{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_15266/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_15266","id":"gutenberg_15266","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15266","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Peace","World War I"],"text":"E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa Er-Raqabi, and the Project\nGutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)\n\n\n\nWHAT PEACE MEANS\n\nby\n\nHENRY VAN DYKE\n\nNew York          Chicago\nFleming H. Revell Company\nLondon    and   Edinburgh\n\n1919\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTo\nMy Son in the Faith\nMy Brother in the Work\nTertius van Dyke\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\nThis little book contains three plain sermons which were preached in New\nYork in the Easter season of 1919, in the Park Avenue Presbyterian\nChurch, of which my son is minister. I had no thought that they would\never be printed. They were, and are, just _daily bread discourses_ meant\nto serve the spiritual needs of a congregation of Christian people,\nseekers after truth, inquirers about duty, strangers and pilgrims, in\nthe great city and the troubled world.\n\nBut if, as friends think, these simple chapters may be of service\nthrough the printed page to a larger circle of readers, I willingly and\nfreely let them go.\n\nMay the blessing of Jesus follow them on their humble path. May the\nSpirit of Truth bring them home to some hearts that want them,--to those\nwho desire to escape from evil and do good,--to those who \"seek peace\nand ensue it.\"\n\nHENRY VAN DYKE.\n\nPark Avenue Church Manse, New York City.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n  I. PEACE IN THE SOUL\n\n II. PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS\n\nIII. THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nPeace in the Soul\n\n_Peace I leave with you: my peace I give unto you._--ST. JOHN 14:27.\n\n\nPeace is one of the great words of the Holy Scriptures.\nIt is woven through the Old Testament and the New like a golden thread.\nIt inheres and abides in the character of God,--\n\n    \"The central peace subsisting at the heart\n    Of endless agitation.\"\n\nIt is the deepest and most universal desire of man, whose prayer in all\nages has been, \"Grant us Thy Peace, O Lord.\" It is the reward of the\nrighteous, the blessing of the good, the crown of life's effort, and the\nglory of eternity.\n\nThe prophets foretell the beauty of its coming and the psalmists sing of\nthe joy which it brings. Jesus Christ is its Divine Messiah, its high\npriest and its holy prince. The evangelists and prophets proclaim and\npreach it. From beginning to end the Bible is full of the praise of\npeace.\n\nYet there never was a book more full of stories of trouble and strife,\ndisaster and sorrow. God Himself is revealed in it not as a calm,\nuntroubled, self-absorbed Deity, occupied in beatific contemplation of\nHis own perfections. He is a God who works and labours, who wars against\nthe evil, who fights for the good. The psalmist speaks of Him as \"The\nLord of Hosts, strong and mighty in battle.\" The Revelation of St. John\ntells us that \"There was war in Heaven; Michael and his angels fought\nagainst the dragon.\" Jesus Christ said: \"I came not to send peace, but a\nsword.\"\n\nIt is evident, then, that this idea of \"peace,\" like all good and noble\nthings, has its counterfeit, its false and subtle versary, which steals\nits name and its garments to deceive and betray the hearts of men. We\nfind this clearly taught in the Bible. Not more earnestly does it praise\ntrue peace than it denounces false peace.\n\n_There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked_ (Isaiah 48:22).\n\n_For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly,\nsaying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace_ (Jer. 8:11).\n\n_If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things\nwhich belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes_ (St.\nLuke 19:42).\n\n_For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is\nlife and peace_ (Romans 8:6).\n\nThere never was a time in human history when a right understanding of\nthe nature of true peace, the path which leads to it, the laws which\ngovern it, was more necessary or more important than it is to-day.\n\nThe world has just passed through a ghastly experience of war at its\nworst. Never in history has there been such slaughter, such agony, such\nwaste, such desolation, in a brief space of time, as in the four\nterrible years of conflict which German militarism forced on the world\nin the twentieth century. Having seen it, I know what it means.\n\nNow we have \"supped full with horrors.\" We have had more than enough of\nthat bloody banquet The heart of humanity longs for peace, as it has\nalways longed, but now with a new intensity, greater than ever before.