vi. 15.

Paul drew the first draft of this picture of the Christian armour in his
first letter. It is a finished picture here. One can fancy that the
Roman soldier to whom he was chained in his captivity, whilst this
letter was being written, unconsciously sat for his likeness, and that
each piece of his accoutrements was seized in succession by the
Apostle's imagination and turned to a Christian use. It is worth
noticing that there is only one offensive weapon mentioned--'the sword
of the Spirit.' All the rest are defensive--helmet, breastplate, shield,
girdle, and shoes. That is to say, the main part of our warfare consists
in defence, in resistance, and in keeping what we have, in spite of
everybody, men and devils, who attempt to take it from us. 'Hold fast
that thou hast; let no man take thy crown.'

Now, it seems to me that the ordinary reader does not quite grasp the
meaning of our text, and that it would be more intelligible if, instead
of 'preparation,' which means the process of getting a thing ready, we
read 'preparedness,' which means the state of mind of the man who is
ready. Then we have to notice that the little word 'of' does duty to
express two different relations, in the two instances of its use here.
In the first case--'the preparedness of the Gospel'--it states the
origin of the thing in question. That condition of being ready comes
from the good news of Christ. In the second case--'the Gospel of
peace'--it states the result of the thing in question. The good news of
Christ gives peace. So, taking the whole clause, we may paraphrase it by
saying that the preparedness of spirit, the alacrity which comes from
the possession of a Gospel that sheds a calm over the heart and brings a
man into peace with God, is what the Apostle thinks is like the heavy
hob-nailed boots that the legionaries wore, by which they could stand
firm, whatever came against them.

I. The first thing that I would notice here is that the Gospel brings
peace.

I suppose that there was ringing in Paul's head some echoes of the music
of Isaiah's words, 'How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him
that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good
tidings of good!' But there is a great deal more than an unconscious
quotation of ancient words here; for in Paul's thought, the one power
which brings a man into harmony with the universe and to peace with
himself, is the power which proclaims that God i