^ Amos Barton, in George Eliot's Scenes of Clerical Life, had been an affectionate husband . . . but now that Milly was laid in the grave he re-lived all their life together, with that terrible keenness of memory and imagination which bereavement gives, and he felt as if his very love needed a pardon for its poverty and selfishness. What, then, must our love seem like when it is compared with the Love Divine ? If any man will bring his life — even the best part of it — to the Light in which is no darkness at all, he will have enough discovered to be much forgiven.^
^ Principal Shairp, in Letters of Thomas Ershine of Linlathen, 378.
2 H. W. Mabie, The Life of the Sjnrit, 24.
' G. S. "Walker, The Pictures of the Divine Artist, 79.
I90 FORGIVENESS
III.
The Peace of Forgiveness.
1. "Go in peace." The phraseology employed is not the ordinary phraseology of that familiar Old Testament leave-taking salutation which was the "good-bye" of the Hebrews — "Go in peace." But we read occasionally in the Old Testament a slight but eloquent variation. It is not " Go in peace," as our Authorized Version has it, but " Go into peace " ; and that is a great deal more than the other. "Go in peace" refers to the momentary emotion ; " Go into peace " seems, as it were, to open the door of a great palace, to let down the barrier on the borders of a land, and to send the person away upon a journey through all the extent of that blessed country. Jesus Christ takes up this as He does a great many very ordinary conventional forms, and puts a meaning into it. Eli had said to Hannah, " Go into peace." Nathan had said to David, " Go into peace." But Eli and Nathan could only wish that it might be so ; their wish had no power to realize itself. Christ takes the water of the conventional salutation and turns it into the wine of a real gift. When He says " Go into peace," He puts the person into the peace which He wishes him, and His word is like a living creature, and fulfils itself.
2. We continue in peace by continuing in the life of faith. For peace, like pardon, is dependent on faith. If we would enjoy continuous peace, we must exercise continuous faith. The two things will cover precisely the same ground, and where the one stops the other will stop. Yesterday's faith does not secure to-day's peace. As long as I hold up the shield of faith, it will quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, but if I were holding it up yesterday and have dropped it to-day, then there is nothing between me and them, and I shall be wounded and burned before long. No past religious experience avails for present needs. If you would have your peace to be " as the waves of the sea," your trust in Christ must be continuous and strong. The moment you cease trusting, that moment you cease being peaceful. Keep behind the breakwater, and you will ride smoothly, whatever the
ST. LUKE VII. 50 191
storm. Venture out beyond it, and you will be exposed to the dash of the waves and the howling of the tempest. Your own past tells you where the means of blessing are. It was your faith that saved you, and it is as you go on believing that you " go into peace."
3. The gift of peace does not carry with it exemption from life's struggle. But although the upper waters of the ocean may be brushed by the breeze, or even violently disturbed by the tempest, where the ocean is deep the depths are unmoved. Trust in God deepens the spiritual life ; it carries it down into the heart of things. It is by it that duty loses a certain hardness which sometimes repels us, however much we acknowledge its dignity and its claim ; it is by it that the varying experiences of life come to us with the real force of teaching. The past is no empty story for us, viewed only with regret ; the present is no chance condi- tion of things, to which we give no patient thought. We are sure that there is a Providence which has been ordering all things well, even though its purposes of love have sometimes been thwarted by our sins. And thus our trust deepens our repent- ances, makes our confessions more searching and sincere ; or, even when we are dissatisfied with our confessions and repentances, enables us with loving confidence to feel sure that, as we know our intentions are right, all that is wanting will be supplied from the merits of our Master's Passion and from the treasures of His grace.
' ^ Christian faith does not wriggle out of the responsibilities that attach to a human life, but it does bring in the thought of a mighty hand that guides and protects ; and that itself brings calm and gladness. The advanced guard that had to be all eyes and ears is glad to slip into the rear, and let somebody else take the task of finding the path and looking out for the enemy. The ofificer that has had charge of the great ship as it ploughs its way through the stormy night feels a lightened burden when he comes down from the bridge, and knows that there is somebody else on the look-out. You fathers have got far more anxious faces than your little children have, because they trust, and you are re- sponsible for them. And though it is no pillow for laziness, yet it is an anodyne for anxiety, when we remember that if our " believing " grasps God in Christ, it is His business to look after us; and we may leave ourselves in His hands. So there will