Chapter 6: BURDENS, AND WHAT TO DO WITH THEM
Chapter 5: WHY SIGN THE PLEDGE?
THE FEELING AMONG Christians against strong drink is growing. By the efforts and self-sacrifice of tens of thousands, a strong public sentiment can be formed, like a mighty breakwater. An arrest may be placed on the onward march of drunkenness, and many a bark, battered by the fury of Passion and Self-indulgence, safely moored in the haven, sheltered from utter ruin, and able to repair its terrible wreckage. Let us do our best to build our few stones into this great breakwater, which is only made up by the small work of unknown and soon-forgotten builders.
One important means by which so much can be done, is the use of the Pledge. It will be a great mistake if the signing of the Pledge should ever fall into disuse, or become an object of contempt
1. Reckon on God. If you desire spiritual gifts, not for your own gratification, but for the glory of Christ; if so far as you know, your heart is rid of evil, and your life of sinful habit; if you perceive that the promise is for you because you are not only a son, but an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ; if you feel an eager desire that God has instilled to lead you to this very point-then open your mouth wide, and believe that God fills it; unshutter every window, and believe that the light enters; throw wide every aperture, and believe that you have received what you needed and sought. According to your faith, it shall be unto you.
In some moment of need, or when you least expect it, or when engaged in usual tolls, some glad consciousness of joy, or peace, or nearness to Christ, or power over others, will be the evidence that you did receive.
2. We must care for others. No life can be blessed which is self-centered, and shut in, as the Dead Sea, by giant walls. The secret of having is giving; of learning is teaching; of climbing to the throne is by stooping to wash the feet of the disciples. Think more of others than yourself, and your own life shall be never so rich and prosperous. "I want-I want Christians to go all over the world, and spread the Gospel " These words, spoken with labored breath, were almost the last uttered by a beloved Christian worker.
And yet in some quarters there is a disposition to think and speak lightly of the Pledge.
"Oh," says one, "I can keep teetotal without signing your Pledge."
"Yes," says another, "it is childish to sign away your freedom."
"It may be all very well," says a third, "for some to do it, but it is not so for me."
Why, then, should we sign the Pledge of Total Abstinence?
Sign the pledge: it is your protest against strong drink.-It is time for every thoughtful person to enter a solemn protest against strong drink, which every year is inflicting such awful havoc. Who can be indifferent to the woes it brings on hearts and homes, on villages and towns, on countries and continents? Well may the Hindus call it "Shame-water." There is hardly a house in which you may not find its slain. There is not a newspaper that does not record its diabolical outrages. There is not a public officer that could not bear damning evidence against it.
We can not do much, but let us do what we can. We have a voice, a right to cry aye or nay, a power to assent or protest. Let us use them by all means on the right side. And if we cannot express our feeling in any other way, let us at least sign a solemn declaration on paper that we will never again touch the cruelest foe that ever reveled in human tears and blood.
Sign the pledge: it will benefit your health. Alcohol 's not more necessary to health than any other chemical or medicinal agent. It excites the heart, hinders digestion, disturbs the liver, and stupefies the brain. It gives a momentary glow and stimulus, but you have to pay for them afterward by an inevitable lessening of vital heat and animal power and mental force. Even in moderate quantities it acts as an irritant and a poison.
The athlete, in training for a boat-race, a prizefight or a running match, must forego the use of alcohol; and if men do not want it for such extraordinary exertions, why do you want it for ordinary ones? English expeditions in Abyssinia, the Transvaal and Egypt, proved that if a General wished his troops to perform forced marches, or to undergo un usual fatigues, he must substitute coffee for grog. The extremes of the Arctic circle and the tropical sun are best endured on cold water, as the experience o many explorers and travelers proves. The tables o insurance offices show that one hundred moderate drinkers die for every seventy-three abstainers, and many offices have a special section to give abstainer the benefits of insurance at a lower price.
It would be a perfect revelation to some who reap these words if they would give total abstinence trial. Your appetites would be better, your mind would be clearer, your nerves would be stronger, an your whole system would get fitness and tone
Sign the pledge: it will save your time. We have only one short life to live, and we can not afford to fling the diamond moments into the rushing stream beside us. How many days in the fore part of the week are spent by our working-classes in tavern which are a dead loss to them and their families and the country! How many hours are spent by clerks and commercial travelers in the course of the week, at the bars of railway stations and restaurants, which might be sown with the seeds of golden harvest! How many evenings are worse than wasted in convivial company, which might be spent in innocent and health-giving recreation, or in acquiring knowledge which would unlock many a shut door! From all this you would escape, if you signed the Pledge.
