sinner. He could get over many of his disquietudes, if he could keep
soul; disappointment; wounded affection; worldly losses; bereavement;
vexations, cares, weariness of spirit; broken hopes; deceitful friendships;
our own blunders and failures; the misconduct or unkindnesses of others.
These produce dispeace; these are the winds that ruffle the surface of life's
sea.
Many are the efforts and appliances to obtain peace. Man's whole life is
filled up with these. His daily cry is, "Give me peace!" He tries to get it in
such ways as the following:-
1. By forgetting God. It is the remembrance of God that troubles a
sinner. He could get over many of his disquietudes, if he could keep
God at a distance. He tries to thrust Him out of his thoughts, his heart,
his mind, his conscience. Though he could succeed, what would it
avail? He would only bring himself more surely into the number of
those who shall be "turned into hell"; for they are they who "forget
God." What will forgetting God do for a soul? What will it avail to
thrust Him out of our thoughts?
2. By following the world. The heart must be filled by someone or in
some way. Man betakes himself to the world, as that which is most
congenial, and most likely to satisfy his cravings. Pleasure, gaiety,
business, folly, change, gold, friends,-these man tries; but in vain.
Peace comes not.
3. By working hard and denying self. The dispeace of a troubled
conscience comes from the thought of evil deeds done, or good deeds
left undone. This dispeace he tries to remove by trying to shake off
the evil that is in him, and to introduce the good that is not in him.