e. It is our wills that trouble us. Disturbance
comes, not from without, but from within. When the will bows, when I
say, 'Be it then as Thou wilt,' when in faith and love I cease to
strive, to murmur, to rebel, to repine, and enter into His loving
purposes, then there is peace.

Obedience is peace. To recognise a great will that is sovereign, and to
bow myself to it, not because it is sovereign, but because it is sweet,
and sweet because I love it, and love Him whose it is--that is peace.
And then, whatever may be outward circumstances, there shall be 'peace
subsisting at the heart of endless agitation'; and deep in my soul I may
be tranquil, though all about me may be the hurly-burly of the storm.

The Christian peace is an armed peace, paradoxical as it appears; and
according to the great word of the Apostle, is a sentry which garrisons
the beleaguered heart and mind, surrounded by many foes, and keeps them
in Christ Jesus.

'There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked,' he is 'as a troubled
sea which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt'; but over the
wildest commotion one Voice, low, gentle, omnipotent, says: 'Peace! be
still!' and the heart quiets itself, though there may be a ground
swell, and the weather clears. He is your peace, trust Him, love Him,
and you cannot but possess the 'peace of God which passeth
understanding.'

THE WIDE RANGE OF GOD'S GRACE

'Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in
sincerity.'--Eph. vi. 24.

In turning to the great words which I have read as a text, I ask you to
mark their width and their simplicity. They are wide; they follow a very
comprehensive benediction, with which, so to speak, they are concentric.
But they sweep a wider circle. The former verse says, 'Peace be to the
brethren.' But beyond the brethren in these Asiatic churches (as a kind
of circular letter to whom this epistle was probably sent) there rises
before the mind of the Apostle a great multitude, in every nation, and
they share in his love, and in the promise and the prayer of my text.
Mark its simplicity: everything is brought down to its most general
expression. All the qualifications for receiving the divine gift are
gathered up in one--love. All the variety of the divine gifts is summed
up in that one comprehensive expression--'grace.'

I. So then, note, first, the comprehensive designation of the recipients
of grace.

They are 'all who love our Lord