Sign the pledge: it will save your purse.-Sit down and calculate how much you spend a day in drink, not only for yourself, but also for those whom you treat. It will amount to a respectable sum in the course of the year. Add to this the money you might earn in the time you now lose. Add to this all the sums squandered wastefully in the company into which habits of drinking lead you. And when all is put together, would it not make a nice amount against a rainy day, or for illness and old age?
I often say to those who sign my pledge cards that there is a $500 note hidden inside the double cardboard.
Sign the pledge: it will save you from temptation.-You have no intention of becoming a drunkard; you scorn the thought. But there is a risk of your becoming one, so long as you tamper with the drink. You take it now for the sake of society, but you will come to take it for its own sake. You cannot be sure that daily dram-drinking may not do for you what it has done for myriads, in exciting a thirst, now perhaps dormant, but which, when once aroused, will be unsatiable. Wise men, good men, strong men have been mastered by that awful thirst, who no more expected such a thing than you do. Is it not folly, then, for you to run the risk of creating it? Why not stop at once, before that thirst has been aroused?
You tell me that it seems hard for you to do with out the drink. Then that is a sure sign that the accursed appetite has got a foothold within you. Spring off the car ere it rushes down the incline. Run the boat into a creek ere it is caught by the rapids above the falls. Force the cloven foot back out of the door before the demon has time to thrust his whole body into your heart and life. Do it at once. Do it now You ask not to be led into temptation, then don't go into it. Taverns are well-called "shades" and "vaults.' They are the shades of death, and vaults for the burial of all that is noblest and best in men. Avon them. Pass them by. Refuse to enter them unless the Good Shepherd sends you there to find a lost sheep.
Sign the pledge: it will make a definite starting, point in your history.-In all efforts after a better life it is well to have some landmark or time mark to which to look back and from which to date. There is a sort of satisfaction in being able to point to mental stone-heap, or crease-line, or white-painted post, standing out on the moorland of life, and to say: "Up to that point I lived a selfish, evil life, but since then I have tried to run fair and well, by the help of God."
With some it is a sermon. With others it is a birthday, a death, an entry in the diary, or a New Year's Eve. With others it is the visit of some Gospel temperance advocate to their town. But in many cases, the same purpose is served by signing the pledge. The date of that pledge-card is a birthday, a new start, a beginning of a new era in the story of the soul; and it very often leads to the second step of faith in Christ.
Sign the pledge: it makes a strong obligation.-When a man gives up the drink, he must do all that can be done to strengthen his resolution. If he simply makes a resolution, he feels at liberty to withdraw from it if he choose. But if he double-knots his resolution with a solemn promise to which he has put his hand, then he feels bound by the most solemn obligations. He dare not violate his plighted troth. And in the moment of temptation, his self-respect, his love for truth, his desire to be a man of his word, his written vow, will be a strong reason for saying No
A gentleman who signed the pledge-card recently said that during the whole of the next day he carried it in his pocket, and took it out fifteen times to remind him that he had put his hand to a promise j which he dared not violate, and could not retract.
Sign the pledge: it will give a sufficient answer to those who tempt you to drink.There is no answer that a man can give so good as this. If he refuses because he is hot, he will be advised to drink to get cool. If he refuses because he is cold, he will be recommended to drink to get warm. If he refuses because he can not afford it, his companion will gladly treat him. If he refuses because he is not well, there is no ailment to which flesh is heir for which intoxicating drinks are not prescribed as a certain cure. Men who are well drink till they are ill; and then drink to get themselves well again. None of these excuses avail, but if a man says, `'I have signed the pledge." they may think him a fool, but they cannot say that he has not given a sufficient reason; and if they are true men themselves, they dare not ask him to break his word. If a man asks you to drink after you have signed the pledge, lie is no true friend; he is doing the devil's work. He is certain to turn round and insult you after- you have done his will, because he will have lost the last fragment of respect for you. There are some men who must have a reason to give others for doing as they do. Here at least is a clear, straightforward, intelligible reason, which puts an end to controversy, and settles the matter forever-"I have signed the pledge."