\nYet the second course of war continues. The dogs fight for the crumbs\nunder the peace-table. Ignorant armies clash by night. Cities are\nbombarded and sacked. The barbarous Bolsheviki raise the red flag of\nviolence and threaten a war of classes throughout the world.\n\nYou can never make a golden age out of leaden men, or a peaceful world\nout of lovers of strife.\n\nWhere shall peace be found? How shall it be attained and safeguarded?\nEvidently the militarists have assaulted it with their doctrine that\nmight makes right. Evidently the pacifists have betrayed it with their\ndoctrine of passive acceptance of wrong. Somewhere between these two\nerrors there must be a ground of truth on which Christians can stand to\ndefend their faith and maintain their hope of a better future for the\nworld.\n\nLet me begin by speaking of _Peace in the Soul_. That is where religion\nbegins, in the heart of a person. Its flowers and fruits are social.\nThey are for the blessing of the world. But its root is personal. You\ncan never start with a class--conscious or a mass--conscious\nChristianity. It must begin with just you and God.\n\nMarshal Joffre, that fine Christian soldier, said a memorable thing\nabout the winning of the war: \"Our victory will be the fruit of\nindividual sacrifice.\" So of the coming of peace on earth we may say the\nsame: it will be the fruit of the entrance of peace into individual\nhearts and lives.\n\nA world at war is the necessary result of human restlessness and\nenmities. \"From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not\nhence, even of your lusts, that war in your members?\" Envy, malice,\ngreed, hatred, deceit,--these are the begetters of strife on earth.\n\nA world at peace can come only from the cooperation of peaceful human\nspirits. Therefore we must commence to learn what peace is, by seeking\nit in our souls through faith.\n\nChrist promised peace to His disciples at the Communion in that little\nupper room in Jerusalem, nineteen hundred years ago. Evidently it was\nnot an outward but an inward peace. He told them that they would have a\nlot of trouble in the world. But He assured them that this could not\novercome them if they believed in Him and in His Father God. He warned\nthem of conflict, and assured them of inward peace.\n\nWhat are the elements of this wondrous gift which Christ gave to His\ndisciples, and which He offers to us?\n\nI. First, the peace of Christ is the peace of being divinely loved.\nNothing rests and satisfies the heart like the sense of being loved. Let\nus take as an illustration the case of a little child, which has grown\ntired and fretful at its play, and is frightened suddenly by some\nchildish terror. Weeping, it runs to its mother. She takes the child in\nher arms, folds it to her breast, bends over it, and soothes it with\nfond words which mean only this: \"I love you.\" Very soon the child sinks\nto rest, contented and happy, in the sense of being loved. \"Herein is\nlove, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to\nbe the propitiation for our sins.\" In Jesus Christ God is stretching out\nHis arms to us, drawing us to His bosom, enfolding us in the secret of\npeace. If we believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, He makes us sure\nof a Divine affection, deep, infinite, inexhaustible, imperishable. \"For\nGod so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that\nwhosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting\nlife.\" God, who \"spared not his dearly-beloved Son, but delivered him up\nfor us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?\"\n\"Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in\nChrist Jesus our Lord.\"\n\nII. The Christian peace is the peace of being divinely controlled. The\nman who accepts Jesus Christ truly, accepts Him as Master and Lord. He\nbelieves that Christ has a purpose for him, which will surely be\nfulfilled? work for him, which will surely be blessed if he only tries\nto do it. Most of the discords of life come from a conflict of\nauthorities, of plans, of purposes. Suppose that a building were going\nup, and the architect had one design for it, and the builder had\nanother. What perplexity and confusion there would be! How ill things\nwould fit! What perpetual quarrels and blunders and disappointments! But\nwhen the workman accepts the designer's plan and simply does his best to\ncarry that out, harmony, joyful labour, and triumph are the result. If\nwe accept God's plan for us, yield to Him as the daily controller and\ndirector of our life, our work, however hard, becomes peaceful and\nsecure. No perils can frighten, no interruptions can dishearten us.\n\nNot many years ago some workmen were digging a tunnel, when a sudden\nfall of earth blocked the mouth of the opening. Their companions on the\noutside found out what had happened, and started to dig through the mass\nof earth to the rescue. It was several hours before they made their way\nthrough. When they went in they found the workmen going on with their\nlabour on the tunnel. \"We knew,\" said one of them, \"that you'd come to\nhelp us, and we thought the best way to make time pass quick was to keep\non with the work.