^ Placed in the midst of Europe, the Emperor was to bind its races into one body, reminding them of their common faith, their common blood, their common interest in each other's welfare. And he was therefore, above all things, claiming indeed to be upon earth the representative of the Prince of Peace, bound to listen to complaints, and to redress the injuries inflicted by sovereigns or peoples upon each other ; to punish offenders against the public order of Christendom; to maintain through the world, looking down as from a serene height upon the schemes and quarrels of meaner potentates, that supreme good without which neither arts nor letters, nor the gentler virtues of life, can rise and flourish. The mediaeval Empire was in its essence what its modern imitators have sometimes professed themselves : the Empire was Peace : the oldest and noblest title of its head was " Imperator Pacificus." ^
1. What then is this peace ? Let us understand it as a four- fold personal peace.
(1) The]peaceofanillumined life. — No one can canvass the world's literature, listen to his fellows, or interrogate his own heart, and be unaware how chafed and bewildered men are apart from Christ. We are capable of thought, but our reflexions are at times of a mutinous and melancholy order. We appeal to what we call the
* J. Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, 264.
54 THE SONG OF THE HEAVENLY HOST
master-minds of the world, but as we note the earnest, far-away- look in their eyes, the pallor on their countenances, the grave lines which thought has carved on their foreheads, and the note of interrogation which is ever and anon upon their lips, we are distressed to find that the secret of peace is not in dreaming, inquiring, speculating. We listen to science, and it seems to clash with all our best thoughts and feelings. We feel that there is a God, and it smiles at our weakness and whispers. No, only a Force; we feel that we are greater than we seem, and it talks seriously of matter as though we were only that ; we feel we ought to pray, and it laughs at our credulity ; we feel that our life is unending, and it points with cruel finger to the grave. Science does not calm us ; it chafes us. Where, then, can peace be found ? Not in ignorance, for darkness evermore distresses ; not in super- stition, for error is disquieting; not in unbelief, for men have flung away rare and long-cherished beliefs for the incertitudes of intellectual charlatans, only to find that peace has deserted them ; not in literature, for many a book is only the foam of a storm- lashed mind, and not a few are the progeny of a diseased pessimism ; not in the voices of the world, for strife of tongues is sadly discomposing. Then where ? Thank Heaven, fooled though we be everywhere else, and disappointed with the pretty lanterns which men have hung out to lighten the gloom, we hear the voice of Jesus say, " Come unto me and rest," and peace steals over us as He gives His gracious and sufficing answers to our sundry questions.
^ I had a deep peace which seemed to pervade the whole soul, and resulted from the fact that all my desires were fulfilled in God. I feared nothing ; that is, considered in its ultimate results and relations, because my strong faith placed God at the head of all perplexities and events. I desired nothing but what I now had, because I had a full belief that, in my present state of mind, the results of each moment constituted the fulfilment of the Divine purposes. I do not mean to say that I was in a state in which I could not be afflicted. My physical system, my senses, had not lost the power of suffering. My natural sensibilities were susceptible of being pained. Oftentimes I suftered much. But in the centre of the soul, if I may so express it, there was Divine and supreme peace. The soul, considered in its connexion with the objects immediately around it, might at times be troubled
ST. LUKE II. 13, 14 55
and afflicted ; but the soul, considered in its relation to God and the Divine will, was entirely calm, trustful and happy. The trouble at the circumference, originating in part from a disordered physical constitution, did not affect and disturb the Divine peace of the centre.^
^ At the close of a sermon on the words, " The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep (Gr. shall keep as by soldiers in a fortress) your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus," Dr. Duncan came up to the preacher with his own summary of the text, clinching it with his sharp incisive " What ? " — his constant mode of eliciting assent to a sentence which in his own judgment was both justly conceived and rightly worded. His beautiful paraphrase of the text was this : " Christ Jesus is the garrison, and Peace is the sentinel." ^
(2) The peace of a purified life. — We have had fair dreams of a peace which passeth all understanding. We have looked on the sea when it has been beautifully placid : of thunder there was none, but the waters made a murmuring music as they broke in cresting waves upon the beach. Can my life be like that ? This imagination, can it be saved from the base dreams which are fatal to its pleasure ? This memory, digging open long-closed graves and giving a resurrection to painful and hideous incidents, can it ever be satisfied ? This conscience, may I ever hope for the silencing of its accusatory voices, the stilhng of this inward thunder? This soul, which has so sadly damaged and deranged itself, can its equilibrium and equanimity ever be restored ? Thank God, yes ; in Jesus Christ we may find life and peace. Too impotent to emancipate ourselves from our bitter past, to free ourselves from the burden of our sin, to rectify our self-inflicted wrongs, to dispose of the disabilities which are the fruit of our unrighteous- ness. He comes to our conscience, to pardon our iniquity, to change our nature, to renew our hearts. " Peace on earth " ; yes, that is the meaning of Bethlehem and the story of the great humiliation ; that is the teaching of Calvary, with its all-sufficient sacrifice ; we have peace through the blood of the Cross, and only through that blood.