Sign the pledge: it keeps it from becoming the badge of a reclaimed drunkard.-If the pledge were only signed by men who had been drunkards, but who were trying to live a new life, it would become the badge of reclaimed drunkards, and it would soon cease to be signed by this class of men who need it most. This would be a great calamity.
"I dare not sign the pledge," said a young doctor to a friend who was trying to get him to do so, as a means of saving him from ruin. "Why not?" was his friend's reply. "Because, if people heard that I had done so, they would say that there must have been a screw loose in my character, and that I was a reclaimed drunkard." "No," said his friend, "they never can say that, for it has been signed by thousands of thousands on whose character there has never been a stain." The answer reassured him. He took the pledge, and is become an earnest Christian worker.
You may not need to sign the pledge for yourself, but sign it that you may give the benefit, the weight, the standing of your own moral character. If every one of reputable and stainless character were to stand aloof, the pledge would be a hopeless failure. Every respectable Christian person who signs it is like one of the corks floating on the surface of the sea, helping to sustain the heavy nets laden with fish.
Sign the pledge: it makes it easier for others to do the same.--We are creatures of fashion. We cannot hell, it. We are made so. What one does, tyre others are apt to do. There's many an eager eye looking to see what the reader of these lines is going to do. If he signs the pledge, that boy, that companion, that servant, will do the same; but if he refuses to do so, it may be that the waiting one will also refuse, and that refusal will lead to ruin.
More eyes are watching us than we think. More lives than we know are on the balance, waiting for the feather of our example to turn them this way or that. Are we right in leaving anything undone that might save one for whom Christ died? We must use all means to save some, though the use of the means compel us to forego some boasted liberty, or some loved indulgence. Don't say that you have no influence. It is only an excuse, you have; you would not like another to say that. "I have no influence," said a man to one who asked him to take the pledge for the sake of others . His wife came up at that moment and said, "That' s true, you have no more influence than a cat." "If you say that again, woman," said he, "I will knock you down " Of course you have influence. Use it well.
Sign the pledge: it will win you friends.--We all need friends, and if we have given up those why gather round the drink, we need others, and we almost likely to find these wherever there are pledge cards to be had for signature. It is all very well to resolve to give up drink and to keep the vow secretly but it is much better to take the pledge in the presence of one or more persons, who shall bear witness to what they have seen, and who will be bound to you in the bonds of a new and common brotherhood because they have done the same thing, and are pledged to the same cause.
OBJECTIONS
But l do not like to sign away my liberty.-Then if you are unmarried, you will never be married; you'll surely never promise to love and honor any one individual, because you may want to change your mind. And what is true in this case is true in others and is a sufficient answer to the objection.
If you like, take the pledge for a short time only as you take the lease of a house. You can easily re new it again and again. Or, better still, promise to abstain, by God's help, from all intoxicating drinks as a beverage, until you return your pledge-card to a friend. This will give you an opportunity of relinquishing it when you choose, and it will give him an opportunity of speaking earnestly with you when your purpose is faltering.
But l may be forced to drink.-If you are, you will not violate your pledge. You only promise to abstain from intoxicants as a beverage. If it is poured down your throat by force, or when you are fainting; if the physician compels you to take it; if you take it unawares in some dish of cookery; your pledge is not broken. It is not you that break it. But I have taken it, and broken more than once. Then take it again, in humble dependence on the Saviour, who has been manifested to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3 : 8).
Most, if not all, total abstinence pledges lay stress on the words-GOD HELPING ME. These words are the heart of all. If they are not felt deep down in the soul, the pledge is not good for much, it rests on mere human strength. But when God is appealed to, the case is altered. Divine power pours into the spirit which is lifted up to Him in prayer and trust. Angel hands are stretched out to hold back the erring feet. A holy garrison is put inside the weak and trembling nature to hold it against the foe. Ask the Lord Jesus to forgive the past. Ask Him to save you from your enemy. Ask Him to shield you in the day of battle. Ask Him, when the door is nearly battered in, to put His foot against it and keep it closely shut. He is able to keep you from stumbling. He is able to keep that which you commit to Him. He is able to make you more than a conqueror. Put yourself into His hands before you leave your room in the morning. Keep looking to Him all day. Praise Him for His grace each night.
"What's that, that you keep mumbling to yourself?" said a working man to another at a little distance from him in the same shop.
