| J.R. Miller D.D. | Page 8 |
Our peace never can be more secure than that on which it depends. Our trust never can be more sure than that on which it leans. Only God is eternal, the same yesterday and today and forever, and only when we rest in God and trust in him can we have a peace which cannot be disturbed. “Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is an everlasting rock, a rock of ages.” When we are held in the clasp of his love, we are safe from any disturbance, for he is omnipotent; and our refuge is secure for ever, for he is from everlasting to everlasting.
We have the same teaching concerning the divine keeping in a passage in one of the epistles of St. Paul, in which he also give us the secret of peace. “The peace of God … shall guard your hearts and your thought in Christ Jesus.” The figure is military. Men sleep in quiet confidence in their tents, in the darkest night, in time of war, in the presence of the enemy, because sentinels wake and watch through all the darkness. God’s own peace keeps guard over our hearts and thoughts, so that nothing shall ever disturb us or alarm us. Nothing ever can disturb God. He looks without fear upon the wildest storms. He is never dismayed by things which seem to us calamitous. His infinite and eternal peace will guard us and keep us in the shelter of its own blessed quiet and calm.
This part of the great secret of peace which we are trying to learn: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace.” It is God’s omnipotence that keeps us. It is God’s Spirit who broods over the turbulent floods of life and brings order out of chaos. It is God’s Son who stands on the vessel, amid the wild storms, and compels them to become quiet and still at his feet. It is God’s grace that enters into the believer’s heart and abides there as a well of living water within, springing up into everlasting life. We cannot command our own spirit and compel it to be at rest, when sorrow or peril is on every side. God only can keep us in peaces. Nothing that is not infinite and eternal can be a safe and secure hiding place for an immortal life.
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