ad gone to be
with the Father. He gives us to understand how real and near the
Father was to Him, and how He longed to be again in His bosom! He was
so occupied with this thought, that He reckoned little of what lay
between. Hail! ye stormy waters of death, stormy winds, and boisterous
waves, ye do but waft my soul nearer its haven in the Father's love!

It is the thought of the Father that gives peace, because it robs life
of its terrors and death of its sting. Why fear what life may bring
when the Father has arranged each successive step of its pathway! Why
dread Judas or Caiaphas, Herod or Pilate since the Father lies between
the soul and them as a rampart of rock! Why lose heart amid the
perplexities and discouragements, whose dark shadows lie heavily on the
hills, when in the green pastures of the valley the Father's love tends
the sheep! Ask Christ to reveal the Father to you. Live in His
everlasting love, and learn what He can be amid the storm and tumult as
a very present help.

(2) _Disentanglement from the world._--"The prince of this world
cometh, and hath nothing in Me." He came first at the beginning of the
Saviour's life, with temptations to his ambitions; he came again at its
close, with temptations to that natural shrinking from pain which is
characteristic of a highly organized nature. "Back, Son of Man! Thou
canst not bear the cross and spear, the nail and thorn! Thy tender
flesh will ill sustain Thee when the sorrows of death and the pains of
hell get hold upon Thee!" So Satan came; but there was no response in
the heart of Christ, no answering voice from the depths of His soul, no
traitor within to join hands with the tempter without. There was no
square inch of territory in all Christ's nature which the devil could
claim, or from which he could operate.

This is a clue to Christ's peace, which we do well to follow till it
lead us out into the open. As long as we are entangled with this
world, peace evades us, just as sleep, which comes easily to the
laboring man who has nothing beyond his daily wage, vanishes from the
pillow of the merchant, who on stormy nights thinks uneasily of the
vessels which carry his wealth far out at sea. We must stand clear of
the ambitions of the world, of the fear or favor of man, of the
avaricious craving for wealth, or the fear of poverty. We must put the
cross of Christ between us and the world, which was judged at Calvary.
We must be able to say t