"I keep on saying `Lord help me,'" was the reply; "I say it day and night. It is the only way I know of to keep down my thirst for the drink."
Take heart, my friends. The battle may be sharp, but victory is sure. And when once you stand firm on the rock, be on the alert to rescue others from the raging waters of strong drink.
Chapter 6: BURDENS, AND WHAT TO DO WITH THEM
DO YOU KEEP the Sabbath? Not indeed the literal seventh-day rest, but the inner rest of which that day was the blessed type. The pause in the outward business of life was but a parable of that inner hush, which is not for one day but for all days; not for one race but for all men; not for the hereafter only but for now. The Sabbath-keeping which awaits the people of God, undiminished in a single atom by the storms which have swept around it, is for all faithful souls, who may take it when they will and carry it with them.
Through dusky lane and wrangling mart,
Plying their daily task with busier feet,
Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat.
A strain borrowed from the eternal chords and harmonies of the life and being of God.
The secret of Sabbath-keeping is in the absence of burden-bearing. "Thus saith the Lord, Take heed to yourselves and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day." And in the words that follow, the continual presence of a king is made to hinge on obedience about burdens (Jer. 17:24, etc.). Nehemiah was so urgent in this matter that he set his servants at the city gates, as they crowned the gray summit of Zion, "that there should be no burden brought in on the Sabbath day" (Neh. 13 :19)
And what was true in those bygone days is true always. There can be no true Sabbath-keeping when burdens are freely brought into the precincts of the soul. As well try to sleep when a party of high-spirited, healthy children are tearing up and down the house, and playing hide-and-seek in all the rooms. Care will break the rest of the soul as much as sin does. And there is no hope that we should know the peace which passeth all understanding till we have learned the art of shutting the door against the long train of burden-carrying thoughts which are always coming up the hill from the world beneath to fill our spirit with the ring of their feet and the clamor of their cries.
We need not stay to describe the results which burden-bearing brings to the heavy-laden. They are evident in the careworn look, the weary eye, the heavy step. But deeper than these, there is no power in prayer, no joy in God, no lying down in green pastures, no walking beside the waters of rest. As snowflakes in the arctics or sand-grains in the tropics will build a rampart before some lowly dwelling sufficient to exclude the light, so will worries, each infinitesimal in itself, shut out the blessed light of God from the soul and make midnight where God meant midday.
Burden-bearing sadly dishonors God. As men of the world look upon the faces of those who profess to be God's children, and see them dark with the same shadows as are flung across their own, they may well wonder what sort of a Father He is. Whatever be a man's professions, we can not helping judging him by the faces of his children. And if God be judged by the unconscious report made of Him by some of His children, the hardest things ever said against Him by His foes are not far from the truth.
Under such circumstances the unbeliever may fitly argue, "Either there is no God, or He is powerless to help, or He does not really love, or He is careless of the needs of His children. Of what good will religion be to me?" We are either libels or Bibles; harbor-lights or warning-signals; magnetic or repellent; and which very much depends on how we treat our burdens.
Of course there is a difference between Care and Pain; between bearing the self-made burden of our anxieties, and suffering according to the will of God. We must not make light of sufferings sent by our Father to teach lessons which could only be learned in the school in which our Lord and Saviour has sat before us to learn obedience. The chastened spirit must go softly, and withdraw itself to suffer. But this is very different from burden-bearing. There will be no doubt as to the Father's care, no worry about the issues, no foreboding as to the long future, which to the eye of faith gleams like the horizon-rim of the sea on which the sun is shining in splendor, though dark clouds brood immediately overhead.
Before we are thoroughly awake in the morning we sometimes become conscious of a feeling of depression, as if all were riot right; and a voice seems to tell a long tale of burdens to be carried, and difficulties to be met as the hours pass by.
"Ah!" says the voice, "a miserable day will this be."
"How so?" we inquire fearfully.
"Remember there is that creditor to meet, that skein to disentangle, that irritation to soothe, those violent tempers to confront. It is no use praying. Better linger where you are, and then drag through tile day as you can. You are like a martyr being led to his death."
And too often we have yielded to the suggestion, and have dragged ourselves wearily through the hours, doing our daily tasks with hands engaged and strength spent by the burdens which we have assumed. God is pledged to give strength for all duties which He sets, but not for the burdens which we elect to take on as well.
