That Horrible East Wind!

DELIVERED AT THE THURSDAY EVENING LECTURE,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you are also
called in one body; and be you thankful." Colossians 3:15.

I do not know how it is, but during the last two or three days I have
been called to sympathize with an amount of sorrow such as I have
seldom met with before in so short a space of time. One messenger of
misery has followed on the heels of another, each one with heavy
tidings. Nor is that all, for I have also been perplexed with a large
amount of sinning, quarrelling and fault-finding. People are murmuring,
grumbling, fretting and fighting on all sides. This has tried me so
much that I feel little fitted to act as comforter, for I need comfort,
myself. I have endeavored to cheer others till I have drunk of their
cup of sorrow and put my own mouth out of taste–I have tried to make
peace for others till I am half afraid of losing my own–I have
answered the people's grumblings till I am tempted to have a growl or
two on my own account.

Perhaps I may relieve my own mind by the sermon which I hope to
deliver. I said to one whom I greatly esteem, "I do not know how it is,
but everybody seems out of sorts with everybody else just now." His
wise answer was, "THE WIND IS IN THE EAST." This fact accounts for a
great deal, for–

"When the wind is in the east, 'Tis neither good for man nor beast."
This is that ill wind which seems to blow no man any good. Some
humanities feel the east wind terribly–it sets their teeth on edge and
they feel that they must bite the first person they meet. I am glad to
find some sort of excuse for my fellow Christians and, if I can find it
nowhere but in the east wind, I will make the best I can of it. But I
earnestly hope that the wind may soon blow from another quarter and not
come from the east, again, till we have had a little respite and laid
in a new stock of patience. If a cutting wind causes despondency,
vexation, discontent and bad temper–may soft gales visit us frequently
and bring us healing in their wings!

As fair weather will not last forever, it will be well to prepare
ourselves to breast the blast. It will never do for us to have a
religion which can be killed by the wind–we must be made of better
stuff than that! Yet this wind is blamed and I wish, therefore, that it
would take itself off. If I could find a snug corner where the cruel
east wind was never felt, I would feel inclined to promote an
emigration movement for certain persons whom I will not mention! As for
myself, I am afraid that it would not suit me to be altogether screened
from the wind, for trials are necessary to one who is called to this
ministry. Troubles and east winds will come to the servants of God and
they are sent to do us good, for perhaps, if we could get our backs
against a protecting wall and sit forever in the sunshine, with no east
wind to interfere with us, we would go to sleep, or waking, we might
come to love this world so well as to be loath to leave it!

It would be a horrible thing for any one of us if the south wind should
softly breathe upon our cheeks and whisper gently in our ears of
long-continued joy to be found on earth–for then we would be tempted
to sit down and say, "Soul, take your ease. You have, at last, found a
place free from the trials of time. Therefore eat, drink and be merry,
and let the future world care for itself." When I turn over in my mind
the events of the last few days I do not suppose that there is more
discord or discontent in the world just now than at any other time, but
it happens that a number of black lines have all found their center in
me and my thoughts have had to travel out in all those directions–all
which is trying enough, but all the more so when the wind is in the
east.

It is a coincidence, but the same has happened before. I have had to
unravel many tangled skeins in my time out of love to others. I did not
get the threads into a ravel, but people are very fond of bringing me
their snarls to disentangle and, when I have a hope of succeeding, I
try my best. Gladly would I be a peacemaker, but it is much easier to
make a

snarl than to put it straight, again–especially in the east wind. I
have tried to set things right and, meanwhile, I have asked myself, "Is
there not a remedy for these mischiefs?" I feel assured there is such a
remedy. Family discomfort, husbands and wives that cannot agree,
domestic difficulties, brothers and sisters that fall out, Church
troubles, members that are not treated kindly by others, (not generally
the kindest sort of people, themselves, I notice), difficulties in
business, difficulties in preaching–the world teems with these things!

