deep subject. Perhaps the less we speculate and dog- matize about it the better. Our Lord was one who never spoke a word without a meaning, and we need not doubt there was a meaning here. Yet may we not reverently suppose that He desired to leave on the minds of His disciples a strong impression of his entire unity with the Father ? Seldom does our Lord lay claim to such high dignity, and such power of giving and sup- plying comfort to His Church, as in this discourse. Was there not, then, a fitness in His continually reminding His disciples that in all His giving He was one with the Father, and did nothing without the Father ? This, at any rate, seems a fair conjecture. Let it be taken for what it is worth.
We should observe, for one thing, in this passage, Chrisfs last legacy to His people. We find Him saying, " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you ; not as the world giveth give I unto you."
Peace is Christ's peculiar gift : not money, not worldly ease, not temporal prosperity. These are at •best very questionable possessions. They often do more harm than good to the soul. They act as clogs and weights to our spiritual life. Inward peace of con- science, arising from a sense of pardoned sin and recon- ciliation with God, is a far greater blessing. This peace is the property of all believers, whether high or low, rich or poor.
The peace which Christ gives He calls "my peace." It is specially His own to give, because He bought it by His own blood, purchased it by His own substitution, and is appointed by the Father to dispense it to a per- ishing world. Just as Joseph was sealed and commis- sioned to give corn to the starving Egyptians, so is Christ specially commissioned, in the counsels of the Eternal Tiinity, to give peace to mankind.