“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.”[586]
“These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”[587]
“If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.”[588]
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”[589]
“Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
“Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”[590]
“From our fathers to us the good tidings descend,
From us to our children agen;
Unrestrain’d as the sun, and as lasting, they blend
All the nations and ages of men.
Good news of great joy to all people, they speak
At once to the learn’d and the rude,
To barbarian and Scythian, the Jew and the Greek,
Nor country nor person exclude.
From the man who goes forth to his labour by day,
To the woman his help-meet at home;
From the child that delights in his infantine play,
To the old on the brink of the tomb;
From the bridal companions, the youth and the maid,
To the train on the death-pomp that wait;
From the rich in fine linen and purple array’d,
To the beggar that lies at his gate:
To all is the ensign of blessedness shown,
To the dwellers in vale or on hill,
Alike to the monarch who sits on his throne,
And the bond-man who toils at the mill;
High and low, rich and poor, young and old, one and all,
Earth’s sojourners, dead and alive,
Who perish’d by Adam, our forefather’s fall,
Shall in Jesus the Saviour revive.
Not an ear, that those tidings of welfare can meet,
But to it doth that welfare belong:
Then those tidings with rapture what ear shall not greet,
What tongue shall not echo the song?
All hail to the Saviour! all hail to the Lord!
God and Man in one person combined!
The Father’s Anointed! by Angels adored!
The Hope and Delight of mankind!”[591]