When the wind is in the east, we meet with many people who cannot earn
enough wages, others who do not believe they were ever treated well
since they were born. There are others, again, who are highly deserving
people, but have never yet been appreciated as they should be. And
these all come out in crowds when the wind is in the east. Good men
become rabid for something new, find fault with old friends, invite
debate and quarrel about nothing–and this happens most often when the
wind is in the east. When this kind of spirit gets among Christian
people, it is very sad. But surely there must be a remedy for it! Many
nostrums are proposed, many quacks are ready to prescribe this and that
form of remedy for troubles and discords, but the results of the east
wind are not to be removed in that way–a higher power is needed.

I have heard of pills for the earthquake and medicine for the
comet–but I have no such patent medicine for the east wind! All I have
to tell you is borrowed from an old Book in which the wisest
prescriptions are to be found– prescriptions so excellent that if they
were followed, the inhabitant would no more say, "I am sick." This
windy night I shall take you to the great Physician of souls,
Jehovah-Rophi–The Lord Who Heals Us–who is able to cure all our
diseases and to give permanent relief from all evil so that our spirits
shall be at rest. I believe that we have a prescription in this verse,
which, if it is well attended to, will deliver you out of all troubles,
make you sing all your lives long, help you to travel from earth to
Heaven and be, all the while, as happy as the birds in the air!

Here it is–"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you are
also called in one body; and be you thankful." If we dissect our text,
we shall find, in it, four pieces of advice.

I. First, POSSESS THE PEACE OF GOD–"Let the peace of God rule in your
hearts." It cannot rule in your hearts if you have never felt its
power! Therefore, make certain that you are truly reconciled to God by
Jesus Christ. Many persons have peace, but, alas, it is false peace.
They have the peace of a soft, gentle, timorous, time-serving
charac-ter–a mean sort of peace, which, if it hurts no one else, often
ruins its possessor. Some have the peace of ignorance, the peace of
stupidity, the peace of utter indifference–false peace. These are the
followers of those false prophets who cried, "peace, peace," where
there was no peace. Woe to the man whose peace of mind is like the
deadly smoothness of the current just as it nears the waterfall!

Many are at ease in a condition which might make a wise man's hair turn
gray in a night. They were never emptied from vessel to vessel and,
therefore, they are settled upon their lees–but they shall be poured
out to their utter confusion. They think right well of themselves, but
already the axe of judgment is lifted against them. The peace that we
need to possess is the peace of God, which means, I think, first, peace
with God. Oh, what a blessed thing it is to feel that the great cause
of quarrel between our fallen spirit and the great Spirit is taken
away–that we are reconciled to God by the death of His Son–that sin,
the great divider, has been cast into the depths of the sea and that
there is established between us and God, a happy fellowship!

I hope many of you are, at this hour, enjoying such peace. If you have
it, rejoice in it! If you, then, are at peace with God, do not
perpetually act as if that peace were questionable and doubtful. Do not
sigh and cry as if the matter trembled in the balance. If we believe in
Jesus Christ, "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ." Oh, the joy of knowing that, "as far as the
east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from
us" and that, therefore, they can never return from so immense a
distance–yes, never return at all, for the Lord Jesus Christ has cast
them into the depths of the sea–and if they are searched for, they
shall not be found! Yes, they shall not be, says the Lord! Blessed is
that man who has peace with God through the atoning blood!

Growing out of this there comes, next, a peace with God with regard to
all His Providences which can only come through a complete and entire
submission to the Divine will, for some there are who are not at peace
with God, even about a certain Providence that afflicted them years
ago. They remain quarrelling with God about the decease of a beloved
wife, or child, or mother–they cannot forgive God for having taken a
flower out of His own garden. If they were wise, they would not thus
rebel, but find in their loving Savior a recompense for all their
losses. Was not that fine of An-

dromache, when she remembered that she had lost all her relatives
except her husband, and, gazing on him with delight, said–

"While my Hector still survives, I see

My father, mother, brethren, all in thee!" Cannot a Believer say the
same of the Lord Jesus? Far be it from us to raise a question about
what the Providence of God has already done! It must be right! The
point is to keep on submitting to that Providence in what is now
transpiring. If, for the present, the will of the Lord should send me
poverty, obscurity, pain, weariness, reproach, I must be at peace with
God about it all.

