II.IN HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS (Romans 4).

III.IN HIS FAITHFULNESS (Philippians 1:6).

IV.IN HIS POWER. "Kept by the power of God."

1. In sorrow.

2. In persecution.

3. In bereavement.

4. In death.

(R. J. McGhee, A. M.)

II. THERE EXISTS EQUAL REASON WHY THE CHRISTIAN SHOULD REJOICE IN GOD AT ALL TIMES AS AT ANY TIME. The cause is uniform, so should be the effect. If God ceased to be his friend then he might cease to rejoice, but not otherwise (Habakkuk 3:17-18).

III. JOY AND SORROW IN THE SAME HEART AND AT THE SAME TIME ARE PERFECTLY COMPATIBLE. There may exist contemporaneously reasons for both sorrow and joy. "Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." When we are commanded to rejoice always it is not meant that we should rejoice only.

IV. IN THE CASE OF THE CHRISTIAN THE CAUSES OF JOY ALWAYS PREDOMINATE OVER THOSE OF SORROW. Not so with the sinner. A saint may lose a part of his possessions: but the larger part he cannot lose.

V. THE VERY SORROWS OF THE CHRISTIAN ARE TO BE REJOICED IN. They work for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." Inferences:

1. If it is our duty to be happy then it is a sin to be miserable.

2. How grossly they misrepresent religion who speak of it as a gloomy thing.

3. We learn what it is that makes the soul happy. Not the world; that is passing away; but the Lord who abides.

4. If God alone can make His creatures happy what madness it is to live in ignorance of Him, or in estrangement from Him.

(W. Nevins, D. D.)

1. Don't think this means —(1) a seventh-heaven rapture. Nothing is easier, more common, or disheartening than the way we exaggerate religious joy. It is not given to many of us to soar to great heights; much less to live there. We want a joy that can walk along life's dusty roads, as a good day's work, and thrive amidst bustle and home cares.(2) The short lived offspring of a passing excitement; an April day of sunshine, and showers that end in a night of sharp frost.(3) Nor is it the childlike merriment of good spirits.(4) Nor a natural hopefulness that forgets the past, and doesn't trouble much about the future.

2. But it is a calm, deep, settled gladness in the Lord.(1) It does not change life so that there are no difficulties and burdens; but it edges the clouds with brightness, and in the darkness it can always see the stars. It does not turn the desert into a garden, but it is an angel presence bidding us "fear not," and opening our eyes, it shows us "a well of water."(2) It is of much importance that we keep from exaggerations. Many young people turn from religion disappointed because they have been encouraged to look for sustained raptures and have not found them.(3) Depend upon it this "oil of gladness" is something that commonplace, everyday people can have if they will.

II. THE INGREDIENTS OF THIS JOY. It is not distilled from rare exotics and delicate plants that grow only in hothouses and cost much to cultivate. There are three simples growing just by the gate of the King's garden, and whoever will cultivate and mix them shall have this balm.

1. The sturdy plant Confidence — the superlative degree of hope; that in the dark today sings of a bright tomorrow; that does not think or believe that a loving Father orders all things, but rests in the assurance of it.

2. Confidence must be mixed equally with a little lowly plant that grows on the bank of the river — Contentment — a rarer plant than the other. Contentment keeps its desires level with its condition. When much is taken it counts up how much is left, and turns the evil round to find a better face upon it, thinking of the worse that might have been.

3. Put in Gratitude, to enrich it and make it sparkle.

III. BUT IF IT BE THUS EASILY MADE WHY IS IT SO UNCOMMON?

1. There are timid souls who have not the courage to forget themselves.

2. There are the stern, the gloomy, the severe, possibly too selfish to forget themselves, or too exact to forget anything. Hard-natured men of narrow sympathies to whom the brighter things of the world are vanities. Music and children and flowers and holidays have no charms for them. Business, duty, absorbs them. O! it is a pitiful thing when all the child is dead in men.

3. There are those whose religion is mostly a regular observance of services, a half-hearted round of duty. The religion that rejoices in the Lord must have something intense about it. A languid, pale-faced, sickly man who gets up for an hour or two and sits by the fire can't enjoy anything; he hasn't vigour enough. Type of dead-alive Christians, whose religion is true enough, but they have not enough of it. They want more warmth and life and heart.

IV. CAN CHRISTIANS AFFORD TO LIVE WITHOUT THIS JOY IN THE LORD?

1. It is repeatedly commanded. Is he guiltless who passes by the word with light indifference?

2. It is encouraged by every promise and precept. May not the man suspect the religion that is so unlike the Scripture sample?

3. It is the natural fruit of spiritual life: and if the fruit be wanting, the tree is not worth having.

4. Surely we have no business to keep twitting the world about a peace it can neither give nor take away, if all we can tell them is a dismal tale of trials and temptations, failure and sin. This is not what the Bible holds out to us, what Christ purchased for us, and is not likely to fetch home the prodigal from the far country.

V. HOW MAY WE MAKE THIS JOY OUR OWN? Confidence, Contentment, Gratitude, where can we find them? only in the King's garden.

1. We must go out of ourselves for everything worth having. He who sees self will never see anything but what he may weep over. He who sees the Lord may live always triumphing.

2. The opposite to this joy is not sorrow. The Man of Sorrows was "anointed with the oil of joy above His fellows."(1) The real killjoy is worry. Hundreds of religious people trust the Lord to save their souls; but to feed and clothe the body, train the children, etc., all that they must fret over as if their loving Father did not sit on the throne.(2) The wasp nest of ill temper. This too may be conquered. "I can do all things through Him that strengtheneth me."

(Mark Guy Pearse.)

I. THE EXTENT TO WHICH MERE AMUSEMENT IS NEEDFUL AND BENEFICIAL.

1. The "alway" of the text covers the whole sphere of life but mere amusement can only be an occasional thing, and therefore not the only form of happiness. That must be found also in those experiences, duties, toils, anxieties, and sorrows which constitute the main stream of our daily life.

2. The key to this is "in the Lord." If God makes us glad we may be always glad. A richer joy may be found in discharging life's duties and bearing its burdens so as to secure God's approval than in any amount of amusement.

3. Seeing that it would be a great mistake to seek happiness in amusements which would imperil the proper conduct of life's more serious business. He who neglects duty for amusement makes a great mistake.

II. WHAT TEACHING THERE IS IN THE TEXT RESPECTING THE LAWFULNESS OF AMUSEMENTS AND THE MAIN PRINCIPLES TO GUIDE US.

1. Rejoicing is a Christian duty. Hence we ought to cultivate it as much as justice, etc.

2. Can cheerfulness be cultivated without paying special attention to the matter? Certainly not: hence the gospel sanctions a certain amount of amusement. Happiness is the outcome of the healthy play of our faculties. Now in the daily stress some of them are sure to be overstrained. Our constitution is like a harp of many strings. To keep it in tune, therefore, we must naturally give the overstrained strings periodic rest, but touch up the others and play upon them: this is amusement, and the text implies its necessity.

3. But what kind of amusement does the gospel sanction?(1) Our pleasures must be pure and unselfish, to be indulged in in the spirit of holiness and kindly consideration for others. We are to rejoice in the Lord always; and holiness and unselfishness were the most conspicuous features of Christ's character.

4. God has placed within the reach of all an infinite amount of ennobling entertainment. In the world around us there is an inexhaustible wealth of beauty, grandeur, and skill whose observation and imitation supply us with abundant entertainment.(1) We are born into a theatre where a drama of the most thrilling interest, now comedy, now tragedy, now both, is constantly going forward, and we are taking our own little part in it.(2) We are born into a museum such as monarch never erected.(3) We are born into a palace whose roof is the firmament, whose walls the horizon, and whose floor the earth and sea.(4) Besides this music, art, poetry, and literature are at command.(5) And, yet more, God has so made us that the lawful satisfaction of our appetites and exercise of our bodies may be a constant source of pleasure.

5. How is it, then, that we make such a mess of our amusements. We want —(1) Christ's training to make us Christlike in our tastes and habits — eyes trained to appreciate beauty in form and colour; ears trained to appreciate music, and a decided taste formed for literature and science. The lower appetites are always ripe for entertainment — the higher want cultivating, and the lower will then give way.(2) Unselfishness and charity in our pleasures. The man who can amuse himself at the expense of wife and children or any of his fellows, cannot rejoice in the Lord, and such amusements will always be unhallowed and unblessed.

