s at peace with him. And
Jesus Christ is our peace, because He has swept away the root and bitter
fountain of all the disquiet of men's hearts, and all their chafing at
providences--the consciousness that there is discord between themselves
and God. The Gospel brings peace in the deepest sense of that word, and,
primarily, peace with God, from out of which all other kinds of
tranquillity and heart-repose do come--and they come from nothing
besides.

But what strikes me most here is not so much the allusion to the blessed
truth that was believed and experienced by these Ephesian Christians,
that the Gospel brought peace, and was the only thing that did, as the
singular emergence of that idea that the Gospel was a peace-bringing
power, in the midst of this picture of fighting. Yes, it brings both. It
brings us peace first, and then it says to us, 'Now, having got peace in
your heart, because peace with God, go out and fight to keep it.' For,
if we are warring with the devil we are at peace with God; and if we are
at peace with the devil we are warring with God. So the two states of
peace and war go together. There is no real peace which has not conflict
in it, and the Gospel _is_ 'the Gospel of peace,' precisely because it
enlists us in Christ's army and sends us out to fight Christ's battles.

So, then, dear brother, the only way to realise and preserve 'the peace
of God which passes understanding' is to fling ourselves manfully into
the fight to which all Christ's soldiers are pledged and bound. The two
conditions, though they seem to be opposite, will unite; for this is the
paradox of the Christian life, that in all regions it makes compatible
apparently incompatible and contradictory emotions. 'As sorrowful'--and
Paul might have said 'therefore' instead of 'yet'--'as sorrowful yet
always rejoicing; as having nothing yet'--therefore--'possessing all
things'; as in the thick of the fight, and yet kept in perfect peace,
because the soul is stayed on God. The peace that comes from friendship
with Him, the peace that fills a heart tranquil because satisfied, the
peace that soothes a conscience emptied of all poison and robbed of all
its sting, the peace that abides because, on all the horizon in front of
us nothing can be seen that we need to be afraid of--that peace is the
peace which the Gospel brings, and it is realised in warfare and is
consistent with it. All the armies of the world may camp round the
fortress, and t