ou leave this abbey. Do you know what it is? Whether you do or not,
let me tell you in a few words, what I seem to myself to have learned
concerning that peace. What it is? how we can obtain it? and why so many
do not obtain it, and are, therefore, not at peace?

It is worth while to do so. For these are not peaceful times. The peace
of God is rare among us. Some say that it is rarer than it was. I know
not how that may be; but I see all manner of causes at work around us
which should make it rare. We live faster than our forefathers. We
hurry, we bustle, we travel, we are eager for daily, almost for hourly
news from every quarter, as if the world could not get on without us, or
we without knowing a hundred facts which merely satisfy the curiosity of
the moment; and as if the great God could not take excellent care of us
all meanwhile. We are eager, too, to get money, and get more money
still--piercing ourselves through too often, as the Apostle warned us--
with many sorrows, and falling into foolish and hurtful lusts, which
drown men in destruction and perdition. We are luxurious--more and more
fond of show; more apt to live up to our incomes, and probably a little
beyond; more and more craving for this or that gew-gaw, especially in
dress and ornament, which if our neighbour has, we must have too, or we
shall be mortified, envious. Nay, so strong is this temper of rivalry,
of allowing no superiors, grown in us, that we have made now-a-days a god
of what used to be considered the basest of all vices--the vice of envy--
and dignify it with the names of equality and independence. Men in this
temper of mind cannot be at peace. They are not content; they cannot be
content.

But with what are they not content? That is a question worth asking.
For there is a discontent (as I have told you ere now) which is noble,
manful, heroic, and divine. Just as there is a discontent which is base,
mean, unmanly, earthly--sometimes devilish. There is a discontent which
is certain, sooner or later, to bring with it the peace of God. There is
a discontent which drives the peace of God away, for ever and a day. And
the noble and peace-bringing discontent is to be discontented with
ourselves, as very few are. And the mean peace-destroying discontent is
to be discontented with things around us, as too many are. Now, my
friends, I cannot see into your hearts; and I ought not to see. For if I