(Dr. Colborne.)

(Dean Vaughan.)

(H. W. Beecher.)

(J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.)

(T. L. Nye.)

(J. Hutchison, D. D.)

(H. Melvill, B. D.)Napoleon when sent to Elba, adopted, in proud defiance of his fate, the motto, "Ubicunque felix." It was not true in his case; but the Christian may be truly "happy everywhere" and always.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

(H. W. Beecher.)

(Canon Liddon.)

(H. W. Beecher.)

(H. J. W. Buxton, M. A.)

(S. Martin.)

(Dr. Johnson.)

1. As to moderation in certain habits.(1) An ancient moralist tells us that virtue is a medium between two extremes. The extreme opposite to a vice is not a virtue, though everything opposite to virtue must be vice. Virtue is a road which has a hedge and ditch on both sides. Frugality, e.g., is such a road. If you break through the hedge on one side, you fall into wastefulness; if on the other, into covetousness. Humility is another: pride on one side, servility on the other. Magnanimity is bordered by cowardice and rashness.(2) But while virtue is moderation between opposite vices, there is no place properly speaking for moderation in virtue. No man should think of being moderately magnanimous or humble. Neither can there be any moderation in vice — moderate avarice or extravagance.(3) Yet foolish as it looks, there is a great deal of this sort of moderation, and much of what the world calls respectability is nothing else. Many a tradesman would eschew a great fraud, and yet be guilty of minor acts of dishonesty. He would not refuse to pay his creditors, but he thinks nothing of wearing down the health of his servants by over labour. He would not lie, but he has no scruples in over or understating the truth.(4) The proper province of moderation is to regulate those powers, principles, and tendencies in man which have no evil in themselves, but which become evil by absence of restraint; e.g. —(a) The desire of knowledge; the cause and consequences of the first offence should teach us the need of putting a check upon it.(b) So also the desire of power. Acquisitiveness is a natural propensity. If there were no such desire, what would become of the interests of society and civilization? But there is nothing that becomes more destructive when not held in by Christian principles.

2. As to moderation in certain feelings. The other phase of meaning in the word is gentleness. It includes the control of anger. Indignation against evil is virtuous, but resentment, even against an evil doer, is the opposite.

II. THE MANIFESTATION. That our moderation may be known unto all men —

1. It must be decided. There must be no pressing towards the borders of excess, even though not touched. No hard driving at a bargain which would look like avarice. No such demands on servants as would look like oppression; no indulgence which would look like sensuality.

2. It must spring from principle. A man may be moderate in one thing, and not in another. An ascetic in eating and drinking, may be licentious. A man who has no ambition may be avaricious.

3. It must he habitually exercised. How many in their religious connections profess principles which are outraged in the home or in the shop.

III. THE MOTIVE. "The Lord is at hand." We tell men of the injuriousness of evil ways: as they make their bed they must lie upon it. But while forceful, it is an appeal to self-love in its lowest form, and habits formed upon it do not rise higher than mere prudence. Here is the Christian motive.

1. The judgment of the last day is approaching. This anticipation awakens an awful sense of responsibility.

2. But the Lord is an actual presence now. His judgment is passing on us at this moment; and we are now responsible. But is He not a Saviour as well as Judge? at hand to forgive the penitent and help the believer.

(J. Stoughton, D. D.)

(H. C. G. Moule, M. A.)

(R. Johnstone, LL. B.)

II. SPIRITUALLY. "Christ in you the hope of glory." "Where two or three are gathered in My Name."

III. PERSONALLY. To punish evil and to glorify His own.

(Bishop Montagu Villiers.)

I. IN ALL THE OPERATIONS OF NATURE. "In Him all things consist." Nature is not merely His creation: it is His organ, His instrument. He is in it as the soul is in the body, animating and directing every part. He is in all seasons of the year. He flashes in the lightning. He speaks in the thunder. He is in every ray of light and every wave of air.

II. IN ALL THE EVENTS OF HISTORY. In the creations of literature, the progress of science, in all the advancing steps of civilization. Every event of life is an advent of Christ. He stands at the door of our nature and knocks. He originates the good and controls the evil.

III. IN ALL REDEMPTIVE INFLUENCES. In the words of the prophets and apostles; in the ministry of His gospel; in the agency of His Spirit. Conclusion: Let us realize this: eschew evil, pursue good; be heroic in duty and magnanimous in trial. "The Lord stood by me," said Paul.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

I.BE JOYFUL.

II.BE GENTLE.

III.BE TRUSTFUL.

IV.BE PRAYERFUL.

V.BE PEACEFUL.

(C. J. P. Eyre, M. A.)

II. THE OCCASIONS WHICH ARE SPECIALLY CALCULATED TO REMIND US OF THIS.

1. God's visitations in the death of those around us.

2. Our own advancing years.

3. The vicissitudes of the seasons.

4. The march of time towards eternity.

III. THE GROUND AND SOURCE OF THE SINNER'S SAFETY.

1. Redemption in Christ.

2. Regeneration and holiness by the Spirit.

3. Divine friendship.

IV. PRACTICAL EFFECTS.

1. In view of Christ's present and future nearness, men should be ready for His manifestation.

2. Diligent in duty.

3. Dead to the world.

(W. Nicholson.)

II. EITHER TO APPROVE OR DISAPPROVE OUR CONDUCT. At this moment God is weighing us in the balance of His sanctuary. To be the object of His approbation is the highest blessing. We can then be indifferent to the world's censures. But to be condemned of Him is our heaviest curse.

III. TO REGULATE THE AFFAIRS OF HIS CHURCH AND ACCOMPLISH THE PREDICTIONS OF HIS WORD.

1. To convict the sinner.

2. Edify the believer.

3. Extend His gospel.

IV. TO SUMMON US TO HIS TRIBUNAL. This He does practically at death.

(Congregational Remembrancer.)

(T. Guthrie, D. D.)

(R. Johnstone, LL. B.)

(J. Stoughton, D. D.)

1. For our own sakes. The exhortation does not discourage economy and industry, although some fanatics make it do so. The same religion which tells us to be careful for nothing tells us also to be diligent in business, and if anyone under the cloak of the text becomes careless of the duties of life he denies "the faith and is worse than an infidel." Still there are some virtues which become vices.(1) Here is a man who by unstinted economy heaps up riches, and knows not who will reap them. The world promised him happiness in riches, and outside people say, "What a happy man." But look at the wrinkles on his face; he is fearful of losing his riches and is apprehensive of beggary and dies, sometimes by his own hand.(2) Here is another, careful of his good name — a good thing in itself — but the least thing said about him he feels acutely, and his peace is destroyed. The Christian's duty is clear. He must not fritter away his life in anxiety about circumstances or good name. Anxiety cumbers people as it did Martha, and is both unwise and injurious. There are trials enough without making them. The anxious man is a wholesale trouble maker.

2. Because we are not our own. This is a question which affects both conscience and honesty. God made us. What we possess is not our own. God has purchased us by the precious blood of Christ.

3. Because anxiety is distrust of God. The promises cannot be broken; however adverse the circumstances. Anxiety is thinking meanly of God. While religion allows of grief, she forbids excessive grief. It is difficult to bear with affliction, but it is cowardly to succumb.

II. A PREVENTATIVE. Prayer is an appeal to Deity, which shows that we are not independent of Him; but it is an appeal to a Father. To be successful it must fulfil certain conditions.

1. It must be thankful — even in time of sorrow. Who of us has not something to be thankful for — food, raiment, etc.

2. It must be particular. There are some things which people think too insignificant; but who has sufficient knowledge to determine that. Has God ever rebuked you for going to Him? God cares for the sparrows, much more then for you.

3. Continual. No solitary supplication was ever forgotten. The answers will surely come, although in an unexpected way.

III. A CONSOLATION.

1. The peace of God. We do not know how it is infused into the heart, "It passeth all understanding;" but we may all feel it if we like.

2. It is the Saviour's legacy; and nobody should be defrauded of it — "My peace."

3. Some people try to keep the peace of God instead of letting the peace of God keep them.

4. Its medium is "Christ Jesus."

(W. M. Punshon, LL. D.)

