| J.R. Miller D.D. | Page 9 |
But there is another part of the secret of peace which it is also important for us to learn. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.” There is something for us to do. There is no doubt that God has power to keep us in perfect peace. He is omnipotent, and his strength is a defense and a shelter to all who hide in him. But even God will never compel us into submission – we must yield ourselves to him. Even omnipotence will not gather us into its invincible shelter by force – we must be willing in the day of God’s power.
All we need to do is to stay our minds upon God. That means to trust him, to rest in him, to nestle in his love. We remember where John was found the night of the Lord’s last supper with his disciples, the darkest night the world ever saw, the deepest sorrow men ever knew, – he was leaning on Jesus’ breast. He crept into that holy shelter to find quiet. He reposed all his weight upon the infinite love which beat in that bosom. John was kept in perfect peace during all those terrible hours. Everything appeared to have slipped away and there was nothing that seemed abiding. But John crept into the shelter of love and simply trusted, and was kept in holy peace.
A beautiful story is told of Rudyard Kipling during a serious illness a few years since. The trained nurse was sitting at his bedside on one of the anxious nights when the sick man’s condition was most critical. She was watching him intently and noticed that his lips began to move. She bent over him, thinking he wished to say something to her. She heard him whisper very softly the words of the old familiar prayer of childhood, “Now I lay me down to sleep.” The nurse, realizing that her patient did not require her services, and that he was praying, said in apology for having intruded upon him, “I beg your pardon, Mr. Kipling; I thought you wanted something.” “I do,” faintly replied the sick man; “I want my heavenly Father. He only can care for me now.” In his great weakness there was nothing that human help could do, and he turned to God and crept into his bosom, seeking the blessing and the care which none but God can give. That is what we need to do in every time of danger, of trial, of sorrow, – when the gentlest human love can do nothing, creep into our heavenly Father’s bosom, saying, “Now I lay me down to sleep.” That is the way to peace. Earth has no shelter in which it can be found, but in God the feeblest may find it.
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