If the Lord says to me, "Go across the sea and leave all your friends,"
I must not delay. If He says, "Preach unwelcome Truths of God which
will make you enemies," I must not hesitate. If He says, "Stay in the
house with rheumatism," I must not come out of doors. If the Lord says,
"Lie on your back and cough," it is not for me to quarrel with Him and
say it ought not to be so. If He denies us that which we think would
make us not only more happy, but more useful, it is of no use for us to
kick against the pricks. The Divine appointment will certainly be
fulfilled and the misery to us will be in struggling against the yoke,
in endeavoring to have it otherwise than Divine love and infinite
wisdom have determined it should be!

If you cannot change your place, change your mind till your mind shall
take to your place and you shall love it! Why, there have been men so
helped of God to conquer self that they have hugged their crosses! I
think it is Rutherford who somewhere says that he was half afraid lest
he should begin to love his cross better than Christ. That is a fear
which will seldom need to cross our minds, but, oh, we ought to be
perfectly satisfied, perfectly content with that which pleases God! "If
this is the Lord's will, it is my will"–such a saying comes from a
happy heart! But if God has one will and we have another, it is clear
that the peace of God does not yet rule our hearts. Though forgiven and
though the grand cause of quarrel is gone, yet we are raising minor
points of difference and these instill strife. It is like a great
lawsuit that has been decided on all the grand features of the case and
yet, here is the plaintiff picking little points, raising little
questions and getting up fresh litigation! The point with us is to say,
"It is all given up. Whatever You will, Lord, I will; or at least I
wish to will. I ask for Grace that I may will it because You will it."

This voluntary submission to our Father's appointment is the peace of
God. This peace of God is, also, peace such as God commends–such as
God approves. That, you know, is first, perfect peace with Himself and
then with all men– certainly with His people, but also with all
mankind. "If it is possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably
with all men." Take heed that you do not offend! And if you are
offended by others, do not offend in return, but accept the offense in
patience–forgive it and forget it. Forbear, and when you have done so,
forbear! And when you have done so again, forbear! And when you have
forborne seven times, still forbear! I will not repeat the advice 70
times seven, though if I did, I should not go beyond the measure of
forbearance and of forgiveness which the Lord Jesus would have us
display. Be so at peace with God that you feel perfectly at peace with
your fellow men.

Whenever I have suffered a grievous wrong, it has been a satisfaction
to me to feel that, if my Lord Jesus Christ made atonement for my
offenses and my wrongs, I can look at His Atonement as an atonement for
the wrong done to me as well as to God, for He satisfied all parties in
that quarrel. Gladly do I say, "Surely, this poor soul may well be
forgiven by me, for You have died as the sinners' Substitute." In
comparison with my own offenses against God, I may well look upon this
man's offense as less than nothing! What if men should do the worst
they can do to us? What is it? What if they slay us? It is but a small
loss to a Christian to die! Therefore let us harbor no malice, but
feel, "No, we have entered into the truce of God and we are the friends
of every man that breathes." For my own part, I have a crusade against
the devil and all evil, but the truce of God is upon me with regard to
all my fellow men and, from now on, that peace which was proclaimed at
Bethlehem by the angels shall stand for me– "Peace on earth: good will
toward men." This is a sweet part of the peace of God! Cultivate it
carefully.

But this peace is called the peace of God because it is peace which God
works in the soul. I think I hear you exclaim, "To have such a peace as
that–a perfect consciousness of full forgiveness, complete
acquiescence in the will of God, perfect forgiveness towards all
mankind and an intense desire to live in perfect peace with all, both
saints and sinners–how can I get such a peace within me?" Ah, indeed,
how can you? It is impossible to unrenewed human nature! Man, by
nature, is worse than any wild beast, for he is a menagerie. There is
lion in him and there is serpent in him. There is tiger in

him and there is wolf in him. There is dog in him and there is devil in
him. He is half beast and half devil through the Fall. I do not
caricature him–his body allies him to the beast and sin makes him a
child of Satan!