1. This does not mean that we are to be stoically indifferent, and just to take life as it comes. Such a notion would be the death of all holy manly ambition, and would mean "good for nothing." Man is not intended to be the sport of circumstances. His duties imply an earnest exercise of his powers, which is impossible without a measure of solicitude. Note the commendation which "carefulness" receives in 2 Corinthians 7:11. Were a Christian to fall into indifference Christianity would be gone.

2. The mistake against which we are dissuaded is that of laying the mind open to the worries which are ready to invade it — the disposition condemned in Martha. St. Paul would have us rise into the calm region of faith above all fret and paralysing fear.

3. Such an exhortation is not uncalled for. Over anxiety is one of the commonest of sins. Strange that it should be so. we profess to believe that the Lord knows our sorrows, that His peace is sufficient, that He supplies all our need, and causes all things to work together for good. Surely such a belief should make us trustful, fearless, and calm. We may well cry, "Help our unbelief."

II. THE INSTRUMENTALITY FOR THE REPRESSION OF OVER ANXIETY (Psalm 62:8).

1. "Let your requests," etc. True, God knows our needs before we pray; but we may, nevertheless, find relief in telling them out to Him with the confiding love of a child. Enlightened prayer does not ask for miracle or any change in the Divine will. It only implies that asking is one of the appointed conditions of receiving, that the giving of the best things that the soul craves is the sole prerogative of God.

2. "In everything." Prayer properly belongs to the whole of our condition. Whatever touches our life is important enough to be taken to the "throne of grace."

3. "By prayer and supplication." The language implies entreaty. Not "vain repetitions," not noise as if God were afar off or indifferent, but the fresh warm cry of the hungry for bread.

4. "With thanksgiving." Prayer should be animated with gratitude. While we are with God let us think of His goodness in welcoming us, His former gracious answers, His countless undeserved and even unsought blessings. Gratitude is one of the sweetest and most useful ingredients. Whilst it honours God it disposes to that faith without which we cannot pray aright. So we come to that trust which is the antithesis of inordinate anxiety. In prayer, distrust is distraction, and distraction weakness. The prayer of faith is the natural and appointed instrumentality for the repression of over anxiety.

III. THE METHOD IN WHICH THIS INSTRUMENTALITY WORKS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE DESIRED RESULT. Peace comes by power and power by prayer.

1. In prayer itself there is often a priceless enjoyment.

2. We obtain specific answers to prayers; not always, indeed, according to our fancies, but invariably according to God's all-wise and perfect goodness, which is immeasurably preferable.

3. It is in the nature of prayer to soothe away unnecessary anxiety, and to sweeten such solicitudes as are wholesome; for prayer takes us into the presence of God, where all is calm.

(J. P. Barnett.)

1. It is impossible to eradicate them, for in the very resistance we find a new cause of suffering. As the fabled Hydra of old, with one head severed from his body, sprang forward with a hundred in its place, so shall our resisted troubles be.

2. It is folly to resist them; as idiotic a task as Don Quixote's against the windmills.

3. Shall we suffer, then? We could if we were as strong as Atlas, who bore the world on his shoulders; but we are not Atlases.

4. Take them quickly, then, to the Divine Burden bearer. This is the panacea for all the ills that flesh is heir to.

I. BE CAREFUL FOR NOTHING.

1. Because there are higher considerations. Here we spend no end of time and thought on things which are not worth it, and neglect matters which deserve our most earnest attention. "The life is more than meat," and the soul than life. The doctor's bell and knocker never seem at rest; nor are the poor patients to be blamed for their importunity; but how is it that the body casket is so cared for and the soul jewel so neglected. Men are careful even to madness about their money, but utterly careless about eternal riches.

2. Because those necessary trifles about which we are obliged to think in some degree are all seen to and arranged by God. Cast, then, "all your care upon Him; He careth for you."

3. Because the smallest affairs of life are entirely beyond our control. Man can do a great deal — he can flash a message round the world, and through the microphone hear the footstep of a fly, but he cannot add one cubit to his stature.

4. Because nothing is too small for God to arrange for. We are ready to believe that nothing is too great for God to care for, but it is difficult for us to confide in Him in little things. But the God who made the ocean makes the dew drop, and cares for both.

II. BE PRAYERFUL FOR EVERYTHING. Some mercies will come unasked for; but those are sweetest which come in answer to prayer.

1. Because of the privilege of prayer. We have not only the care but the heart of God. The blood of God's dear Son has opened the way to the mercy seat.

2. Because of the power of prayer. It has a soothing effect, as we know from earthly confidences.

3. Because there is no limit to prayer. There is nothing we may not ask Him about. It is His will. "I will be enquired of."

III. BE THANKFUL FOR ANYTHING.

1. Because we do not deserve anything but wrath.

2. Because ingratitude is one of the worst of sins. We are thankful for the hospitality of earthly friends, and yet though we have so much from God how thankless we are. Thankless hearts are like scentless flowers.

(Thomas Spurgeon.)

1. In disappointment — adversity where prosperity was expected — the loss of those on whom our strongest trust was reposed.

2. In the pressing claims of business or the family.

3. Relax not any reasonable and temperate exertion, but listen "God will provide" sing the birds of the air, and whisper the lilies of the field.

II. ITS CAUSES.

1. An undue value of this present world. We reverse the apostle's rule and walk by sight.

2. Practical distrust of God. The most orthodox are often guilty of this heresy. Faith in God is useless in the creed if it be absent from the heart.

3. Neglect of Christian privilege. "All things are yours." The promises are ours, but we neglect to plead and to trust them.

III. ITS EVILS.

1. Its essence is worldly mindedness. Unseen and eternal things are thrown into the background. And the snare is doubly dangerous and successful from the fact that it is not viewed as a sin, but cloaked under the specious names of prudence and care for family.

2. It cramps our benevolence. It knows nothing of lending unto the Lord and giving cheerfully. It anticipates the day when what can now be spent will be wanted. It will not trust God.

3. It engenders a close illiberal spirit in all the transactions of life. It stands by its rights, drives hard bargains, exacts the uttermost farthing. "I cannot afford it." "I must not wrong my family."

IV. THE REMEDY. Prayer, including blessings sought and evils deprecated ("supplication"), joined with an acknowledgment of mercies past.

1. Be it what it may it is the Christians privilege to spread it before the Lord, like Hezekiah. You have kind friends, sound advisers; but go first to God; and when before Him pour out your whole heart, and you shall find a calm and stillness in heart prayer, which shall soothe every grief and care to rest. If you do not find it all at once pray on.

2. Be thankful, i.e., draw upon your experience as well as your faith; and remember that "the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save," etc.

(Canon Miller.)

1. It is an idle thing; the mind hovers and flutters round the subject; goes over the same ground again and again, wearies itself in vain repetitions of the same cares and fears; but what has it done? has it advanced the matter one real step? Has it arrived at one good counsel, or set itself to one wise act?

2. It is an enfeebling thing; it eats the very life out of the energies; it leaves the man not only where he was, but ten times less capable and vigorous than at the beginning.

3. It is an irritating thing; it ruffles the temper, upsets the balance of the spirit; is the sure source of moodiness, sharpness, petulance, and anger; it sets a man at war with himself, his neighbour, God's providence, and God's appointments.

4. It is a sign of mistrust, of feeble faith, of flagging energy, and languid obedience.

II. ITS CURE.

1. St. Paul knew better than to attempt the correction of anxiety by human arguments. It may be useless, wrong, mischievous, but it is in us all; and let a man be sharply tried, he is anxious still. The conflict with any one of our evil tendencies is too strong for us single handed.

2. Bring in another person; introduce a new consideration; suggest a new motive. Tell us of One who amongst our other griefs has borne this, amongst our other sorrows has carried this (Isaiah 53:4); of One who in all our afflictions is Himself afflicted; in all our cares is Himself troubled (Isaiah 63:9); above all, of One who is not in some different and distant world, where the sound of human groans scarcely penetrates, where the burden of human distress is regarded as unreal, but who is here, in our world, at hand, present; who both foresees and remembers with us, feels with as well as for us, is "touched with a sense of our infirmities," yea, was Himself "tempted in all points" (Hebrews 4:15). Then, in His presence, in His human soul, in His compassionate heart, we will lay aside our anxieties, rest from our burdens, take refuge from our fears and from our sins.

(Dean Vaughan.)