The one cure for burden-bearing is to cast all burdens on the Lord. The margin of the revised version of Psalm 55:22 reads thus: Cast that He hath given thee upon the Lord. Whatever burden the Lord hath given thee, give it back to Him. Treat the burden of care as once the burden of sin; kneel down and deliberately hand it over to Jesus. Say to Him, "Lord, I entrust to-Thee this, and this, and this. I can not carry them, they are crushing me; but I definitely commit them all to Thee to manage, and adjust, and arrange. Thou hast taken my sins. Take my sorrow, and in exchange give me Thy Peace, Thy Rest." As George Herbert says so quaintly, "We must put them all into Christ's bag."
Will not our Lord Jesus be at least as true and faithful as the best earthly friend we have ever known? And have there not been times in all our lives when we have been too weary or helpless to help ourselves, and have thankfully handed some wearing anxiety to a good, strong man, sure that when once it was entrusted to him, he would not rest until he had finished it to his satisfaction? And surely He who loved us enough to die for us may be trusted to arrange all the smaller matters of our daily lives!
Of course there are one or two conditions which we must fulfill, before we shall be able to hand over our burdens to the Lord Jesus, and leave them with Him in perfect confidence. We must have cast our sins on Him before we can cast our cares. We must be at peace with God through the work of our Saviour before we can have the peace of God through faith in His gracious interposition on our behalf. We must also be living on God's plan, tarrying under the cloud, obeying His laws and executing His plans so far as we know them. We must also feed faith with promise, for this food is essential to make it thrive. And when we have done all this we shall not find it so difficult
To kneel, and cast our load,
Fen while we pray upon our God,
Then rise with lightened cheer.
HAND OVER TO CHRIST THE BURDEN OF HOW TO GROW IN GRACE
This is a very great burden to some earnest people They go from convention to convention, from on speaker to another, notebook in hand, so eager to get the blessing (as they term it), and often thinking more of the rapture of the gift than of the Person c the Giver. And because they hear of others having experiences which they know not, they carry heavy burdens of disappointment and self-reproach.
Equally well might a child in kindergarten fret because he is not entered in the higher classes of the school. But why should he worry about his future progress? His one business is to acquire the lessor set him by his teacher. When those are learned
will be for him to teach his pupil more, and advance him to positions where quicker progress may be made. And it is for us to learn the lessons which the Lord Jesus sets before us day by day, leaving Him lead us into the fuller knowledge and love of God.
Thomas was one of the dull pupils in our Master's school. He could not see what was clear to all beside. But instead of chiding him, and leaving him to grope in the dark, the Master paid him a special visit, and made the glad fact of His resurrection so simple that the doubter was able to rejoice with the rest. Don't worry about your dullness; it will only mean that the dear Master will give you longer and more personal attention. Mothers give most pains to the sickly, weak, and stupid among their children
HAND OVER TO CHRIST THE BURDEN OF MAINTAINING A CHRISTIAN PROFESSION
Many are kept from identifying themselves openly with the Lord's people by a secret feeling that they will never be able to hold out. They carry with them a nervous dread of bringing disgrace on their Christian profession, and trailing Christ's colors in the dust. Almost unconsciously, they repeat the words of David, "I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul" (1 Sam. 27:1).
Anxiety about so sacred a matter as this will hide the face of Christ, as the impalpable vapor-wreaths hide the majestic, snow-capped peaks. And it is quite needless. He who saved can uphold. As is His heart of love, so is His arm of might. He is able to keep from stumbling, and present us faultless before the presence of His glory. But we shall never know the sufficiency of that keeping while we cling to the boat, or even keep one hand upon its side. Only when we have stepped right out on the water, relying utterly on the Master's power, shall we know how blessedly and certainly He keeps what is committed to Him against that day.
We must not carry even the burden of daily abiding in Him. Let us rather trust Him to keep us trusting and abiding in Himself. He will not fail us if we do, and will answer our faith by giving us an appetite for those exercises of prayer, Bible study, and communion, which are the secrets of unbroken fellowship.
HAND OVER TO CHRIST THE BURDEN OF CHRISTIAN WORK
How to maintain our congregations; how to hold our ground amid the competition of neighboring workers; how to sustain the vigor and efficiency o our machinery; how to adjust the differences arising between fellow and subordinate workers; how to fine material enough for sermons and addresses-beneath the pressure of burdens like these how man. workers break down! They could bear the work, but not the worry.
