f our empty hearts as with
the flashing brightness of an inflowing tide.

And where shall we find all these, but in one dear heart, and where
shall we discern the one object, whom, possessing, we have enough; and
without whom, possessing all beside, we are mendicants and starving?
Where, but in that dear Lord, who Himself will supply all our needs, and
will minister to us peace, because for will and conscience and intellect
and affections and desires He supplies the pabulum that they require,
and gives more than enough for their satisfaction?

We want, if we are to be at rest, that there shall be some absolute
control over our passions, lusts, desires, which torture us for ever, as
long as they are ungoverned. There is only one hand which will take the
wild beasts of our nature, bind them in the silken leash of His love,
and lead them along, tamed and obedient.

We want, for our peace, that all our relations with circumstances and
men around us shall be rectified. And who is there that can bring about
such harmony between us and our surroundings that calamities shall not
press upon us with their heaviest weight, nor opposing circumstances
kindle angry resistance, but only patient perseverance and thankful
persistence in the path of duty? It is only Christ that can regulate our
relations to the things and the men around us, and make all things work
together to our consciousness for our good.

Further, if we are to be at rest, and possess any true, fundamental, and
stable tranquillity, we want that our relations with God shall
consciously be rectified and made blessed. And I, for my part, do not
believe that any man comes into the full sweetness of an assured
friendship with God, unless he comes to it by the road of faith in that
Saviour in whom God draws near to us with tenderness in His heart, and
blessings dropping from His open Hands. To be at peace with God is the
beginning of all true tranquillity, and that can be secured only by
faith in Jesus Christ.

So, because He brings the reconciliation between man and God, because He
brings the rectification of our relation to circumstances and men,
because He brings the control of desires and passions and inclinations,
and because He satisfies all the capacities of our natures, in Him, and
in Him only, is there peace for us.

III. So note, thirdly, that the peace of the Lord of Peace is perfect.

'Give you peace always,' that points to perpetual, unbroken duration in