I. THE PRINCIPLE OF DELIVERANCE FROM CARE is placed by our Lord, in the Sermon on the Mount, in a two-fold light.

1. The things about which we are tempted to be careful are "things that perish." Their worth is but for a little time, and stretches but a little way. What matters a little more or less of earthly treasure. The soul's satisfaction is independent of it. The true and enduring riches are within reach. To men who believed in and pined for the heavenly treasure, the appeal was conclusive. What matters the earthly substance which moth and rust are wasting daily, when we have a glorious treasure which defies decay and violence. They believed this and were careful for nothing. We believe less and are consumed with care.

2. This superiority to earthly things demands a keen discernment, a pure unworldly heart, which are rare. Who is sufficient for these things. The Saviour, pitying our infirmity, has another assurance to meet the needs of our trembling apprehensive natures. "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things." We are not alone in this great universe, whose awful order, indifferent to our needs, strikes a shivering dread into our hearts. Behind the veil a Father is watching and caring, and by His vigilant providence is adding, in the measure in which He sees we need them, all these things unto us. Be careful for nothing; rest calmly in the care of God.

3. But we can not only rest but pray. He is no unknown Friend to whom we can commend our cause and then leave it. He is here in the silent sanctuary of our hearts. Perhaps our requests are shortsighted and foolish. Be it so. The best thing that we can do is to take them to God, and lay them before Him. His light will reveal, His fire consume the sensual, selfish element in our petitions; His burning presence will purify our hearts, and make our prayers powerful with Him. Prayer is the channel of communication between the careworn soul and its helper; and it fills its desolation with the sense of a living, loving presence, which charges the very atmosphere with benediction; it quickens a pulse of joy and hope in the numbness of its despair. He who has never known what prayer can do to calm a troubled and uplift a despairing spirit is dead to the deepest, richest experience of life.

II. But it must be THE PRAYER OF FAITH.

1. Christians complain bitterly that their prayers are not answered. But they do not understand the conditions. God nowhere binds Himself to answer our shortsighted requests. Did we see more clearly we should tremble lest He should. That would prove His heaviest chastisement. But He binds Himself to answer our prayers, in His own way. No praying soul is sent empty away.

2. The prayer of faith is the prayer which recognizes God as the supreme and perfect God. No man is in the way of blessing until he understands that in God alone can he be supremely blessed. Until he has made God his portion there is the deepest want of his being unsatisfied. This being recognized his wants fall into their true proportion. They are not extinguished, but they are no more imperative. It is no longer, Give me this or I die; it is, Give me Thyself and I live; and this, Give or withhold at Thy will. I have all, and abound in Thee.

3. The prayer of faith seeks conformity with the mind of God, without which it is idle to hope or pray for peace. Nine-tenths of our cares grow out of our mad desires for some unreal and delusive good. All cares that eat into the soul arise really from a striving against God. The first request of prayer is, "Show me Thy will, and rule my will by Thine. Root out self-will, tame passion, calm desire, bring me into harmony with Thy pure and perfect mind, and then bestow what Thou seest is for my good." When a soul has said that, its brooding cares and wearing sorrows have gone as the mists of the morning vanish in the sunlight.

4. The prayer of faith never leaves out of its account the Hand that is always working for our deliverance, and never so mightily as when the storm gathers, and the great waters seem to overwhelm. And the prayer of faith never fails.

(J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.)

I. LET YOUR REQUESTS BE MADE KNOWN UNTO GOD.

1. Requests.(1) All creatures are dependent. The earth by dumb signs asks the rain from heaven to refresh its dust and make it fruitful. The air asks moisture from the ocean; the ocean from the rivers. All are needy and seek their supply from Him in whom all fulness dwells.(2) Man with the greatest capacity is distinguished by the greatest need. The child is much more dependent on its parents' care than the young of other creatures, So the child of God's family needs much more from the Father's hand. How many times has a man of sixty breathed? How vast the supply of air, and how close to his lips? The act of breathing seems an emblem at once of the creature's continual need, and of the Creator's abundant supply. His goodness has compassed us about like the atmosphere; and when we open our mouth it is filled with good.

2. Make them known to God.(1) The lower part of our nature is supplied as God supplies that of the beasts. But God desires company among His creatures. He did not find among them any fit for this until He made man in His own image. Fathers love to supply their children's wants; inconceivably greater is God's delight. Human fathers have a defective love in their hearts and a defective supply in their hands: they sometimes will not, and sometimes cannot, give what their children require. But our Father in heaven is not limited on either side.(2) When man fell the relation was broken off. it a great price the channel was opened again. God has, through Christ, made known His fulness: we should, through Christ, make known to Him our need.

3. Your requests — your own — not what other people have asked, or what you have learned to repeat. Jesus set a little child in the midst of His disciples, and said, "Give me a child's simplicity." The wants it cries for are its own, and whether intelligible or not are real, not feigned. What element in the request of his little child goes home to the father's heart, filling it with delight and opening sluices for a flood of gifts? It is this — they are his own child's own requests. This quality, "yours," will cover a multitude of sins against grammar and other earthly laws.

II. BY PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION WITH THANKSGIVING.

1. Prayer. This is the soul's believing and reverential approach unto God. It is the prelude to the request and thanksgiving. The pattern prayer commences with "Our Father." The prayer and supplication follow.

2. Supplication — the specific request. The word means asking, but its radical signification is "want:" hence it came to mean a craving for supply.

3. With thanksgiving — for past favours.

4. The relation of these two elements of a soul's communion with God.(1) Supplication with thanksgiving seems to intimate that we are apt to omit this latter ingredient, and to warn us that the omission will vitiate all. To ply the asking without the song of praise seems like taking some ingredients of the physician's prescription and leaving out one.(2) The currents of grace run in circles as well as in nature — the believer draws from God a stream of benefits and returns the incense of praise.

III. IS EVERYTHING.

1. Pray. At all times, in all places, about everything. Not on the Sabbath, or in church only. Our Father takes it ill if we send in our request for the pardon of sin, but ask not His counsel about the choice of a companion or an investment in trade. He is not a man of little faith who puts little things into his prayers.

2. Give thanks. There is nothing here contrary to nature. God's commandments are not grievous. You need not give thanks for suffering, but even in sorrow there is room for praise. E.g.(1) In the things you do not suffer — when in bodily pain that the mind is clear; or when suffering from calumny that you have a good conscience towards God; or when you have lost your money that your children survive.(2) For the good sorrow brings in fruit unto holiness.(3) But in all cases there is room for thanks in the "unspeakable Gift."

(W. Arnot, D. D.)

2. But whether general or specific we are to offer thanksgiving. Hence it follows —(1) That we ought always to be in a thankful condition of heart. "Thus will I bless Thee while I live."(2) That the blending of thanks with devotion is always to be maintained. Though the prayer should struggle upward out of the depths, yet must its wings be silvered o'er with thanksgiving. These two holy streams flow from a common source and should mingle as they flow; like kindred colours they shade off into each other.(3) This commingling of precious things is admirable. Prayer is myrrh, and praise is frankincense. The holy incense of the sanctuary yielded the smoke of prayer which filled the holy place, but with it was the sweet perfume of praise. Prayer and praise are like the two cherubim, they must never be separated. Note how our Lord mingles both in the model prayer, and David in the Psalms (Psalm 18:3). And so St. Paul (Romans 1:8-9; Colossians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:3; Philippians 1:3-4), and when he and Silas, when in the Philippian jail, they prayed and sang praises.

I. THE REASONS FOR MINGLING THANKSGIVING WITH PRAYER. In the nature of things it should be so. We do not come to God as if He had left us penniless. Thanksgiving is our right attitude towards One who daily loadeth us with benefits. You have cause for thanksgiving.

1. That such a thing as prayer is possible — that God should have commanded and encouraged it, and supplied all things necessary for its exercise — the blood-besprinkled mercy seat, the perpetual Intercessor, the spirit of grace and supplication who helpeth our infirmities.

2. That we are spared and permitted to pray. It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed. Like David we may not be able to go up to the house of prayer, but we can still pray. The prodigal has lost his substance, but not his power to supplicate.

3. That we have already received great mercy at God's hands. If we never received another favour we have had enough for ceaseless praise. Whatever we may ask for cannot be one-half so great as what has been received. We have life in Christ; and that is more than food or raiment. If Christ is thine, He who gave thee Him will deny thee nothing.