And yet the responsibility of the work is not our but our Master's. He is bearing this world in Hi arms, as a mother her sick child. He is ministering to the infinite need of man. He is carrying on H great redemptive scheme for the glory of His Father All He wants of us is a faithful performance of the daily tasks He gives.
Let the sailor-lad sleep soundly in his hammock; the captain knows exactly the ship's course. Let the errand-boy be content to fetch and carry, as he is bidden; the heads of the firm know what they are about, and have plenty of resources to meet all their needs. And let the Christian worker guard against bearing burdens which the Lord alone can carry. The Lord would never have sent us to His work without first calculating His ability to carry us through.
HAND OVER TO CHRIST THE BURDEN OF THE EBB AND FLOW OF FEELING
Our feelings are as changeable as April weather. They are affected by an infinite number of subtle causes-our physical health, the state of the atmosphere, over-weariness, want of sleep-as well as by those which are spiritual and inward. No stringed instrument is more liable to be affected by minute changes than we are. And we are apt to take it sorely to heart when we see the tide of emotion running out fast.
At such times we should question ourselves, to see whether our lack of feeling is due to conscious sin or worrying; and if not, we may hand over all further anxiety in the matter to Him who knows our frame, and remembers that we are dust. And as we pass down the dark staircase, let us hold fast to the handrail of His will, willing to do His will, though in the dark. "I am as much Thine own, equally devoted to Thee now in the depths of my soul, as when I felt happiest in Thy love."
HAND OVER TO CHRIST ALL OTHER BURDENS
Servants with their frequent changes; employers with unreasonable demands; unkind gossip and slanderous tales which are being circulated about you; the perplexities and adversities of business; the difficulties to make two ends meet; the question of changing your residence, or situation, and obtaining another; children with the ailments of childhood and the waywardness of youth; provision for sickness and old age. There are some whose businesses are peculiarly trying, and liable to cause anxious thoughts; others whose horizon is always bounded by the gaunt specters of poverty.
Any one of these will break our rest, as one barking dog may break our slumber in the stillest night, and as one grain of dust in the eye will render it incapable of enjoying the fairest prospect. There is nothing for us, then, but roll our burden, and indeed, ourselves, on God (Ps. 22:8, marg.). When a little boy, trying to help his father move some books, fell on the stairs beneath the weight of a heavy volume, the father ran to his aid and caught up boy and burden both, and bore them in his arms to his own room. And will our Father do worse? He must love us infinitely, and be ever at hand. "He careth for you" (1 Pet. 5 : 7).
It is a good way in dealing with God, and if you are not quite sure of His will, to say that you will stay where you are, or go on doing what you have been doing, until He makes quite clear what He wants and empowers you to do. Roll the responsibility of your way on God (Prov. 16:3, marg.), and expect that He will make known to you any alteration which He desires in a way so unmistakable, that though you are dull and stupid you may not mistake.
Don't worry about dress, or ornaments, or doubtful things. Satan loves to turn the soul's attention from Christ to itself. It is as if a girl should spend an hour in her room wondering in what dress to meet her lover, who is waiting impatiently below. Let her go to him, and if she desires it, he will soon enough tell her clearly what he prefers. Get into the presence of Jesus, and you will not be left to hazy questionings and doubtful disputations, but will be told clearly and unmistakably His will, and always definitely about one point at a time.
Archbishop Leighton sweetly says: "When thou art either to do or suffer anything, when thou art about any purpose of business, go, tell God about it, and acquaint Him with it-yea, burden Him with it-and thou hast done for matter of caring. No more care, but sweet, quiet diligence in thy duty, and dependence on Him for the carriage of thy matters. Roll over on God, make one bundle of all: roll thy cares, and thyself with them, as one burden, all on thy God."
And so, when no burdens are brought into the soul, but are handed immediately over to the blessed Lord, the peace of God will fill the inner temple. And though outside there may be the strife of tongues, and the chafe of this restless world, like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, and the pressure of many engagements, yet these things shall expand themselves on the battlements of the life which is the environing presence of God; while, within, the soul keeps an unbroken Sabbath, like the unruffled ocean depths, which are not stirred by the hurricanes that churn the surface into foam and fury. "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall garrison your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:7).