ass
of earth to the rescue. It was several hours before they made their way
through. When they went in they found the workmen going on with their
labour on the tunnel. "We knew," said one of them, "that you'd come to
help us, and we thought the best way to make time pass quick was to keep
on with the work." That is what a Christian may say to Christ amid the
dangers and disasters of life. We know that He will never forsake us,
and the best way to be at peace is to be about His business. He says to
us: "As the Father sent me, even so send I you."

III. The Christian peace is the peace of being divinely forgiven.

"In every man," said a philosopher, "there is something which, if we
knew it, would make us despise him." Let us turn the saying, and change
it from a bitter cynicism into a wholesome truth.

In every one of us there is something which, if we realize it, makes us
condemn ourselves as sinners, and hunger and thirst after righteousness,
and long for forgiveness.

It is this deep consciousness of sin, of evil in our hearts and lives,
that makes us restless and unhappy. The plasters and soothing lotions
with which the easy-going philosophy of modern times covers it up, do
not heal it; they only hide it. There is no cure for it, there is no
rest for the sinful soul, except the divine forgiveness. There is no
sure pledge of this except in the holy sacrifice and blessed promise of
Christ, "Son, daughter, thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace."

Understand, I do not mean that what we need and want is to have our sins
ignored and overlooked. On the contrary, that is just what would fail to
bring us true rest. For if God took no account of sins, required no
repentance and reparation, He would not be holy, just, and faithful, a
God whom we can adore and love and trust.

Nor do I mean that what we need is merely to have the punishment of sins
remitted. That would not satisfy the heart. Is the child contented when
the father says, "Well, I will not punish you. Go away"? No, what the
child wants is to hear the father say, "I forgive you. Come to me." It
is to be welcomed back to the father's home, to the father's heart, that
the child longs.

Peace means not to have the offense ignored, but to have it pardoned:
not to the punishment omitted, but to have separation from God ended and
done with. That is the peace of being divinely forgiven,--a peace which
recognizes sin, and triumphs over it,--a peace which not merely