\" That is what a Christian may say to Christ amid the\ndangers and disasters of life. We know that He will never forsake us,\nand the best way to be at peace is to be about His business. He says to\nus: \"As the Father sent me, even so send I you.\"\n\nIII. The Christian peace is the peace of being divinely forgiven.\n\n\"In every man,\" said a philosopher, \"there is something which, if we\nknew it, would make us despise him.\" Let us turn the saying, and change\nit from a bitter cynicism into a wholesome truth.\n\nIn every one of us there is something which, if we realize it, makes us\ncondemn ourselves as sinners, and hunger and thirst after righteousness,\nand long for forgiveness.\n\nIt is this deep consciousness of sin, of evil in our hearts and lives,\nthat makes us restless and unhappy. The plasters and soothing lotions\nwith which the easy-going philosophy of modern times covers it up, do\nnot heal it; they only hide it. There is no cure for it, there is no\nrest for the sinful soul, except the divine forgiveness. There is no\nsure pledge of this except in the holy sacrifice and blessed promise of\nChrist, \"Son, daughter, thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace.\"\n\nUnderstand, I do not mean that what we need and want is to have our sins\nignored and overlooked. On the contrary, that is just what would fail to\nbring us true rest. For if God took no account of sins, required no\nrepentance and reparation, He would not be holy, just, and faithful, a\nGod whom we can adore and love and trust.\n\nNor do I mean that what we need is merely to have the punishment of sins\nremitted. That would not satisfy the heart. Is the child contented when\nthe father says, \"Well, I will not punish you. Go away\"? No, what the\nchild wants is to hear the father say, \"I forgive you. Come to me.\" It\nis to be welcomed back to the father's home, to the father's heart, that\nthe child longs.\n\nPeace means not to have the offense ignored, but to have it pardoned:\nnot to the punishment omitted, but to have separation from God ended and\ndone with. That is the peace of being divinely forgiven,--a peace which\nrecognizes sin, and triumphs over it,--a peace which not merely saves us\nfrom death but welcomes us home to the divine love from which we have\nwandered.\n\nThat is the peace which Christ offers to each one of us in His Gospel.\nWe need it in this modern world as much as men and women ever needed it\nin the old world. No New Era will ever change its meaning or do away\nwith its necessity. Indeed, it seems to me that we need this\nold-fashioned religion to-day more than ever.\n\nWe need it for our own comfort and strength. We need it to deliver us\nfrom the vanity and hollowness, the fever and hysteria of the present\nage. We need it to make us better soldiers and workers for every good\ncause. Peace is coming to all the earth some day through Christ. And\nthose who shall do most to help Him bring it are the men and women to\nwhom He gives Peace in the Soul.\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nPeace on Earth Through Righteousness\n\n_And the work of righteousness shall be peace: and the effect of\nrighteousness quietness and confidence forever._\n\n--ISAIAH 32:17.\n\n\nAfter we have found peace in our own souls through faith\nin God and in His Son, Jesus Christ our Saviour, if our faith is honest,\nwe must feel the desire and the duty of helping to make peace prevail on\nearth.\n\nBut here we are, in a world of confusion and conflict. Darkness and\nignorance strive against light. Evil hates and assaults good. Wrong\ntakes up arms against right. Greed and pride and passion call on\nviolence to defeat justice and enthrone blind force. So has it been\nsince Cain killed Abel, since Christ was crucified on Calvary, and so it\nis to-day wherever men uphold the false doctrine that \"might makes\nright.\"\n\nThe Bible teaches us that there is no foundation for enduring peace on\nearth except in righteousness: that it is our duty to suffer for that\ncause if need be: that we are bound to fight for it if we have the\npower: and that if God gives us the victory we must use it for the\nperpetuation of righteous peace.\n\nIn these words I sum up what seems to me the Christian doctrine of war\nand peace,--the truth that in time of war we must stand for the right,\nand that when peace comes in sight, we must do our best to found it upon\njustice. These two truths cannot be separated. If we forget the meaning\nof the Christian duty to which God called us in the late war, all our\nsacrifice of blood and treasure will have been in vain. If we forget the\nwatchword which called our boys to the colours, our victory will be\nfruitless. We have fought in this twentieth century against the pagan\nGerman doctrine of war as the supreme arbiter between the tribes of\nmankind. They that took the sword must perish by the sword. But in the\nhour of victory we must uphold the end for which we have fought and\nsuffered,--the advance of the world towards a peaceful life founded on\nreason and justice and fair-play for every man.