Mr. Whitefield used to describe fallen nature and he was pretty near
the mark. "How shall this wild beast be taught to love? Shall the lion
eat straw like an ox? It never will till it leaves off being a lion. It
cannot do so–it has not fit teeth for eating straw, nor a fit stomach
for digesting grass. It cannot live on straw, like an ox, till God
changes it and gives it an ox-like nature." So it is with us–we need a
new nature before we can possess this peace with God. But how is that
to be done? Shall the Ethiopian change his skin? No. He cannot do that.
And if he could, it would not equal the miracle which we require. Our
default is not skin deep, only, it is much more than that. Changing
skins is difficult, but changing hearts is impossible except to God.
Shall the leopard get rid of his spots? Well, that is difficult, but
still, the task of taking spots out of leopards would be small compared
with the miracle of taking evil out of the very core of our wild
beastlike heart and putting into it the peace of God that makes us
love. Only God can do it!

God's own mighty Spirit must put forth that same energy with which He
will raise the dead out of their graves at the Resurrection–for
nothing short of creation and Resurrection power is able to transmute
this beastly, devilish heart of ours into a heart in which the peace of
God shall reign supreme! Well is it called the peace of God! My dear
Hearer, do you know this peace? If so, you will understand that because
of its excellence, it is called the peace of God. It is a Hebraism, for
among the Hebrews they called certain mountains that were higher than
others the hills of God–and certain gigantic trees, such as the cedars
of Lebanon, were the trees of God that were full of sap. So the peace
that is greater than every other peace is called the peace of God–it
means the holiest, deepest peace. It is "perfect peace"–peace that
nothing disturbs. It is a deep peace–"the peace of God, which passes
all understanding"–solemn peace at which you almost stand in awe! It
is a hush within the soul in which there is heard nothing of discord or
of fear, but a stillness reigns like that which was maintained in the
Holy of Holies, within the veil, where seraphim were silent above the
Mercy Seat.

"The peace of God" signifies the peace that never ends, everlasting
peace–the peace that will live with us throughout the whole of our
mortal sojourn till we come into the land of the immortal!–

"There shall I bathe my weary soul In seas of heavenly rest, And not a
wave of trouble roll

Across my peaceful breast."

"The peace of God." Oh, I have known it! You, too, my Brothers and
Sisters, must have known it when the Lord, Himself, has dwelt within
your hearts and kept all adversaries far away. You have then known days
of Heaven upon the earth. It has left nothing to wish for except the
perpetuation of itself, for you have been satisfied with favor and full
of the goodness of the Lord–filled with all the fullness of God,
anchored fast, settled, grounded, established!–

"My heart is resting,

my God!

1 will give thanks and sing. My heart is at the secret source Of every
precious thing."

That is the peace of God! Win it, dear Friends, and wear it! By God's
good Spirit enter into this serene haven. Rest in the Lord and be happy
in Him, for He is our peace! When the Lord and Giver of peace once
comes to tarry in your heart, let Him rest there and charge all about
you, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that they stir not up
nor awake your Love until He pleases.

II. But now let us consider the second piece of advice that grows out
of the text. If you possess this peace of God, let it

occupy the throne–LET THE PEACE OF GOD RULE IN YOUR HEARTS. In order
to there being any peace in the

heart, or anywhere else, there must be a ruler. Those people who are
for putting down all kings and principalities and powers may bid
farewell to peace. Anybody who is inclined to anarchy should read
Carlyle's, "French Revolution," with care and ask himself whether the
worst king is not, after all, a great deal better than the despotism of
the mob–the carnival of misrule wherein every man does that which is
right in his own eyes–all eyes love darkness rather than light.

