Whereas, those who listen to the voices of the Syrens are allured to pleasure and folly, to selfishness and injustice, to trouble and punishment. Religion not only gives good days, but good nights. When thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.* The virgins of the Palace Beautiful took the Pilgrim Christian and laid him in a large upper chamber, whose window opened toward the sun-rising: the name of the chamber was Peace, where he slept till break of day; and then he awoke and sang, "Where am I now? is this the love and care God will render peace to every man that worketh good. This is the consistent doctrine both of the Old and New Testament; and it is represented with great beauty by Isaiah. § "The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever. * Prov. iii. 24. Rom. ii. 10. † Bunyan. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places." This peace the good man shall possess independently of outward circumstances. God's people have proved by their experience that to a mind harassed, distressed, convulsed and tortured, there is no antispasmodic equal to the love and peace of Jesus Christ. Peace is also gotten by submitting to the Divine Will. For discontent with our position, murmuring at our afflictions, transgression of Divine laws, are all destructive of peace. The explanation why many live in habitual anxiety, in fear, in discontent, in disquietude, may be found in the words of God himself: "I have taken away my peace from this people."* Some have been staggered by the manifesto of Christ: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." He does not here state the object, but the unavoidable effect of his mission. Unquestionably he regarded peace between God and men as of vastly greater consequence than domestic or even * Jer. xvi. 5. public peace, which is oftentimes the mere slumber of a family or a community in all that regards godliness. His teaching and principles, however, although on their first promulgation they unsheathed the sword and kindled the flames of persecution, yet are destined in their prevalence to convert swords into plougshares, and to extinguish the fires of bigotry. Most justly, then, is He called the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his peace there shall be no end.* Reader, consider these things in time, lest Jesus should lament over you, as he wept over Jerusalem, saying: "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy Peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes."+ Grant, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.‡ * Isa. ix. 6, 7. † Luke xix. 42. Collect for 21st Sunday after Trinity. CHAPTER VI. LONGSUFFERING. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.”—GAL. v. 22, 23. LONGSUFFERING is that habit of mind which does not soon get angry with those persons and things that are apt to excite anger; but which represses the rising emotions of irritation and resentment; and for that purpose brings into play feelings of an opposite kind, such as pity and love. Thus its name is an index to its meaning it suffers long. It differs from Patience, which is a disposition exercised towards God in afflicting dispensations. Patience endures afflictions from God: Longsuffering endures evils from men. There is a certain manner of bearing things which either adorns or disfigures the endurance. It is possible to repress outward signs of anger, but yet to do it with such reluctance as to mar the beauty of Longsuffering. St. Paul regards this grace as a robe, becoming God's elect, and he therefore exhorts the Colossians* to "put on......longsuffering." Then in the same epistle† he conjoins "Longsuffering with joyfulness," as if the one were the robe and the other the ornament and fringe. Longsuffering has many counterfeits. They may all be easily distinguished, however, by the motive. One is longsuffering from worldly prudence, another from sycophancy, another from conscious guilt, another from fear of consequences. Christian Longsuffering is cultivated on Christian principles, on the ground that God is our common Father, that Christ is our elder Brother, that He loved us, and that therefore we ought to love one another, and bear one another's burdens. Let us take some illustrations of spurious Longsuffering. Bad men tolerate evils which they themselves commit. This was the case with Stephen, king of England: he had to tolerate † Id. i. 11. * Col. iii. 12. |