And mocks the song Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: \ " God is not dead ; nor doth He sleep I The Wrong shall fail, The Eight prevail, With peace on earth, good- will to men!"^
(4) The 'peace of a solaced life. — ^We are not allowed to live our life untempted, untroubled. There are stern factors in human experience. There was a shadow even on the cradle of the World's Kedeemer, and the shadows are thick on the lives of many. We are mariners, and while sometimes it is fair sailing, at others fierce euroclydons threaten us with wholesale wreckage. There are times when life seems almost unendurable. The troubles of our hearts are enlarged, hell attacks us with unwonted ferocity, the world seems cold and callous, sorrow grips us like a tiger as if it would draw our last drop of blood. Bereavement sucks all the sunshine out of our landscape, tramples on our sweetest flowers, silences voices which gave us cheer. Alas ! alas ! for the riddles of this painful earth. Well, blessed be God, here again Christ is more than precious. He understands us perfectly. Has He not been in the thickest shadows ? Has He not braved the dreadest storms ? Has He not fought the gravest battles? He brings peace to the earth. Wet eyes He touches with kindly hand, broken hearts He comforts and heals, desolate homes He cheers by His presence, reeling lives He steadies and supports by His grace, and in life's gravest vicissitudes He affords us the secret of tranquillity.
^ Peace is more than joy : it is love's latest boon, and her fairest. I hesitate to speak of it: I know so little what it is. ^ H. W. Longfellow, Christmas Bells.
ST. LUKE II. 13, 14 59
One may have love in a measure, and joy many times, and yet be but a raw scholar in this art of peace. The speaker here, methinks, should be one far on in pilgrimage; or, if young in years, old and well-stricken in grace. " Well-stricken," whether the rod have been heavy or light; weaned and quieted, like a child, from a child ; or, though it " have burned the hair and bent the shoulders," still weaned and quieted. "Peace," what is it? It is what remains in the new heart when joy has subsided. Love, that is the new heart's action, its beat ; joy its counter- beat ; peace is the balance, the equilibrium of the heart, its even posture, its settled attitude. It is neither the tide going, nor the tide flowing, but the placid calm when the tide is full, and the soft sea-levels poise themselves and shine — poise themselves because there is such fulness within them ; shine because there is so much serenity above them.^
2. Have we any proper sense and feeling of this good-will ? If we have, we shall be humble, inasmuch as we are saved, not by our merits, but by the love of God, in spite of our manifold demerits. We shall be thankful; for surely kindness like this ought to fill our hearts with gratitude. God's love toward us should beget in us love toward Him. Above all, we should be full of faith, trusting that He who has begun so excellent a work will bring the same to good effect ; that He who for our sakes gave His only Son to live a poor and humble life, and to die a painful and shameful death, will together with that Son freely give us all things. We cannot suppose it was a pleasure to the Son of God to suffer the pains of infancy, the labours and mortifications and trials of manhood, the pangs of a cruel death. It was no pleasure to Him to quit the glories of heaven, in order to dwell in lowliness and contempt. Why then did He undergo all this ? From good- will, to save man. And think you He will leave this salvation imperfect, and so render His incarnation, and birth, and human life and death, of no avail ? 0 no ! He must desire to finish His work ; He must be anxious to make up the crown He has toiled and bled for, by placing in it all the jewels all the souls, He can gather. He will never be wanting to us, if we are not wanting to ourselves.
T[ Think of it — The love of God ! We use those words very often, and get no comfort from them, but think what human love
» E. W. Barbour, Thoughts, 2.
6o THE SONG OF THE HEAVENLY HOST
means, — a perfect oneness of sympathy and will with any near friends, and imagine that purified and intensified to Infinitude ! The depth of our misery now is to me a witness of the immensity of the blessing that makes all this worth while.^
3. If we look closely at the expression " men in whom he is well pleased," we shall observe that this striking and remarkable description of men is parallel with the words used by the Father at the baptism of Jesus Christ. As Christ rose from the Jordan the Toice of the Eternal said, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased " (Matt. iii. 17). In the text exactly the same phrase is used of men. God is " well pleased in " men as He is " well pleased in " His beloved Son.