\n\nSo there are two heads to this sermon. First, the indelible remembrance\nof a righteous acceptance of war. Second, the reasonable hope of a\nrighteous foundation of peace.\n\nI. First of all, then, it must never be forgotten that the Allies and\nAmerica were forced to enter this war as a work of righteousness in\norder to make the world safe for peace.\n\nPeace means something more than the mere absence of hostilities. It\nmeans justice, honour, fair-play, order, security, and the\nwell-protected right of every man and nation to life, liberty, and the\npursuit of happiness. It was the German contempt for these Christian\nideals, it was the German idolatry of the pagan Odin, naked, cruel,\nbloody, god of war, it was the German will to power and dream of\nworld-dominion, that made the world unsafe for real peace in 1914.\n\nNever could that safety be secured until that enemy of mankind was\novercome. Not only for democracy, but also for human peace, it was\nnecessary, as President Wilson said, that \"the German power, a thing\nwithout honour, conscience, or capacity for covenanted faith, must be\ncrushed.\"\n\nI saw, from my post of observation in Holland, the hosts of heathen\nGermany massing for their attack on the world's peace in the spring of\n1914. Long before the pretext of war was provided by the murder of the\nAustrian Crown-Prince in Serajevo, I saw the troops, the artillery, the\nmountains of ammunition, assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle and Trier, ready\nfor the invasion of neutral Belgium and Luxembourg, and the foul stroke\nat France.\n\nEvery civilized nation in Europe desired peace and pleaded for it.\nLittle Servia offered to go before the Court of Arbitration at The Hague\nand be tried for the offense of which she was accused. Russia, Italy,\nFrance and England entreated Germany not to make war, but to submit the\ndispute to judicial settlement, to a righteous decision by a conference\nof powers. But Germany said no. She had prepared for war, she wanted\nwar, she got war. And now she must abide by the result of her choice.\n\nI have seen also with my own eyes the horrors wrought by Germany in her\nconduct of the war in Belgium and Northern France. Words fail me to\ndescribe them. Childhood has been crucified, womanhood outraged,\ncivilization trampled in the dust. The nations and the men who took\narms against these deviltries were the servants of the righteous God and\nthe followers of the merciful Christ.\n\nHe told us, \"If any man smite thee on the right cheek, turn unto him the\nleft also.\" But never did He tell us to abandon the bodies and the lives\nof our women and children to the outrage of beasts in human form. On the\ncontrary, He said to His disciples, in His parting discourse, \"He that\nhath no sword let him sell his garment and buy one.\"\n\nDoes any silly pacifist say that means a spiritual sword? No. You could\nget that without selling your garment. It means a real sword,--as real\nas the purse and the scrip which Christ told His followers to carry with\nthem. It means the power of arms dedicated to the service of\nrighteousness without which the world can never be safe for peace.\n\nHere, then, we may stand on the Word of God, on the work of\nrighteousness in making the world safe for peace. Let me tell you of my\nfaith that every one who has given his life for that cause, has entered\ninto eternal rest.\n\nII. Come we now to consider the second part of the text: \"the effect of\nrighteousness, quietness and confidence forever.\"\n\nWhat shall be the nature of the peace to be concluded after our victory\nin this righteous war?\n\nHere we have to oppose the demands of the bloodthirsty civilians. They\nask that German towns should endure the same sufferings which have been\ninflicted on the towns of Belgium and Northern France. Let me say\nfrankly that I do not believe you could persuade our officers to order\nsuch atrocities, or our soldiers to obey such orders. Read the order\nwhich one of the noble warriors of France, General P\u00e9tain, issued to his\nmen:\n\n     \"To-morrow, in order to better dictate peace, you are going to\n     carry your arms as far as the Rhine. Into that land of\n     Alsace-Lorraine that is so dear to us, you will march as\n     liberators. You will go further; all the way into Germany to occupy\n     lands which are the necessary guarantees for just reparation.\n\n     \"France has suffered in her ravaged fields and in her ruined\n     villages. The freed provinces have had to submit to intolerable\n     vexations and odious outrages, but you are not to answer these\n     crimes by the commission of violences, which, under the spur of\n     your resentment, may seem to you legitimate.