4. That prayer has been answered so many times before.

5. That we have the mercy which we seek. We antedate our gratitude with men. Your promise to pay a man's rent when it has become due is the object of thanks before a farthing has left your pocket. Shall we not be willing to trust God a few months or years beforehand.

6. If the Lord does not answer the prayer we are offering, yet, still, He is so good. that we will bless Him whether or no. How devoutly might some of us thank Him that He did not grant the evil things we sought in the ignorance of our childish minds. We asked for flesh and He might have sent us quails in His anger. The Lord's roughest usage is only love in disguise.

II. THE EVIL OF THE ABSENCE OF THANKSGIVING.

1. We should be chargeable with ingratitude. Aristotle said, "A return is required to preserve friendship between two persons;" and if we have nothing else but gratitude let us abound therein.

2. It would argue great selfishness. Can it be right to pray for benefits and never honour our Benefactor.

3. Thanksgiving prevents prayer from becoming an exhibition of want of faith. If when I am in trouble I still bless God for all I suffer, therein my faith is seen. Is our faith such that it only sings in the sunshine? Have we no nightingale music for our God? Is our trust like the swallow, which must leave us in winter? Is our faith a flower that needs a conservatory to keep it active? Can it not blossom like gentian at the foot of the frozen glacier.

4. Not to thank God would argue wilfulness and want of submission to His will. Must everything be ordered according to our own mind? Much of the prayer of rebellious hearts is the mere growling of an angry obstinacy, the whine of an ungratified self-conceit.

III. THE RESULT OF THANKSGIVING IN CONNECTION WITH PRAYER.

1. Peace (vers. 5, 7). Some men pray, and therein they do well; but for lack of mixing thanksgiving with it they come away from the closet even more anxious than when they entered it.

2. Thanksgiving will warm the soul and enable it to pray. Do not pump up unwilling formal prayer. Take the hymn book and sing.

3. When a man begins to pray with thanksgiving he is on the eve of receiving the blessing. God's time to bless you has come when you begin to bless Him (2 Chronicles 20:20, etc.). Our thanksgiving will show that the reason for our waiting is now exhausted; that the waiting has answered its purposes, and may now come to a joyful end. When you put up a thanksgiving on the ground that God has answered your prayer, you have really prevailed with God.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

2. Here is a man trained in this school, and now a teacher. He is a prisoner, advanced in life, most sensitive, one who had been subjected to every pain and indignity, who lived a life enough to make anyone turn pale; and yet after all he had undergone he says, "Let your disposition be such that you will see how many things you have to be thankful for; and when you ask for anything do it through the radiant atmosphere of gratitude." When the pendulum swung up and Paul was in the midst of abundance he knew how to be a simple humble man; and when it swung to the other extreme and he bore chains, he said, "I have learned to be content. My manhood is more than my condition. I am master of circumstances, they are not master of me." Such was the style of manhood to be turned out in the school of Christ.

3. I am far from saying that this is easy or rapid of attainment; but I do say that such is the ideal portraiture of Christianity in the school of Christ. His school is like every other in that there is a difference of apprehensiveness in the scholars; but from the lowest to the highest there is this ideal set before them which they are to strive after — to give power to the inward man, to overcome appetites and passions, to endure troubles of every kind, and not stoically but rejoicingly, to have a hope that quenches fear, faith that annihilates doubt, endurance that can bear as much as God lays on. Not every man that comes from the university is a perfect scholar, but there is a bright ideal held up, and if the scholar does not approximate to it in a measure it is not the fault of the university but his own.

4. Can this ideal of Christianity ever be set aside? We live in a sceptical age, but a thing that has happened is a fact; and nothing can make it not to have happened; and since religion discloses what it is to live in Christ Jesus, and lifts up the conception of our higher being in its developed state, we are not going to lose it out of the world. There is nothing so powerful as a soul brought under such inspiration as St. Paul's, and no scepticisms will ever sweep it away. If you can live as Paul lived, and as thousands of Christians have lived, by other than Christian instrumentalities, then you are bound to show what they are, and where they are to be found.

5. If Paul's conception of the Christian life be true then every other is false — the ascetic view, e.g., pain, self-denial, of course, come, but with them come a spirit that welcomes the pain and turns the cross into a benediction.

(H. W. Beecher.)

(Harry Jones, M. A.)

(J. L. Nye.)

(W. Arnot, D. D.)

(H. W. Beecher.)

(Harry Jones, M. A.)

(H. W. Beecher.)

(W. Arnot, D. D.)

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

(J. L. Nye.)

1. The peace of God. No one else can give peace. No one else could ensure peace. No one else could possess peace.

2. Which passeth all understanding. The worldling cannot understand it. The Christian cannot understand it. Angels cannot understand it. It is so far removed from all that is material and sensible.

II. THE MIGHTY EFFECTS — "Shall keep your hearts and minds." Here is a power more mighty than the universe. Silence is sometimes more powerful than speech; love is more mighty than rage. So peace is more powerful than storm.

1. It keeps the heart from fear. There can be no fear of man, no fear of the world, no fear of death, no fear of hell in the heart where dwells the peace of God.

2. It keeps the heart from ambition. Ambition is the chief cause of trouble. He who has the peace of God has every ambition satisfied. He desires nothing else.

3. It keeps the heart from strife. There can be no contention where there is peace.

4. It keeps the mind from doubt. Probably by mind the apostle means the intellect as distinguished from the affections. The man who has no doubts is fixed on a rock. Even the poorest, the meanest, the most illiterate can enjoy the trust.

III. THE BLESSED MEANS — "Through Christ Jesus." Christ is the medium through which the possibility of peace came at first. Christ is the channel through which it flows at present. He is the propitiation for sins; therefore He brings peace to the conscience. He is the power of God; therefore He brings peace to those who are weak and in fear. He is the path to heaven; therefore He brings confidence to these who are pilgrims. He is the Prince of Peace; therefore He is the delight of all His subjects.

(J. J. S. Bird, M. A.)

1. It is peace with God. Reconciliation there must be, and the soul must be aware of it. A man conscious of being guilty can never know it till he becomes equally conscious of being forgiven. Your sin was the ground of the quarrel, but it is east into the depths of the sea. There is nothing now that can cause the anger of God towards us. We are accepted in the Beloved, and thus have a profound sense of peace.

2. A consequent peace in the little kingdom within. By nature everything in our inner nature is at war with itself. The passions, instead of being curbed by the reason, often holds the reins; and reason, instead of being guided by Divine knowledge, chooses to obey a depraved imagination, and demands to become a separate power and to judge God Himself. There is no cure for this but restoring grace. The King must occupy the throne, and then the state of Mansoul will be settled.

3. A peace in reference to outward circumstances. The man who is reconciled to God by Christ has nothing outside him that he needs fear. Is he poor? He rejoices that Christ makes poor men rich. Does he prosper? He rejoices that there is grace which prevents his prosperity intoxicating him. Is he in trouble? He thanks God for the promise that as His day so his strength shall be. In death the hope of the resurrection gives peace to his pillow; and as for judgment, he knows whom he has believed and knows who will protect him in that day. Whatever may be suggested to distress him, deep down in his soul he cannot be disturbed, because he sees God at the helm of the vessel holding the rudder with a hand that defies the storm.

4. God gives peace in reference to all His commands. The unregenerate soul rebels, but when the change takes place we drop into the same line with God; His will becomes our delight and His statutes our songs.

5. We feel peace with regard to God's providential dealings, because we believe that they are helping us to arrive at conformity with Him.

6. It is a peace which "passeth all understanding." Not only beyond common, or the sinners, but all — deeper, broader, more heavenly than even the joyful saint can tell.(1) There are kinds of peace which we can understand.(a) The peace of apathy, to which the Stoics schooled themselves. Their secret is easily discovered. Christianity is not this; it cultivates tenderness, not insensibility, and gives us a peace consistent with the utmost delicacy of feeling.(b) The peace of levity, which is perfectly understood.(2) The Christian is often surprised at his own peacefulness. There is a possibility of having the surface of the mind lashed into storm, while yet, deep down, all is still. There are earthquakes, yet the earth pursues the even tenour of its way. It surpasses understanding, but not experience.

II. HOW THIS PEACE IS TO BE OBTAINED. Christians are always at peace with God, but are not always sensible of it. If you wish to realize it hear Paul.(1) Rejoice in the Lord alway; make God your joy, and place all your joy in Him. You cannot rejoice in yourself, nor in your varying circumstances, but God never changes.