Let loose the reins of government, let everybody be equal to everybody
else–and a little bigger than everybody else as well–and you will
soon see what confusion ensues! See how it is in a house! I hear that
there was great deliberation over those census papers, in many
families, to know who was the head of the household. But I am quite
clear that it was

not a happy household where that question took long to answer, for the
husband is the head of the wife and where he is not so, everything is
out of order–monstrous and outrageous. Where the head is not the head,
the hand is not the hand, the eye is not the eye, the heart is not the
heart–and nothing is itself at all! All is what it should not be and
all is misery. You must have a governing faculty somewhere and, within
your own soul, if nothing governs, I tell you boldly, the devil
governs! That man who does not control himself is controlled by the
devil, for he must have a master somewhere.

We cannot have two masters, but it is quite as certain that we must
have one! One power or another will master you. Shall it be your
Creator, or His enemy? Your Savior, or your destroyer? It is a blessed
gift of Grace if a man is enabled by the Holy Spirit to say–"The peace
of God shall rule in my heart." Paul advised this–"Let the peace of
God rule in your hearts." If it is in your hearts at all, it must rule,
for it has power to put down all rebellion. You know, when we have a
government and a magistracy with power at their back, if a riot arises,
we appeal to the lawful power to come and protect us and put down the
uproar. So in our hearts, if we have a master principle and that master
principle is the peace of God, we may, with confidence, pray, "O Lord,
put down this riot. I am tossed to and fro in my heart about my
circumstances. I do not like them and I quarrel with You about them.
Come, peace of God! Come and put down my murmuring! Come and calm my
wicked, discontented spirit."

Or do I feel some discord in my spirit towards one whom I ought to
love? I must cry, "Come, peace of God. Come, and arrest this bad temper
of mine! Handcuff it. Take it off to prison. Give it hard labor and
short commons! Bring it down till it is no longer able to rebel as it
does. Come, peace of God, and help me in the struggles of my daily
life, that I may not break out into anger, wrath, malice and all
uncharitableness. Come, peace of God, put forth Your mighty power over
my soul." This is the great remedy for the discord within and the
discords without–the grand cure for all distempers of the east wind
and all besides. Yield yourself to the control of the blessed peace of
God, for I find that the Greek word has that force–"Let the peace of
God umpire in your hearts."

You know the umpire in the Greek games decided how the runners should
run; how the wrestlers should wrestle and he ruled a contest to be, or
not to be, according to the law of the festival. He said, perhaps, that
such-and-such a blow in the fight was a foul blow, and if he said so,
there was no questioning him–it was decided. He stood at the finish
line when the runners came in and he declared a certain swift-footed
racer to be the winner. No man ever questioned the dictate of the
umpire! His voice ended all debate. He was the man who decided in the
games and whose verdict was never to be disputed.

Now, the peace of God is to do the same in our hearts. We ought to be
resolved to judge all things by the peace of God. "What ought I to do
in this case? Must I humble myself? I do not like it, but how ought I
to act? Shall I yield?" Pride says, "Never! No, no! Play the man. Never
give in!" But what does the peace of God say? It says, "Yield. Submit."
Christ says, "I say unto you, that you resist not evil: but whoever
shall smite you on your right cheek, turn to him the other, also. And
if any man will sue you at the Law, and take away your coat, let him
have your cloak, also." Christ decides that it will be good to be a
sufferer rather than to take revenge. We ought to have the peace of God
ruling in our hearts so as to let it decide our course and lead us to
do that which is consistent with our own peace with God.

I do not know how you find it, but I know that I cannot afford to be
angry. It takes so much that is valuable out of me. I am sure it does.
It does a man, physically, an immense mischief. To some men it is a
dangerous thing to get excited, it even endangers their lives. But,
spiritually, I believe that to get into a state of enmity towards
anybody is one of the most grievous diseases which can befall a
Christian! In such a case you cannot pray as you did. You cannot read
some passages of Scripture as you did. You cannot look the Well-Beloved
in the face, and say, "I am acting in a way that pleases You." It is,
therefore, a very serious thing for a Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ
to break his own peace–serious to himself as well as to those that are
round about him.