\n\n     \"You are to remain under discipline and to show respect to persons\n     and property. You will know, after having vanquished your adversary\n     by force of arms, how to impress him further by the dignity of your\n     attitude, and the world will not know which to admire most, your\n     conduct in success or your heroism in fighting.\"\n\nThe destruction of the commonplace Cathedral of Cologne could never\nrecompense the damage done to the glorious Cathedral of Rheims. Nor\ncould the slaughter of a million German women and children restore the\ninnocent victims of Belgium, France, Servia, and Armenia to life. We do\nnot thirst for blood. We desire justice.\n\nNo doubt the ends of justice demand that the principal brigands who are\nresponsible for the atrocities of this war should be tried before an\ninternational court If convicted they should be duly punished. But not\nby mob-law or violence. Nothing could be less desirable than the\nassassination of William Hohenzollern. It would be absurd and horrible\nto give a martyr's crown to a criminal. Vengeance belongeth unto God. He\nalone is wise and great enough to deal adequately with the case. It is\nfor us to keep our righteous indignation free from the poison of\npersonal hatred, and to do no more than is needed to uphold and\nvindicate the eternal law.\n\nWilliam Hohenzollern, and his fellow-conspirators who are responsible\nfor the beginning and the conduct of the dreadful war from which all\nthe toiling peoples of earth have suffered, must be brought to the bar\nof justice and sentenced; otherwise the world will have no defense\nagainst the anarchists who say that government is a vain thing; and the\nbloody Bolshevists who proclaim the Empire of the Ignorant,--the\nBoob-Rah,--as the future rule of the world, will have free scope.\n\nIt is evident that a league of free, democratic states, pledged by\nmutual covenant to uphold the settlement of international differences by\nreason and justice before the use of violence, offers the only hope of a\ndurable peace among the nations. It is also the only defense against\nthat deadly and destructive war of classes with which Bolshevism\nthreatens the whole world. The spirit of Bolshevism is atheism and\nenmity; its method is violence and tyranny; its result would be a reign\nof terror under that empty-headed monster, \"the dictatorship of the\nproletariat.\" God save us from that! It would be the worst possible\noutcome of the war in which we have offered and sacrificed so much, and\nin which God has given us the opportunity to make \"a covenant of peace.\"\n\nHow vast, how immeasurable, are the responsibilities which this great\nvictory in righteous war has laid upon the Allies and America. God help\nus to live up to them. God help us to sow the future not with dragon's\nteeth, but with seeds of blessed harvest. God paint upon the broken\nstorm-cloud the rainbow of eternal hope. God help us and our friends to\nmake a peace that shall mean good to all mankind. God send upon our\nvictory the light of the cross of Christ our Saviour, where mercy and\ntruth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nThe Power of an Endless Life\n\n_Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the\npower of an endless life._\n\n--Hebrews 7:16.\n\n\nThe message and hope of immortality are nowhere more\ndistinctly conveyed to our minds than in connection with that\nresurrection morn when Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene. The anniversary\nof that day will ever be the festival of the human soul. Even those who\ndo not clearly understand or fully accept its meaning in history and\nreligion,--even children and ignorant folk and doubters and\nunbelievers,--yes, even frivolous people and sullen people, feel that\nthere is something in this festival which meets the need and longing of\ntheir hearts. It is a day of joy and gladness, a day of liberation and\npromise, a day for flowers to bloom and birds to sing, a day of\nspiritual spring-tide and immortal hope.\n\nMankind desires and needs such a day. We are overshadowed in all our\naffections and aspirations, all our efforts, and designs, by the dark\nmystery of bodily death; the uncertainty and the brevity of earthly\nexistence make us tremble and despair; the futility of our plans dismays\nus; the insecurity of our dearest treasure in lives linked to ours fills\nus with dismay.\n\nIs there no escape from Death, the Tyrant, the autocrat, the destroyer,\nthe last enemy? Why love, why look upward, why strive for better things\nif this imperator of failure, ultimate extinction, rules the universe?\nNo hope beyond the grave means no peace this side of it. A life without\nhope is a life without God. If Death ends all, then there is no Father\nin Heaven in whom we can trust. Who shall deliver us from the body of\nthis Death?