2. Let your moderation be known unto all men. Deal cautiously with earthly things. If any man praises don't exult; if you are censured don't despond. Take matters quietly.

3. Be careful for nothing. Leave your care with God.

4. Pray about everything. That which we pray over will have the sting taken out of it if it be evil, and the sweetness of it will be sanctified if it be good.

5. Be thankful for anything. Thankfulness is the mother and nurse of restfulness. Neglected praises sour into unquiet forebodings.

III. THE OPERATION OF THIS BLESSED PRIVILEGE ON OUR HEARTS AND MINDS.

1. Our hearts want keeping —(1) From sinking, for they are very apt to faint even under small trials.(2) From wandering, for how soon are they beguiled? A quiet spirit will neither sink nor wander. Like the life buoy, it will rise above the billows and keep its place.

2. Our minds want keeping. In all ages the minds of Christians have been apt to be disturbed on vital truths. But these truths are known to consciousness, and having brought peace to the mind, keep it in perfect peace.

IV. THE SPHERE OF ITS ACTION — "In Christ Jesus." There is no peace out of Him. He is our peace.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

I. ITS SOURCE.

1. It originates with Him. Man by sin has placed himself in antagonism to God. "The carnal mind is enmity against God." The transgression and enmity were ours, yet God devised means whereby the banished might be restored, and sends to rebels the ambassadors of peace. It was not from man the sinner that the overtures were made.

2. It has reference to Him. It is not only peace from, but with, God. The ambassadors are sent to proclaim that God has devised the means, has made peace. It is no imaginary reconciliation; it is a peace wrought by real means, purchased at a real price — the blood of the Son of God (Colossians 2:14). And when the sentence of condemnation is blotted out there is no condemnation to those who believe (Romans 5:1; Romans 8:1). This act is the foundation of all peace in the heart. It is a peace which the world can neither give nor take away.

II. ITS CHARACTER. It passeth understanding because —

1. Man unaided cannot attain to it. There are many voices which cry to man of pleasure and rest. But they are delusive. "Peace," they cry, when there is no peace. Wherever sin is there is unrest. There is no peace to the wicked. They "are like the troubled sea which cannot rest," continually straining after some haven of repose, but only to be cast back by the waves of passion. And not only cannot the sinner, unaided, attain this peace; he cannot, unaided, even receive it when provided for him. The things which belong to his peace are hidden from him. But this does not make void his responsibility. God hath revealed it by His Spirit, whom He gives to those who ask for Him.

2. There are depths in it which the richest Christian experience cannot fathom. There are mysteries in grace as well as in nature and providence. The source of this peace is God, and its guarantee the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. All the gifts of God are inexhaustible.

III. ITS EFFECT — "Shall guard." Our hearts and minds are in need of continual guardianship, and where shall we meet with one more reliable?

1. It can keep our hearts. We understand by the heart the source of the affections and passions; but not unfrequently the inspired writers use the word to signify the affections and understanding acting together. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." The affections are apt to stray from their centre. There is a fatal affinity between the evil within and the evil without. "Keep thy heart with all diligence," etc. It needs a strong power to watch over it, but the peace of God is equal to this. There is a strength in it to stay your stray reflections; for it gives you in your heart something on which your love may centre. The lustre of the ballroom and the gaudy trappings of the stage looks tawdry in the daylight; and the loves of the earth look tinsel indeed in the light of a Saviour's love and the brightness of the peace of God.

2. The mind. That is prone to be carried off by merely speculative problems. The peace of God keeps the mind not by enslaving its faculties or starving their energy, but by rightly balancing them. By giving us a clear conception of the relative values of things temporal and eternal, by revealing the due order which presides over all God's works, we are taught to estimate aright the true value of speculative and practical problems.

3. Both the heart and mind are kept. In some natures the thinking faculty is the most active: such are in danger of neglecting the keeping of the heart — the spirit of devotion. Others are exposed to the reverse temptation. To neglect either is injurious. Let us give to each its sustenance; storing our minds with Divine truth and yet increasing in love and grace.

IV. THE CHANNEL THROUGH WHICH IT COMES. There is no blessing which comes not through Him — in nature, Providence, salvation. He is our peace.

(Bp. W. Boyd Carpenter.)

I. "BEING JUSTIFIED BY FAITH WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD" (Romans 5:1). Man is contemplated as a sinner, conscious of guilt, exposed to punishment, and who cannot be justified by law, which has nothing to do but to condemn him. Let this idea be distinctly realized, and it is seen at once that it has power to terribly agitate the soul. The apostle meets the case by a proclamation of mercy, not indeed the tender and benevolent Divine affection to which the guilty and miserable may appeal, but something embodied in a supernatural fact to be apprehended and confided in: "God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in His blood" — that as man could not be justified by law through obedience, he might be through grace by faith. This we have received who have trusted in Christ. "There is now no condemnation," etc.; the terrors of conscience are stilled; we have "joy and peace through believing." "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked," but there is peace when he forsakes his evil way and turns to the Lord. The prophet was agitated by the revelation of the glory of the Divine nature and the corruption of his own (Isaiah 6.), but he was tranquilized when a live coal from the altar of sacrifice was laid upon his mouth. No angelic voice or vision is to be expected now, but there may be such a certainty of the truth of the gospel, such a perception of its appropriateness, and such a realization of peace, that the penitent and believing man may be able neither to doubt the fact of his forgiveness, nor to resist the feeling of deep calm blessedness, which the persuasion of it brings.

II. "TO BE SPIRITUALLY MINDED IS LIFE AND PEACE" (Romans 8:6), a passage taken from Paul's discourse on the work of the Spirit in man as the former was taken from that on the work of Christ for man. By being spiritually minded the apostle means that the man who has obtained forgiveness through Christ, in virtue of the agency of the Spirit of God has his moral tastes so rectified, his moral affections so cleansed and elevated, that he loves all spiritual things and exercises. Man was made for God. His powers and affections were so constituted that they were to find their supreme enjoyment in Him. Sin has disturbed this original law and given to the flesh an unnatural ascendancy, and so is productive of misery and misrule. The consequence is that to the idea of antagonism between the sinner and God, there is the idea of antagonism to himself. Spiritual renovation restores the natural order of things, reason is enlightened, affections purified, passion restrained, the animal is brought into subjection to the man, and the man bound by love and loyalty to God.

III. "GREAT PEACE HAVE THEY WHO LOVE THY LAW." "The work of righteousness is peace." These and other passages lead us to the correspondence of the Christian's outward conduct with the instincts and principles of his inward life. That condition of heart described as "minding the things of the Spirit" is to find appropriate embodiment in the maintenance of a uniform and elevated morality. It is only by a course of practical obedience that peace of conscience can be preserved. Inconsistency cannot but disturb inward peace. Guilt is a thing full of fears. The secret of Paul's peace was — "herein do I exercise myself to have a conscience void of offence."

IV. "THOU WILT KEEP HIM IN PERFECT PEACE WHOSE MIND IS STAYED UPON THEE" (Isaiah 26:3). Filial trust in God is everything that belongs to the circumstances of life. There is "a thought for the morrow" which is proper and becoming, but there is also a care that hath torment, a fear that is sinful. A Christian man who realizes that all his "times are in God's hands," that "He fixes the bounds of his habitation," and "perfects that which concerns him," that his Heavenly Father knoweth what he has need of; that "all things work together for good;" he who thoroughly believes all this, and casts his care, and stays his soul on God, cannot but be saved from the perturbations and anxieties which torment the worldly mind. He is kept from murmuring at what God does, from petulance at what He does not. He can confide and wait, and believe and be thankful, suffer and be satisfied.

(T. Binney, LL. D.)

1. Because it is that for which God made man at first — the realization of His original idea of the happiness of humanity. It springs from intercourse with God, filial trust, devotional communion, loving obedience, apprehension of spiritual truth, just and regulated affections, perfect repose in God's Fatherhood, and conscious complacency in everything that pleases Him. These things are such as would have entered into the happiness of man had he never sinned; many of them, of course, enter into that of the angels.

2. Because it is the result of His merciful interposition for man as well as the realization of His original plan. Something has been done to produce it beyond the original constitution of things, and the result of this interposition in human experience must be of a nature different from and additional to, the blessedness that would have belonged to humanity had it only realized that for which it was made. It is God's peace because it is by God's grace that it is possible, by the gift of His Son that it is procured, by the application of His truth that it is produced. It consists of forgiveness of sin, peace of conscience, deliverance from wrath, which man, had he continued upright, would not have needed.