I pray you, therefore, dear Friends, let the peace of God decide for
you in all trials of temper, enduring of wrongs and questions which
lead to debate and separation. Set Peace in the chariot and let it hold
the reins, for anger will, like Phaeton of old, set the world on fire.
Oh, Peace of God, rule me! Pray God that the power of this peace may be
constantly upon you. If you lose your peace with God, you lose your
power to judge under difficulties. You lose your power of self-control
under provocations. You lose the best sovereign that ever held a
scepter! I believe that if a man is walking with God in the Light of
God and enjoying full fellowship with Heaven, he may go down into any
meeting, however tur-

bulent–into any society, however discordant the elements may be–and
yet he will be wise to answer, wise to be silent, wise to do, or wise
not to do–for the peace of God will keep him calm and quiet.

Once let the mind be thoroughly disturbed and unhinged before the
Lord–and you are weak as any other man and you will say that which you
will have to unsay–and you will do that which you would wish to wipe
out with your tears! When rest of soul is gone, hard things are spoken
and hard things are done which would not consort with communion with
the tender Lord. Let the peace of God always rule, or otherwise you
will not always be safe. Especially let the peace of God rule your
affections! Be satisfied that you love God and that your heart cleaves
to God and does not follow after any other. Be at peace with God as to
your heart and, when that is so, and the affections are dominated by
conscious love to God, it is then that you fight the battles of life
with comfort to yourself and with honor to the name of Him to whom you
belong.

III. Very briefly, I want, in the third place, to say, STRENGTHEN
YOURSELF, dear Friends, BY GOD'S SPIRIT,

WITH ARGUMENTS, in order that you may let the peace of God rule in your
hearts and may be kept from any breach of that heavenly peace.
Remember, you can only be happy in heart and healthy in spirit as long
as you keep the peace of God. You are sure to become wretched and
unhappy–you are sure to stumble, here and there, into faults–if that
peace of God is gone. As you would be in the best possible condition
for walking with God in joy while here, below, look to your peace. This
is no mean argument–try to feel the force of it.

And, next, only thus can the Church of God prosper. I am grieved when I
receive members from other Churches who come because they say that they
are weary of the incessant bickering and jealousies which have
disturbed their rest. I am sure that there can be no blessing where
there is no peace. A house divided against itself cannot stand. A
Church disputing is a Church committing suicide! Many and many a Church
has come to its death by bleeding inwardly through strife–otherwise it
might have defied the whole world and Hell itself! It is generally the
little Churches that squabble most–if they cannot excel in anything
else, they certainly claim the first rank in quarrelling. A few
Christian people get together to serve God and the devil comes in, at
once, and sets them by the ears–they are good men and true–but Satan
bewitches them so that they dispute about nothing at all.

Whenever I have to settle a dispute, I always like to have some big,
bad thing in it. This I can point out and we soon agree to set the
matter right. When I cannot, with a microscopes on my eyes, find out
what it is all about, I find that Brothers and Sisters are hardest to
be reconciled. It is easier to shoot an owl than a gnat! Little
differences rankle like tiny thorns and you cannot get them out of the
flesh. Oh, that the Spirit of God would come upon the Churches and turn
them into masses of fire! Then they would not fall to pieces through
intestine strife! When souls are being won; when the Gospel is being
enjoyed; when Christ is being glorified; when the Church is marching
on, conquering and to conquer through the Divine power that is in her,
then is there peace within her borders and her citizens are filled with
the finest of the wheat! But once let the life of God run low and let
the Spirit of God depart, then peace departs, too. Oh, may God save
this Church and save all the Churches from missing this blessed peace!
Let the peace of God rule in your heart, dear Brother, dear Sister, for
the Church's sake.

Remember, next, that God cannot be glorified unless there is the peace
of God in our hearts. My dear Friend, if you are always troubled and
fretting and anxious, I do not see how you can glorify God to any large
extent. Seek more faith, more trust, more confidence, more calm of mind
and you will personally glorify God. I am sure a Christian man who
always finds fault with everybody is of little service to the cause and
kingdom of our Lord. He who, wherever he goes, acts like a carrion crow
that soars aloft with no other design than finding out where a carcass
may be, that he may light upon it–he, I say, is not a man after God's
own heart–and neither will he advance the Lord's work among men! When
you love your fellow Christians so that their faults are covered by
your charity and you rather admire their excellences than publish their
infirmities, then it is that God is glorified by you! A happy, peaceful
people of whom men can say, "See how these Christians love one
another"–these shine as lights in the world and the darkness feels
their power!