\n\nNow comes Easter with its immortal promise and assurance, Jesus of\nNazareth, who died on Calvary, a martyr of humanity, a sacrifice of\nDivinity, is alive and appears to His humble followers. The manner of\nHis appearance, to Mary Magdalene, to His disciples, is not the most\nimportant thing. The fact is that He did appear. He who was crucified in\nthe cause of righteousness and mercy, lives on and forever. The message\nof His resurrection is \"the power of an endless life.\"\n\nThe proof of this message is in the effect that it produced. It\ntransformed the handful of Jesus' followers from despair to confidence.\nIt gave Christianity its growing influence over the heart of humanity.\nIt is this message of immortality that makes religion vital to the human\nworld to-day, and essential to the foundation of peace on earth.\n\nWe must not forget in our personal griefs and longings, in our sorrows\nfor those whom we have lost and our desire to find them again, in our\nsense of our own mortal frailty and the brief duration of earthly life,\nthe celestial impulse which demands a life triumphant over death.\n\nThe strongest of all supports for peace on earth is the faith in\nimmortality. The truth is, the very character of our being here in this\nworld demands continuance beyond death. There is nothing good or great\nthat we think or feel or endeavour, that is not a reaching out to\nsomething better. Our finest knowledge is but the consciousness of\nlimitation and the longing that it may be removed. Our best moral effort\nis but a slow advance towards something better. Our sense of the\ndifference between good and evil, our penitence, our aspiration, all\nthis moral freight with which our souls are laden, is a cargo consigned\nto an unseen country. Our bill of lading reads, \"To the immortal life.\"\nIf we must sink in mid-ocean, then all is lost, and the voyage of life\nis a predestined wreck.\n\nThe wisest, the strongest, the best of mankind, have felt this most\ndeeply. The faith in immortality belongs to the childhood of the race,\nand the greatest of the sages have always returned to it and taken\nrefuge in it. Socrates and Plato, Cicero and Plutarch, Montesquieu and\nFranklin, Kant and Emerson, Tennyson and Browning,--how do they all bear\nwitness to the incompleteness of life and reach out to a completion\nbeyond the grave.\n\n    \"No great Thinker ever lived and taught you\n    All the wonder that his soul received;\n    No great Painter ever set on canvas\n    All the glorious vision he conceived.\n\n    \"No Musician ever held your spirit\n    Charmed and bound in his melodious chains;\n    But, be sure, he heard, and strove to render,\n    Feeble echoes of celestial strains.\n\n    \"No real Poet ever wove in numbers\n    All his dream, but the diviner part,\n    Hidden from all the world, spake to him only\n    In the voiceless silence of his heart.\n\n    \"So with Love: for Love and Art united\n    Are twin mysteries: different yet the same;\n    Poor indeed would be the love of any\n    Who could find its full and perfect name.\n\n    \"Love may strive; but vain is its endeavour\n    All its boundless riches to unfold;\n    Still its tenderest, truest secret lingers\n    Ever in its deepest depths untold.\n\n    \"Things of Time have voices: speak and perish.\n    Art and Love speak; but their words must be\n    Like sighings of illimitable forests\n    And waves of an unfathomable sea.\"\n\nAnd can it be that death shall put the final seal of irretrievable ruin\non all this uncompleted effort? Can it be that the grave shall whelm all\nthis unuttered love in endless silence? Ah, what a wild waste of\nprecious treasure, what a mad destruction of fair designs, what an\nutter failure, life would be if death must end all!\n\nThe very reasonableness of our nature, our sense of order, declare the\nimpotence of Death to create such a wreck. And most of all our deep\naffections cry out against the conclusion of despair. They will not hear\nof dissolution. They reach out their hands into the darkness. They\ndemand and they promise an unending fellowship, a deepening communion, a\nmore perfect satisfaction. Do you remember what Thackeray wrote? \"If\nlove lives through all life, and survives through all sorrow; and\nremains steadfast with us through all changes; and in all darkness of\nspirit burns brightly; and if we die, deplores us forever, and still\nloves us equally; and exists with the very last gasp and throb of the\nfaithful bosom, whence it passes with the pure soul beyond death, surely\nit shall be immortal. Though we who remain are separated from it, is it\nnot ours in heaven? If we love still those whom we lose, can we\naltogether lose those whom we love?\"\n\nTo deny this instinct is to deny that which lies at the very root of our\nlife. If love perishes with death, then our affections are our worst\ncurses, the world is the cruellest torture-house, and \"all things work\ntogether for evil to those who love.