3. Because it is that which is immediately produced by God's Spirit, and is thus a direct Divine donation. When Christ was about to leave His sorrowing disciples He promised that He would send them "another comforter," and then He adds, as if interpreting His meaning, "Peace I leave with you," etc. And so "the fruit of the Spirit is...peace." "May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing, through the power of the Holy Ghost."

4. Because it is sustained and nourished by those acts which bring the soul in contact with God — meditation on His truth, trust in His promises, prayer and praise, song and sacrament.

II. IT PASSETH ALL UNDERSTANDING. There is nothing unphilosophical in this. Mystery surrounds us. We are incessantly met with ultimate facts whose being and agency we are bound to admit, but which none of us can understand. In the natural laws of the mind, in things connected with our own consciousness, there are matters about which we can only say that they are. Surely, then, it is not wonderful that this should be so in religious life. His peace —

1. Passes the understanding of the man of the world. The very terms and phrases by which it is expressed are "foolishness" unto them, or repugnant, or unintelligible. In listening to the sober statements of a Christian man, if restrained by courtesy, they are silent, but incredulous and perhaps pitiful: if not restrained they reject the whole thing with contempt as cant or jargon. Nor is this wonderful. Many things connected with art, taste, science, and philosophy, can be understood only through the medium of experience. And so to him who is destitute of religious experience, the very language of religion must be incomprehensible.

2. It passes the understanding of the Christian himself.(1) Light sometimes gushes into the intellect, filling it with clear apprehensions of truth, and an impression of its power in a manner perfectly inexplicible. The man, all on a sudden, is filled with joy and peace from seeing matters of faith after he had been toiling in doubt and darkness, and was just on the point of abandoning forever.(2) In the same way the burden of guilt has been lifted, the troubled conscience calmed. The blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven has come like an angel of God.(3) It has been thus, too, with taste and affection; by a sudden transition, the reckless and impure have become like unto a little child.(4) So, too, in things of great and terrible afflictions. Christians have been kept in such calm peace as has been a perfect amazement to themselves.(5) And so, too, in the ordinary course of the Christian life.

3. It passes the understanding of angels. The inward joys of hope and faith are associated with redemption and "into these things angels desire to look."

III. IT KEEPS THE HEART AND MIND. The word is used only in three other places, 2 Corinthians 11:32, where the words "with a garrison" are included in the word that stands for "kept;" Galatians 3:23, where we have the idea of a sort of strong room, or protected custody; 1 Peter 1:5, where it is "preserved as in a fortress." The general import of the statement is that the experience of religious life is the most powerful preservative of the happiness and virtue of man. Trouble and sin by the peace of God are cast out of the soul and kept out. "Heart and mind," however discriminated, include every, faculty of the inner man.

1. Suppose an attack be made on a man's belief, and dark clouds of doubt overspread the mind, I do not say that he need not go to his books and arguments, but I do say that the portable evidence of Christianity in his own experience of its power will often do more to reveal the hollowness of sceptical suggestions than all the learning of the schools. Nay, the peace of God as a felt possession will prevent the rising and entrance of the doubt itself, or will instantly repel it.

2. If the memory of his old sins comes to disturb the tranquillity of his conscience he will, of course, be humbled at the thought of this; but the counter recollection of the peace and joy he had in believing will prove a protection from what would break his peace. And here again the possession of peace will prevent the rising or entrance of that into the soul which would throw it back again on hopelessness and despair. "I know whom I have believed." "I will trust and not be afraid."

3. In like manner the peace of God will "guard" the heart against murmuring and anxiety, fear and distrust in relation to the affairs of life. "Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice."

4. It is a preservative, strong and sure, against all sin. The religiously happy are the morally strong. Duty is pleasant because the mind is in joyous harmony with God's requirements.(1) It keeps the heart by keeping its volatile affections, not permitting them to go forth to twine themselves round anything forbidden.(2) Sin is resisted from the knowledge that it will damage the peace of the soul.(3) When this peace dilates the soul it is not easy for the devil to put in a temptation. A rich man cannot be tempted to steal; a sober man is not tempted by the sight of a tavern. So with the spiritually happy man; what might overcome others is nothing to him. He is raised above them, and the peace of God shields him from their influence.

IV. THROUGH CHRIST JESUS. He is the object of faith and the sole medium of spiritual influence. In virtue of His work on earth we obtain peace at first; and if, as justified, any man sin, it is by His work in heaven that peace is restored.

(T. Binney, LL. D.)

I. ITS NATURE. Not self-denial, exertion, or watchfulness, but peace; enjoyment and repose in enjoyment. A calm which not only quiets the soul amid the tumult of the storm, but keeps it quiet. But "there is no peace to the wicked." They are like "a troubled sea when it cannot rest." This peace is the result of a change in man's state and character; the effect of a reconciliation between him and heaven. When this transpires man can look on God as his Friend, expect victory in temptation, a refuge in perils, strength in weakness, comfort in affliction, safety in death, heaven, and, in heaven, God.

II. ITS AUTHOR — God.

1. The work of saving mercy on which it rests is only His. He provides mercy and induces its acceptance.

2. He communicates that peace which flows from a sense of pardon. This is not the result of reasoning or self-examination, it is the gift of that God who fills us "with all joy and peace in believing."

III. ONE OF ITS PROPERTIES. A peace thus Divine in its origin must partake in some degree of the lofty nature of its Author, and in that degree must be incomprehensible.

1. It passes the understanding of those who are strangers to it. They who have not experienced it can know nothing of its character. Not that it is visionary or enthusiastic — nothing can be so rational and real; there is no other that will bear any serious reflection at all. And this peculiarity is not confined to this or any other spiritual blessing. The man of intellect may talk of the delight he experiences in the acquisition of knowledge, but his words convey no distinct idea to his ignorant neighbour. Tell a deaf man of the harmonies of music, or a blind man of the beauty of the world!

2. Those who enjoy it most cannot fully comprehend it. They are sensible of it, and find their hearts quieted and purified by it; but how did it come into the heart? Why is it at times so unspeakably sweet and strong? All they can say is, it "passeth understanding," and perhaps an inhabitant of heaven cannot say more. We may all, however, comprehend its effects.

IV. ONE OF THESE EFFECTS.

1. It keeps the heart.(1) In temptation by satisfying it. It triumphs over the pleasures of sense by communicating higher pleasures.(2) In affliction. It is a pledge of the special love of God to the soul, and as such it begets confidence in Him. Let a worldly man lose his earthly comforts and he has lost all; but let a man of God lose what he may his chief treasure is safe.

2. It keeps the mind.(1) It settles the judgment, and informs and elevates the understanding by showing it, in the light of spiritual blessedness, the measure and poverty of all temporal good.(2) It keeps the mind from folly, new and strange notions, sceptical doubt and error. The man who has it has "the witness in himself." Tell him that the Bible is not true, his religion a fable! You might as well tell him in the broad light of day that there is no sun.

V. ITS SOURCE AND INSTRUMENTALITY. The apostle had been inculcating freedom from anxiety and care; but lest the Philippians should seek in this the fountain of their peace he here adds "in Christ Jesus." This peace has God for its author and giver, but it flows, to us through His Son.

1. It is one of the blessed fruits of His obedience, sufferings, and intercession.

2. It dwells also in Him as the head of the Church, the royal treasury of all precious gifts.

3. It is dispersed by Him through the agency of the Spirit.

(C. Bradley, M. A.)

I. THAT WHICH KEEPS THE HEART AND MIND.

1. The peace of God, the peace existing between the child of God and his Judge through his Saviour, from whence flows peace of conscience.

2. This peace passeth all understanding.(1) See how it keeps those who are in the depth of poverty while many rich are distracted.(2) The bereaved, when those who have Dot suffered are gnawed with fear.(3) The confessors, Luther, Huss, Bradford — while popes and kings tremble.

II. HOW IS THIS PEACE TO BE OBTAINED. This promise has precepts (see ver. 4).

1. Rejoice ever more. The man who never rejoices is always murmuring. Cultivate a cheerful disposition.

2. Be moderate. Merchant, you cannot push that speculation too far, and have peace of mind. Young man, you cannot be trying so fast to rise in the world, and have the fear of God. You must be moderate in anger, in expectations, etc.

