s, that it was too hastily named? Certain it is that
many Christians are disappointed because they do not always realise the
peace and blessedness of which sometimes they have glimpses and
enjoyment.

It is our practical every-day test of our standing in grace; a man who
is exploring an old well lowers a candle before him, knowing that where
that can live, he can live; the Christian's test-flame is the peace of
God; when that fails, he ought to know that it is safe to go no
farther. This peace is like some magic mirror, by the dimness growing
on the surface of which we may discern the breath of an unclean spirit
that would work us ill. As the Apostle says, "Let the peace of God
rule (_i.e._ be arbiter or umpire) in your hearts." We may almost say
that for most of us it is true that what we can do quietly we can do
safely. So we see more and more the importance of having the heart and
thought kept by the Peace of God.

Some render the passage, "The peace of God shall stand sentry over your
heart"; and this expresses it very well. Where this sentry stands,
nothing forbidden can pass either within or without, except the watcher
be first destroyed. If the thirst for wealth or fame enter into a
man's heart, it is over the slain body of the sentry; our peace is gone
when these things enter in. And many such like things there are which
choke the word and destroy the peace. Then we turn and look at it in
another light, passing on from thoughts concerning the Peace of God to
higher ones about the God of Peace, who has promised to sanctify us
wholly and to preserve spirit, soul, and body blameless unto the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ.

XI

THY FATHER IN SECRET

"Alone, and yet not alone."--JOHN xvi. 32.

Of all religious ideas, the grandest is that which lay at the root of
the monastic system,--that religion is the wedlock of the soul to God;
although the method in which this idea was exemplified was a faulty
one, or, at any rate, one which rapidly became corrupt, even if it was
not so at first. The wonderful worship of the middle ages at least
taught men to serve God in retirement of life and unworldliness of
spirit, and gave demonstration of holiness and righteousness in men who
did their work in the world even though they lived out of it, and in
women who were content to view the busy, jocular, combatant,
pleasure-seeking community only from behind the bars of the house of
rest that they had chose