love, those who have believed are still further assured of their perfect blessedness. If He died for us while we were enemies, if we were saved by His death, much more being saved shall we now live by His life. He who loved not His life, but gave it up for our life, shall He not now treasure up with ever-watchful care and never-failing tenderness the objects of His dying love, the very travail of His soul?
(2.) Peace is then ours. How great is the word peace, if we understand it in the royal spirit! The Saviour, even after His resurrection, and to His own favoured disciples, brings no greater benediction than this: Peace be with you. Only they who know the God of peace know the peace of God. Only they who know that Christ is our Peace understand fully what He means when He says, My peace I give unto you. That ample, all-capacious, warm, and beautiful robe of peace, which covers Christ after He finished our battle and gained our victory, covers now Christ and all who rose with Him in His resurrection. And therefore it is a peace which passeth all understanding, proceeding from the infinite depths of divine love, secured by the infinite sacrifice of Christ, imparted by the influence of the Holy Spirit; a peace which, divine in its origin and its channel, is beyond the reach of all worldly influences; a peace which is broad as a river, continually renewed in vitality, and flowing on calmly till it ends in the ocean of blessedness.
(3.) And do we seek joy in God? It is written,
