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I. THE PROMISED GIFT. "Peace." Not freedom from sorrow, not assured prosperity, not a certainty of success, but inward tranquillity, ease of heart, without which even prosperity would be a burden. Not the simulated contentment of indifference. Not the cynical self-complacency of moral blindness. Not the dull stupefaction of despair. There is peace —

1. Amid personal anxieties. These come to God's people as well as to the world. But the effects they produce in each are very different.

2. Amid the contests of the world. The nations are at strife. Good is at war with evil. The noblest institutions are threatened. Lawlessness stalks forth threatening all that is true. But the Christian has peace in his dwellings.

3. Amid the struggles of sin and the assaults of the evil one. The remorse of sin, the anxieties of sin, all disturb the soul, but here is peace.

4. In the conflicting emotions of sickness, the pain of death, and the realities of a future world.

II. THE CONDITION EXACTED. Faith. "Whose mind is stayed on Thee." This act assures us of the promise —

1. Because it is the carrying out of the Divine requirement. It is God's own condition, God's own plan, and unless that is complied with no man can hope to obtain the fulfilment of the promise.

2. Because it is in itself a calming, sanctifying act. The man who casts all his cares upon God, feels no responsibility resting on himself. He who leaves his sins on Christ ceases to trouble about the consequences of those sins, so far as he himself is concerned. The man who leaves all events in the hands of One who knows all, feels that whatever happens all is for the best. How can such feel anything but peace? The great thing wanting is the power to place such unreserved confidence on an unseen Being.

III. THE SAFE ASSURANCE. Thou wilt keep. Here is a sure ground of confidence — the promise and power of the Author and Ruler of the universe. "Thou."

1. Here is the source of all strength; He is therefore able.

2. Here is the source of all love; He is therefore willing.

3. He is the supplier of all comfort, the refuge of all the oppressed. If peace exists at all, surely It can be obtained from Him.

(Homilist.)

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KJV: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

WEB: You will keep whoever's mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you.