The passage from which our text is taken offers us other reasons. It
says this–"To which you are also called." You were called to the peace
of God. My dear Brother, if you are not a peaceful man, you have not
inherited your true calling. When the Lord called you out from the
world, He called you to be a peacemaker. He called you on purpose, that
the Spirit of peace might be shed abroad in your heart and that
afterwards you might carry that peace with you into your own family and
among all your neighbors and spread it everywhere. The Lord Jesus never
called a man to be a maker of

strife! If a Christian woman, as she calls herself, goes from house to
house with tittle-tattle, she was not called by God to do so–of that I
am certain!

A man goes into his pulpit and preaches a personal sermon on purpose to
empty out his own spleen–God did not call him to that, for God loves
not firebrands! The man may have been sent as a messenger from other
regions, but certainly not as an ambassador from Heaven, when he
preaches gall and wormwood. Some seem, wherever they go, to make
mischief as speedily as possible–their mission is contention,
whereunto they certainly were not called of God! You who are the true
heirs of Heaven are called to peace–seek peace and pursue it. Wherever
you go, labor earnestly to make peace. If you see two boys fighting,
make them stop. If you see two girls in a bad temper, try to make them
happy with one another. If you see two people disagree in business, do
not back one of them up, and cry, "Go to the law with him," but plead
for peace and mutual concession. "Blessed are the peacemakers."

Whatever you may be in a household, whether father or child, husband or
wife, master or servant, son-in-law or mother-in-law, let your soul be
seasoned and savored with that blessed word, "Peace." There is always a
war party in England–I fear the Jingo is no foreigner, but the genuine
offspring of the British bulldog! An unconverted British is all for
blood, fire and glory–and as the unconverted are the majority among
us–we remain a fighting nation. Fighting– how we delight in it! Down
with the Afghans, down with the Zulus! The Boers? Destroy them! We
cannot get our fill of glory and honor unless we get knee deep in
blood! The policy of peace is voted dishonorable and so we go from land
to land till there is hardly a nation which has not been stained with
blood by British hands. How fiercely these English talk–but it is not
Christian talk! May the Lord teach us the language of peace.

Be you at peace, "whereunto also you were called." And then, notice
next, "Called in one body." There must, therefore, be peace among
Christians because we are called in one body to peace. What would you
think of my hand, if it should say, "I will have no peace with the eye.
That prying eye looked sharply at me the other day and spied out a
spot. I will put it out"? We shall not enjoy much prosperity if the
members of the body thus disagree. Suppose my foot should say, "I am
not going to carry that heavy body about. See what I have to suffer
through it at times." Suppose my knee should say, "I will not have it.
I have been tortured quite enough with rheumatism–I will no longer
carry that heavy fabric." What will become of me if the members of my
body thus fall to quarrelling? And what is to become of the Glory of
Christ if His members live in contention? What is the Head to do if the
members who make up His one mystical body have nothing to do but to be
striving, one against the other?

Oh, no! If you have any differences, end them tonight, I pray you, if
you can, even though the east wind is so piercing! If you have
unwittingly done anything that grieves others, try to remedy it. Or if
others have grieved you, end the matter by sweet and swift forgiveness.
Let it be all ended with the east wind! We are called in one body,
therefore let us dwell in hearty peace and may God the Holy Spirit, the
Lord and Giver of peace, bring us into the peace of God and keep us
there, for thereunto we are called in one body.