3. Be careful for nothing, etc. If you tell your troubles to God you put them into the grave. If you roll them anywhere else they will roll back again like the stone of Sisyphus. Cast your troubles where you have cast your sins, into the depths of the sea.

III. HOW THIS PEACE KEEPS THE HEART.

1. It keeps the heart full of that love which casteth out all fear.

2. It keeps the heart pure, without the least relish for sin, which is the soul's disturbance.

3. It keeps it undivided, and thus saves it from distraction.

4. It keeps it rich, and thus renders it secure from anxiety.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

1. Real; not the delusive calm of a hollow truce, nor the deceitful tranquillity of stolid indifference and thoughtless apathy. An ice-bound river is at peace; a motionless corpse. In true peace there is life and activity as well as rest.

2. Great (Psalm 119:165; Isaiah 54:13) in its foundation, author, effect.

3. Abundant (Jeremiah 33:6), flowing in many channels, and filling the heart (Romans 15:13).

4. Abiding; secure and certain, a peace that lives independently of circumstances, "which the world can neither give nor take away," the unruffled undercurrent, beneath the grounds well of the Christian's sorrows; a peace not often disturbed, and never finally overthrown.

5. Incomprehensive, both to the men of this world and saints of God as well.

(G. S. Bowes, B. A.)

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

(H. W. Beecher)

(Dean Vaughan.)

(J. B. Mozley, D. D.)

(Dean Vaughan.)

(H. W. Beecher.)

(Matthew Henry.)

1. Truth in word, etc.

2. Honour, integrity and purity in conduct.

3. Whatever is beautiful and praiseworthy in behaviour.

II. ITS MOTIVES. Apostolical.

1. Precept.

2. Example.

III. ITS ADVANTAGES.

1. The presence of the God of peace.

2. The peace He gives.

(J. Lyth, D. D.)

I. TO FIX OUR FULL AND DETERMINATE THOUGHT UPON PERFECTION. The word is often used to signify due appreciation, and it bids us here with strong emphasis estimate rightly the place morality holds in the gospel.

1. It was the glory of the apostle's career to proclaim everywhere that for the sake of the sacrifice of the Cross the vilest transgressors repenting and believing in Jesus were assured of forgiveness and reputed as righteous. But it became the hard necessity of his life to have to defend it against perversion. The enemy everywhere followed him, sowing tares. The abuse which taught men to sin that grace might abound was the subject of his ceaseless protest. In the former part of this Epistle he had dwelt on the worthlessness of all good works as the ground of the sinner's acceptance: and because he had so utterly disparaged human goodness in the third chapter, he now in the fourth vindicates the claims of Christian godliness. On the way to the Cross think not of any good in yourself; on the way from the Cross think of all the obligations of holiness.

2. For all the provisions of grace have their issue in our moral perfection. Renouncing our own righteousness which is of the law, we are to attain a righteousness of faith, which in another sense must be "our own." Pardon is the removal of an obstruction to holiness. The grace of God that bringeth salvation teaches us to aspire to all good works.

II. TO PONDER ITS UNLIMITED VARIETY OF OBLIGATIONS.

1. The apostle exhorts us to train our minds to a high and refined sense of this. It is true that the regenerate are taught of God, and have the Spirit to guide them; but this is not to supersede the use of their own faculties. The Bible shows us "what is good" in its great principles, but leaves us to find out their illimitable application.

2. The object of this study is excellence according to all its standards. "Whatsoever things" suggests that every Christian virtue has its own unlimited field of study. What a boundless field, e.g., is truth.

3. The result of this constant study is the education of the spiritual taste into a high pitch of delicacy. The Christian's standard of truth, dignity, etc., becomes higher than that of other men. Here lies the secret of the difference between Christian and Christian, between careless professors who are always stumbling themselves, and a cause of offence to others, and the educated disciples who adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour. Receive this exhortation and you will come by degrees so accurate in your moral judgment as never to fail, and be in the best sense, "a law unto yourselves."

III. TO GIVE IT THE FERVENT DESIRE OF OUR MEDITATION. The "thinking" signifies that intent contemplation of perfection which feeds the soul's regenerate longing to attain it.

1. Mark with what exquisite skill the elements of perfection are combined into one lovely whole. We must look steadily at this assemblage of ethical graces until we are enkindled with its loveliness.

2. And as the Christian is exhorted to delight in the thought of perfection as the aggregate of all excellencies, so also he must make every individual principle the object of affectionate contemplation. How beautiful are truth, religious dignity, etc.

3. As the virtues of holiness are displayed in the Word of God, to think of them is to meditate on it. "O how I love Thy law." To the soul that hungers and thirsts after righteousness, the Bible is an everlasting delight.

4. Moreover, such an insatiate student delights to consider the lives of these who have gone before him in the narrow way — Christ the supreme standard and pattern of the result; Paul and others as examples of the process. Those who, like ourselves, have had to travel through all the stages of the ascent from sin to holiness leave their example for our encouragement. But while we imitate them we must aspire to Him.

IV. TO MAKE IT OUR PRACTICAL CONCERN. Let not thinking end, but turn your meditations to practice.

1. Generally there is to be nothing visionary in our religion. Hence the abrupt "do." There is a sentimental religion which thinks loftily and talks magniloquently about virtue, but ends there. Our religion must not be a barren homage to the saintly qualities of others. What man has been man may be, by the grace of God, even though the man may have been a Paul.

2. Every scriptural ideal of excellence may be realized in practice. The pagan writers had their noble ideals, but nowhere outside the Bible is there such a consummate standard as this. And then, again, the highest moralists who sate not at the feet of Jesus despaired of their own teaching, imperfect as it was, "unless indeed," as one said, "God should become incarnate to teach us." Christianity alone has the golden link between thought and practice.

3. As thinking must not terminate in itself, so practice must be the diligent regulation of our life according to all the principles of holiness. There is a sense, indeed, in which our religion from beginning to end is God's work; but the formation of Christian character is our own task under His blessing, and its perfection is conferred upon us, not as a gift simply, but as the seal upon our efforts, and their exceeding great reward.

4. We must work out our own salvation by governing our lives according to these holy principles particularly. If we would be perfectly true we must act out the truth in thought, word, and deed; so with dignity, etc.

V. TO THINK OF IT WITH THE PEACEFUL CONFIDENCE OF HOPE. There can be no encouragement more mighty than that the God of Peace shall be with us.

1. God will be with us animating our pursuit by the assurance of reconciliation. There is no spirit for the pursuit unless we know that the guilty past is pardoned. The heart must be enlarged if we would run in the way of His commandments; and don't narrow it and impede your progress by permitted sin.

2. God will be with us crowning our effort. Peace is the full sum of His heavenly blessing. "Great peace have they who love His law." Others may have a transient joy and superficial excitement.

(W. B. Pope, D. D.)

(T. Guthrie, D. D.)

(T. Guthrie, D. D.)

I. Observe THE ENTIRENESS OF THE APOSTLE'S LANGUAGE. "Whatsoever things." It has sometimes been supposed that different regions of goodness might be separated from each other; religion from morality; truth from beauty. Paul recognizes no such distinction. He who furthers one truth incidentally furthers all others.

II. Note how ALL THE REGIONS OF GOODNESS FIT INTO EACH OTHER. Paul, trained in Greek learning, would be familiar with the classical debates respecting the true, the beautiful, and the good. The Greek asserted that the supreme object of pursuit was the beautiful. His soul was so enwrapt in sensuous beauty, that he could recognize the good only in it. The highest object of admiration to the Roman was what was just. So some think now that the highest good is only to be found in truth, scientific facts; others in the noble and self-denying; in the romantic aspect of things. Paul discourages no forms of goodness, and would welcome it whether in myth, legend, song, art, nature, domestic life.

III. THE TRUE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER CONSISTS NOT IN THE MERE ABSENCE OF EVIL BUT IN THE POSSESSION AND CULTIVATION OF THE GOOD. So dwell on "these things" as to make them your own. Your soul was made for them, and in nothing lower can it be happy. Only by thinking on them can their opposites be cast out. Darkness is only to be expelled by light, impurity by holiness, the love of sin by the love of God — in individuals or communities.

(R. M. Stewart.)