\" Do you believe it? Is it possible?\nNay, all that is best and noblest and purest within us rejects such a\nfaith in Absolute Evil as the power that has created and rules the\nworld. In the presence of love we feel that we behold that which must\nbelong to a good God and therefore cannot die. Destruction cannot touch\nit. The grave cannot hold it. Loving and being loved, we dare to stand\nin the very doorway of the tomb, and assert the power of an endless\nlife.\n\nAnd it seems to me that this courage never comes to us so fully as when\nwe are brought in closest contact with death, when we are brought face\nto face with that dread shadow and forced either to deny its power, once\nand forever, or to give up everything and die with our hopes. I wish\nthat I could make this clear to you as it lies in my own experience.\nPerhaps in trying to do it I should speak closer to your own heart than\nin any other way. For surely\n\n    \"There is no flock, however watched and tended\n      But one dead lamb is there.\n    There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended\n      But has a vacant chair.\"\n\nA flower grew in your garden. You delighted in its beauty and fragrance.\nIt gave you all it had to give, but it did not love you. It could not.\nWhen the time came for it to die, you were sorry. But it did not seem to\nyou strange or unnatural. There was no waste. Its mission was fulfilled.\nYou understood why its petals should fall, its leaf wither, its root\nand branch decay. And even if a storm came and snapped it, still there\nwas nothing lost that was indispensable, nothing that could not be\nrestored.\n\nA child grew in your household, dearly loved and answering your love.\nYou saw that soul unfold, learning to know the evil from the good,\nlearning to accept duty and to resist selfishness, learning to be brave\nand true and kind, learning to give you day by day a deeper and a richer\nsympathy, learning to love God and to pray and to be good. And then\nperhaps you saw that young heart being perfected under the higher and\nholier discipline of suffering, bearing pain patiently, facing trouble\nand danger like a hero, not shrinking even from the presence of death,\nbut trusting all to your love and to God's, and taking just what came\nfrom day to day, from hour to hour. And then suddenly the light went out\nin the shining eyes. The brave heart stopped. The soul was gone. Lost,\nperished, blotted out forever in the darkness of death? Ah, no; you know\nbetter than that. That clear, dawning intelligence, that deepening love,\nthat childlike faith in God, that pure innocence of soul, did not come\nfrom the dust. How could they return thither? The music ceases because\nthe instrument is broken. But the player is not dead. He is learning a\nbetter music. He is finding a more perfect instrument. It is impossible\nthat he should be holden of death. God wastes nothing so precious.\n\n             \"What is excellent\n    As God lives is permanent.\n    Hearts are dust; hearts' loves remain.\n    Hearts' love will meet thee again.\"\n\nBut I am sure that we must go further than this in order to understand\nthe full strength and comfort of the text. The assertion of the\nimpotence of death to end all is based upon something deeper than the\nprophecy of immortality in the human heart. It has a stronger foundation\nthan the outreachings of human knowledge and moral effort towards a\nhigher state in which completion may be attained. It has a more secure\nground to rest upon than the deathless affection with which our love\nclings to its object The impotence of death is revealed to us in the\nspiritual perfection of Christ.\n\nHere then, in the \"power of an endless life,\" I find the corner-stone of\npeace on earth among men of good-will Take this mortal life as a thing\nof seventy years, more or less, to which death puts a final period, and\nyou have nothing but confusion, chance and futility,--nothing safe,\nnothing realized, nothing completed. Evil often triumphs. Virtue often\nis defeated.\n\n                       \"The good die young,\n    And we whose hearts are dry as summer dust\n    Burn to the socket.\"\n\nBut take death, as Christ teaches us, not as a full stop, but as only a\ncomma in the story of an endless life, and then the whole aspect of our\nexistence is changed. That which is material, base, evil, drops down.\nThat which is spiritual, noble, good, rises to lead us on.\n\nThe conviction of immortality, the forward-looking faith in a life\nbeyond the grave, the spirit of Easter, is essential to peace on earth\nfor three reasons.\n\nI. It is the only faith that lifts man's soul, which is immortal, above\nhis body, which is perishable. It raises him out of the tyranny of the\nflesh to the service of his ideals. It makes him sure that there are\nthings worth fighting and dying for. The fighting and the dying, for the\ncause of justice and liberty, are sacrifices on the Divine altar which\nshall never be forgotten.