calculated, to enoble, to bless and exalt us in time and in eternity. ”

“ This Peace which we have with God in Christ, is inviolable; but because the sense and persuasion of it may be interrupted, the soul that is truly at peace with God may for a time be disquieted in itself, through weakness of faith, or the strength of temptation, or the darkness of desertion, losing sight of that grace, that love and light of God's countenance, on which its tranquillity and joy depend. ”