The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-01-21
"The Peace of God"

(Selected FOR The Tlmes-Dlspatch.)
Let the peace of God rule in your
hearts."-Col., ii:15.
The peace OF God. What is 1t? How
can we obtain It? Why do SO few have 1t :?
The peace of God is rare amongst u.s..
We live faster than our forefathers. VIC
hurry we hustle. we travel, We are
eager for daily. almost for hourly, news
from every quarter, as II the world could
not get on without US, and as ifthe great
God could not take care OF us all mean
while.
We are eager to get money. and more
money still. We are luxurious, more and
more fond of show; moro apt to live up
to our incomes (and perhaps beyond 10;
more craving for this or that gew-gaw
of one kind or another. Nay. so strong
Is this sense OF rivalry that we have made
nowadays a god OF what used to be con-
sidered the basest and lowest of all vices
the vice of envy-and dignity It with the
names of equality and independence. Men
in this state of mind cannot be at peace.
They are not nor can they be content.
There is discomfort which is certain.
sooner or later.,sto bring with it the
sweet peace of God, and there is q dis
content which forever drives 1t away.
The noble and peace-brlnging discomfort
Is when we are dissatisfied with our
selves Gas very few are). and the mean,
peace-destroying discomfort is when we
,
many of us do.
1t is for You to ask yourself: Am I ct
peace? And If not, apply to yourself
the rule of old Epictelus. the heroic
slave. who, though heather. sought and
found God and the peace of God long.
long ago. Ask yourself with Epictelus,
Am I disconnected with myself. or with
things around me and outside of me-"
Consider this last question well. If you
wish to be true Christians, true philoso-
pliers, and, indeed, true men and true
women.
What is it that troubles you? What
is 1t you want altered? On what have
you set your heart and affections? Is 1t
something outside of you? II So there
Is no use In tor1nenting your soul about
1t; it Is not in your power to alter IT.;
you are not responsible for It, God sent
it, as 1t were for better. for worse), and
you must make up your mind to take.
and take cheerfully, what God sends.
Are We then, to submit like dumb ami
mails to circumstances? Heaven forbid!
But when we have done our utmost, how
little 1t all Isl,
There is no one past fifty years of age
who does not know that in spite of all
their toll and struggle, they have not
gone whittier they would, but as God
willed. For one circumstance OF their
lives that they could alter. they have
found twenty which they could not;
some born with them. some forced on
them by an overruling Providence. So
what they have gained by fighting, how
ever valiantly, has been the moral gain
in their character, which
Us not as idle ore.
But heated hot with burning fears.
And bathed in baths of kissing tears,
And batterd with tho shocks Of doom
4 To shape and use.'
If n man but learn that lesson, we can-
not pity him, though we SEQ him from
youth to age, tearing with weak hands
the gates of brass and beating his souls
wings against the bars Of his iron cage.
But alas Many spend their lives long
Ing and struggling for thinga, the greater
part of which they do not get and which,
II they did. they could not keep. for they
can carry nothing with them when they
must die. Therefore does man walk in
a vain shadow and disquiet himself In
vain, looking for peace in anything and
everywhere. save In, his own heart and In
| his duty and in God.
Happy Ia no who longs for md lahora
/ after the true riches, even the spirit or
God. For neither mob nor tyrant, man
nor. devil prosperity nor ndvers!ty. nor
any other creature can take that from
him, This man. who sets his heart on
being good, haH fxed upon tho one thing
which depends on his own power and
which no can have if no 30 chooses It
can never BIO taken from him, Cpd VIII
not tako 1t from him; and man, fortune
or misfortune, cannot take It from him.
Poverty. misery, disease. death itself,
cannot mako him worse man, nor less