Have we this righteousness? Have we it in heart, in sympathy, in life? If not, we are on the side of unrighteousness. We are insecure. We need to be born again. O seek to possess and extend it.—J. Rawlinson.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] We may see this in human things. When a parent does not uphold order and law in his family, there will be no peace in that family. When a government does not uphold order and law in a nation, there will be no peace in that nation. They are to be upheld mercifully indeed; but still they are to be upheld. Now in man both are imperfect, both his righteousness and his mercy; and therefore they are ever jarring. Sometimes he will lean to the one, sometimes to the other; and so neither produces the work of peace. But in God both are at one: neither shall hinder, neither can give way to the other. Sooner shall the heavens split, like a breaking wave, into foam, and melt away, than the slightest shadow of anything that is not perfectly righteous shall pass over the righteousness of God. Accordingly it could only be when perfect mercy and perfect truth met together, that righteousness and mercy could kiss each other. And thus alone shall any ever enjoy perfect peace, when they have received the full forgiveness of their sins from the perfect mercy of God, and are clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. Even in heaven there can be no peace, except it be the work of righteousness.—Hare.
[2] When He teaches us that the eye of God is ever watching over us, and the hand of God ever providing over us,—when He commands us to pray to God with confidence as to our heavenly Father, and to make all our wants and wishes known to Him,—hereby, if we give heed to His bidding, He at once hushes all those never-ending, still-beginning anxieties, which are the thorns and thistles planted by the curse in the human heart. When He teaches us to love our neighbours, and to forgive, nay, to love our enemies, He roots up all the cause which destroy peace and breed quarrels between man and man. Every passion that we subdue is so much gain to our peace; for every passion is a peacebreaker. Covetousness, ambition, lust, drunkenness, vanity, pride are peacebreakers. All these passions set us at variance with neighbours; all of them set us at variance with ourselves. Whereas, contentment, temperance, sobriety, chastity, modesty, meekness are peacemakers.—Hare.
The Peaceful Habitation.
xxxii. 18. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation.[1]
No doubt “the peaceable habitation” is found in moral dispositions created within by Divine grace. Here is, 1st. The Chamber of Holiness. Oh, the sweet tranquillity of a holy life! 2. Here is the hallowed Chamber of Resignation to the Divine will. If the soul is, by Divine grace, able to be still in the midst of temptation, it will also be still in the midst of personal trial. 3. Here is Trust in God’s providence. This is the observatory, and like all observatories, it is high and clear. Other observatories boast that from them you may see the stars in the day-time; but from this, you may see the sun in the night-time.—E. Paxton Hood: Dark Sayings on a Harp, pp. 361–368.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See [Characteristics of the Church of Christ,] ch. xxxiii. 20.