spirit, we will not be in the spirit of finding
fault and working mischief.

AFTER LOVE, WHAT?

After love comes peace. I have before remarked, a great many people
are trying to make peace. But that has already been done. God has not
left it for us to do; all that we have to do is to enter into it. It
is a condition, and instead of our trying to make peace and to work
for peace, we want to cease all that, and sweetly enter into peace.

If I discover a man in the cellar complaining because there is no
light there, and because it is cold and damp, I say: "My friend, come
up out of the cellar. There is a good warm sun up here, a beautiful
spring day, and it is warm, it is cheerful and light; come up, and
enjoy it." Would he reply, "O, no, sir; I am trying to see if I can
make light down here; I am trying to work myself into a warm feeling."
And there he is working away, and he has been at it for a whole week.
I can imagine my reader smile; but you may be smiling at your own
picture; for this is the condition of many whom I daily meet who are
trying to do this very thing--they are trying to work themselves into
peace and joyful feelings. Peace is a condition into which we enter;
it is a state; and instead of our trying to make peace, let us believe
what God's Word declares, that peace has already been made by the
blood of the Cross. Christ has made peace for us, and now what He
desires is that we believe it and enter into it. Now, the only thing
that can keep us from peace is sin. God turneth the way of the wicked
upside down. There is no peace for the wicked, saith my God. They are
like the troubled sea that can not rest, casting up filth and mire all
the while; but peace with God by faith in Jesus Christ--peace through
the knowledge of forgiven sin, is like a rock; the waters go dashing
and surging past it, but it abides. When we find peace, we shall not
find it on the ground of innate goodness; it comes from without
ourselves, but into us. In the 16th chapter of John and the 33d verse
we read: "These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might
have peace." In me ye might have peace. Jesus Christ is the author of
peace. He procured peace. His gospel is the gospel of peace. "Behold I
bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people;
for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour," and
then came that chorus from heaven "Glory to God in the highest; peace
on earth." He brought pe