\n\nII. The faith in immortality carries with it the assurance of a Divine\nreassessment of earth's inequalities. Those who have suffered unjustly\nhere will be recompensed in the future. Those who have acted wickedly\nand unjustly here will be punished. Whether that punishment will be\nfinal or remedial we do not know. Perhaps it may lead to the extinction\nof the soul of evil, perhaps to its purifying and deliverance. On these\nquestions I fall back on the word of God: \"The wages of sin is death,\nbut the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.\"\n\nIII. The faith in immortality brings with it the sense of order,\ntranquillity, steadiness and courage in the present life. It sets us\nfree from mean and cowardly temptations, makes it easier to resist the\nwild animal passions of lust and greed and cruelty, brings us into\neternal relations and fellowships, makes us partners with the wise and\ngood of all the ages, ennobles our earthly patriotism by giving us a\nheavenly citizenship. Yea, it knits us in bonds of love with the coming\ngeneration. It is better than the fountain of youth. We shall know and\nsee them as they go on their way, long after we have left the path. The\nfaith in immortality sets a touch of the imperishable on every generous\nimpulse and unselfish deed. It inspires to sublime and heroic\nvirtues,--spiritual splendours,--deeds of sacrifice and suffering for\nwhich earth has no adequate recompense, but whose reward is great in\nheaven. Here is the patience of the saints, the glorious courage of\npatriots, martyrs, and confessors, something more bright and shining\nthan secular morality can bring forth,--a flashing of the inward light\nwhich fails not, but grows clearer as death draws near. What noble\nevidences of this come to us out of the great war.\n\n\"Are you in great distress?\" asked a nurse of an American soldier whose\nlegs had been shot away on the battle-field. \"I am in as great peace,\"\nsaid he, \"through Jesus my Lord, as a man can possibly be, out of\nParadise.\"\n\nA secretary of the Y.M.C.A., the night before he was killed, wrote to\nhis father: \"I have not been sent here to die: I am to fight: I offer my\nlife for future generations; I shall not die, I shall merely change my\ndirection. He who walks before us is so great that we cannot lose Him\nfrom sight.\"\n\nA simple French boy, grievously wounded, is dying in the ambulance. He\nis a Protestant The nurse who bends over him is a Catholic sister. She\nwrites down his words as they fall slowly from his lips: \"O my God, let\nThy will be done and not mine. O my God, Thou knowest that I never\nwished war, but that I have fought because it was Thy will; I offered my\nlife so that peace might prevail. O my God, I pray for all my dear\nones, ... father, mother, brothers, sisters. Give a hundredfold to\nthose nurses for all they have done for me. I pray for them one and\nall.\"\n\nHere, in the midst of carnage and confusion, horror and death, was\nperfect peace, the triumph of immortality.\n\nWhat then shall we say of the new teachers and masters, the cynical\nlords of materialism and misrule, who tell us that they are going to\nbanish this outworn superstition and all others like it from the mind of\nman? They are going to make a new world in which men shall walk by\nsight, and not by faith; a world in which universal happiness shall be\nproduced by the forcible division of material goods, and brotherhood\npromoted by the simple expedient of killing those whom they dislike; a\nworld in which there shall be neither nation, God, nor Church, nor\nanywhere a thought of any life but this which ends in the grave. It is a\nmad dream of wild and reckless men. But it threatens evil to all the\nworld. Do you remember what happened when the French Revolution took\nthat course, abolished the Sabbath, defiled the Churches, broke down the\naltars, and enthroned a harlot as the Goddess of Reason? The Reign of\nTerror followed. Something like that has happened, recently, in many\nparts of Europe. And if these new tyrants of ignorance, unbelief, and\nunmorality have their way, the madness and the darkness will spread\nuntil the black cloud charged with death covers the face of the earth\nfor a season with shame and anguish and destruction. A sane world, an\norderly world, a peaceful world, can never be founded on materialism.\nThat foundation is a quicksand in which all that is dearest to man goes\ndown in death.\n\nReligion is essential to true peace in the soul and to peace on earth\nthrough righteousness. Immortality is essential to true religion.\nThanks be to God who hath given us Jesus Christ, who was dead and is\nalive again and liveth forevermore, to touch and ennoble, to inspire and\nconsole, to pacify and uplift our earthly existence with the power of an\nendless life.","title":"What Peace Means","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":6860}