IV. The last point upon which I shall speak is this–to keep yourselves
right, OCCUPY YOUR MINDS HEALTHILY. "How?" you ask. The text says, "Be
you thankful." That is the way to keep up our peace with God! "Be
thankful." Do not complain, but bless His name for everything! Do not
quarrel with Him, but be thankful. Say, "Shall we receive good at the
hands of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil? The Lord gave, and
the Lord has taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord." That is
the way to be at peace with Him–to be thankful at all times. Bless God
for your mercies and for your miseries! Bless Him for your gains and
for your losses! Bless Him for your enjoyments and pleasures, and also
for your aches and pains! Bless Him for every hard thing that comes
from Him, for there is as much love in the hard as in the soft–God is
as kind when He uses the rod as when He gives a kiss. "Be you
thankful!" Bless Him from morning to night and all through the night
watches. What a mercy to be out of the hospital! What a mercy to have
the use of one's limbs and reasoning powers! What a mercy to be out of
prison! What a mercy to be out of Hell! "He has not dealt with us after
our sins." Be thankful!

Last Sunday morning, when I read this chapter in the great
congregation, I tried to ring it out as loudly as ever I could, and I
would like to ring it out as with a whole peal of bells now. Set them
all ringing a marriage-peal, if you like– "Be you thankful! Be you
thankful! Be you thankful!" Up, you murmuring! Up, you discontented!
"Be you thankful." Rouse yourselves, you sullen ones! You that think
you have a heavier load to carry than is fair and say, like Cain, "My
burden is greater than I can bear"–"Be you thankful!" All of you,
young and old, "Be you thankful." That

is the way to keep up your pence with God and your peace with your
fellow men! Well, but it does not mean only, "Be thankful to God," but
be you thankful to your fellow men.

Too many receive all kinds of Christian kindness as a matter of course.
They look upon the spontaneous kindness of their Brethren as a sort of
right. Now, that the poor should be helped by Christian generosity is
certainly according to Scripture–but this is an obligation not of debt
but of Grace. Whatever is done in almsgiving and charity should be
gratefully and heartily received. It is an unholy spirit which scarcely
has the courtesy to say, "thank you." Towards one another we ought to
have a thankful spirit. How thankful the child ought to be to his
mother and his father! What a happy home we should have if children
recognized the deep debt of obligation that is really due to those who
have nursed them and cared for them so long! How obliged, I think, the
husband ought to be to his wife for all her tender kind-nesses–those
hundred unseen ministries of love!

How grateful, I think, the wife should be to her husband, for all his
labors and anxieties! She receives a thousand things from him which
make life comfortable. If we live in mutual gratitude, feeling that we
are, each one of us, indebted to all others, how merrily will the
household wheels go round and what families of love we shall all gather
around us! I, of all the people in the world, am most in debt to
everybody–and I feel it deeply and truly. There is hardly a person
that I look upon from this pulpit but I owe something to his or her
Christian love. Everybody has been kind to me and I am not unmindful of
it. When I have lain upon my bed, sick and ill, I have marveled at the
kindness of you all! I wonder why you treat me so lovingly! In all holy
work, whether it is the College or Orphanage, you have been my ready
helpers and you still are. I cannot help saying, "God bless you."

Surely the wind is changing a point or two–we shall find it blowing
from another quarter when we leave this Tabernacle! I feel intense
gratitude in my soul towards the dear Brothers who surround me and the
Sisters that work with me for Christ. You have often made me happy and
cheered my spirit by the kind and generous way in which you have worked
with me for the Lord, bearing with all my infirmities. And I believe
that it is because I feel thankful that I feel peaceful and so remain
the center of your unity. I am not inclined to quarrel with anybody–I
would sooner run a mile than I would fight for half a minute! There is
nobody in the world that I would like to contend with–my heart is full
of good wishes to all men! It has been a sort of rule with me to
measure a man before I fight him–if he is bigger than I am, I know he
will beat me, so I decline battle! And if he is smaller and I can
easily beat him, it would be cruel and cowardly to do so.

Nobody in the world is worth contending against as to our temporal
interests. Even the necessary law is troublesome and vexatious. Be you
thankful, then, and if, with thankfulness to God and thankfulness to
those around you, you can fill up the day, oh, how happy will the days
be! In the family and in the business, God will be glorified, the
Church will be sweetened and welded together–we shall see better times
and shall no longer grumble at the east wind! May God bless you!
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The Use of the Bow