made In the Lord Jesus Christ. He is prophesied or as the Prince of Peace. He was the Teacher of peace. He is our Peace. He knew the peace passing understanding. His peace was the peace of God, for it also came from inward harmony, from aboveness, and from the intertwinings or righteousness and love. But it also was, characteristically, man's peace. It was such a peace of mind and heart as we may know; and from Christ we may learn what its sources are. Man, too, may reach the restfulness of inward harmony. Man, too, may rise above the petty disturbances of life. Man, too, ma.y win the perfect rule of righteousness and love. But it is Christ who teaches us, and shows us how, and gives us strength to win. He reveals the three great sources of peace for man, and they are found to be these-trust, submission, and obedience. 'frust that sa.ys, "The Lord knoweth the way that I take." Submission that says, "The Lord gave, and the Lord ha.th taken away." Obedience that says, "My meat and my drink is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." These are the sources of peace for man, for they were the sources of peace for man's Head, the "Man Christ Jesus." Nay, but there is an earlier secret than this. In Christ, for man, is the great peace. Peace with God, before we can have peace in God, and Ro the peace of God ruling in our hearts. We "have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;" and his work in us involves such a change in us, such a moral regeneration and renewal, as can only find fitting activity in lives of peacefulness and "sweet reason- ableness." Yes, man can have God's peace; for he is a spiritual being, made in the image of God. Ue feelR like God. He thinks like God. He wills like God. He loves like God. And he can be at peace like God. All, indeed, within limitations and in narrow measures; but the passing clouds can find a true mirror in a. wa.yside pool a.s well as in a mighty mounta.in-la.ke. A dewdrop will hold the sun,;hine in its tiny ball; and the mighty forest oa.k will go into the limits of the acorn-seed. God can give his own eternal peace to man, his creature. He will give it, he does give it, to all who put their trust in him.-R. T. Ver. 4.-The call to continuous trust. "Trust ye in the Lord/or ever." Tbe words "for ever" in the prophetical books are a figure for "a.lwa.ys," "continuously," under a.11 conditions; even in times when trust seems to have no foundations we may keep on trusting, because our trust really is in God. I. WE CANNOT KEEP ON TRUBTIN0 IF OUR TRUST IS IN THINGS. "Tbe fashion of this world passeth away;" "Here we have no abiding city;" "Moth and rust corrupt, and thieves break through and stea.1." So often things will not be "according to our mind." Often we sadly say that "nothing is stable," and "we are sure of nothing." II. WE CANNOT KEEP ON TRUSTING IF OUR TRUST IS IN 111.AN. For the pain of life is our disappointment in our best-loved friends. Live on to old age, and we a.re almost alone; some are changed, and sor....J a.re dead, and some have proved unworthy. " Cease yo from ma.n." III. WE CANNOT KEEP ON TRUSTING IF OUR TRUST IS IN SELF, Tbe self-revela.tions which come with advancing years humble us in the dust. Youth can ha.ve its self- confidences, But man has lea.rued the life-lesson badly if he is not ready to say, " It is not in ma.n tha.t walketh to direct his steps." IV. WE 0AN KEEP ON TRUSTING IF OUR TRUST 18 IN JEHOVAH. For he is what he was; he will be what he is a.nd bas ever been. He is an '' everbsting Rock.• He has been abundantly proved. Secure and blessed always are they who put their trust in him.-R. T. Ver. 7 .-The level path of the good man. This verse would better read, " The way of the just is evenness; thou, most upright, dost mak1J even the path of the just." This suggests the two topics-(!) the prevailing feature of the good man's conduct; (2) the aid which God gives towards maintaining that feature. I. THE PREV AILINO FEATURE OF THE GOOD 111.AN'B CONDUCT-EVENNESS. The idea of the word may be expressed in New Testament language as "patient continuance in well-doing." The triumph of the good man's life is steady walking, never running, a.nd never dragaing, in the way of righteousness. Evenness may suggest "rectitude "-the ruling of all conduct and relations by the sensitiveness to that which is right and kind. Or it may suggest" consistency "-a. shaping of all actioDS into the harmony of godly T:HE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [oH, xxv1. 1-21
principles. Or it may suggest the correction of the varying experience, now of mountain heiirhts of emotion, and now of dark valleys of depression; the good man )earns to prefer the level road. Or it may suggest the quietness of the good man'e life. 1t flows on like t~e ~rn0<?th river, that never roars in flood, always breathing out its blessing, always 11mgmg its low sweet song, always moving on to the ocean of God. But to describe any man's life as evenness reminds us at once that evenness is somethin<•won • it is not sinful man's natural state, it is a triumph out of struggle. The man wh~ gain; it at last must have known much levelling of mountains, raising of valleys, and making rough places plain. 'l'bis may be illustrated by the labour and skill demanded in tho making of a good plain level road through a country of hills and marshes. Compare Bunyan's figure of the varied pilgrim-path of "Christian." Many of us can only say " Our path should be level, and we wish it were." ' IT. THE AID WHICH Goo GIVES TOWARDS MAINTAINING THIS FEATURE, We might have said, gaining and maintaining it; for only through grace can we win the true coni sistency of goodness, or continue in it. Isaiah comforts good people with the assurance that God is ever "making even" their path ; working with them, and working tl1rough them, to this good end. He removes stumbling-blocks which are too big for them. He reveals to them the things that make their way uneven. He maintains within theII1 the desire for righteousness. He guides every practical endP.avour. arter goodness. and charity. He makes the" plain pat.h for our feet." If any man would be holding fast his integrity, he may be sure that God's hand is upon his hand.-R. T. •