1. “You cannot look into the Bible,” says Dr. Morley Punshon, “either into the Old Testament or into the New, without discovering that peace is, so to speak, the master-blessing, the grand issue both of the Law and of the Gospel to mankind. It is the climax of the Jewish benediction, as if in those rich old times of Levitical costliness and beauty there was no higher blessedness than that The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.’ It is presented in glowing prophecy as the crowning result of the Messiah’s reign: ‘Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.’ ‘In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.’ Floating through the ages as the understood purpose of incarnate Deity, it reappears in the song with which Heaven announced His advent to enraptured Earth: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.’ It was the Saviour’s chosen salutation: ‘Peace be unto you’ — the salutation with which His heralds were to inaugurate their entrance into a dwelling: ‘Peace be to this house.’ The dying Saviour bequeathed it to His followers as His most precious legacy of love: ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.’ And the Apostle, in a prayer whose every emphatic word shows his estimate of its inestimable worth, supplicates the ‘God of peace to give peace always and by all means.’ ”
The word “peace” in the Bible does not merely mean that rest and tranquillity, and absence of annoyance, which we understand by the word; but it means all positive blessings, both spiritual and temporal. It is the common salutation in the East, and it was the usual benediction of our LORD, “Peace be unto you.” And so Jerusalem, which is the type of heaven, is by interpretation the vision of peace; and Melchizedek, its king, who was thus the king of peace, foreshadowed Him Who is the Prince of Peace; “Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty GOD, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace”; and the highest and fullest of all Christian well-wishing, and the amplest of all the Church’s blessings, is that the peace of GOD, which passeth all understanding, may be upon us and rest upon us for ever. It is, in short, that universal harmony in the relations between God and His creation which it has been the blessed work of CHRIST’S Incarnation to cause—the reconcilement of all things that are in heaven and in earth. It is the fruit of the passion of CHRIST, for “He is our peace,” as the Apostle says; the object of His teaching, as it is written; “And came and preached peace,” even the peace of the propitiated GOD with His erring and wayward children. [Note: Bishop A. P. Forbes, The Peace of God, 158.]
What is peace? It is the most potent and forceful thing in all the world. It is infinitely alive. It is life at its highest and its best.[Note: P. C. Ainsworth, The Blessed Life, 145.]
Bishop Perowne’s comment on Psa_85:8, “He will speak peace to his people,” is—“Peace: that is God’s great word, which in fact sums up and comprises all else.”[Note: J. J. Stewart Perowne, The Book of Psalms, ii. 107.]
Peace, which is the sovereign good.[Note: Pascal.]
2. Thus Peace is great enough to be treated as one of the great Christian doctrines. And its range is wide enough.
It is the usual salutation in the Old Testament, and covers all the good that one can desire for one’s friends. It is also common in the New Testament, though with a meaning that is at once restricted and deepened. Christ used the word both as greeting and as farewell. The Apostles used it in their letters.
Then there is the peace of God “which passeth understanding” (Php_4:7); and there is the peace of Christ—“My peace,” (Joh_14:27) He called it—which He gave to His disciples before He left them. There is the peace of the Holy Spirit which is ministered to those who have been justified by faith, and which is found as peace of conscience, peace of character, and peace of confidence. The peace of character is the peace of progress: it is won through struggle; it is sometimes victory and sometimes defeat.
In another way, peace is peace with God, peace with self, peace with other men. And peace with men includes peace with nations. Thus the doctrine of peace is the doctrine of war, and we have to consider from the Christian point of view the use of force, Christ’s teaching on non-resistance, and the whole subject of the necessity of war, its advantages and disadvantages, and the prospect of its passing away for ever.
It is a great subject: will it be as interesting as it is important? That depends on several things. It depends partly on what we mean by interest. And it depends partly on what we are. When Professor Seeley, the author of Ecce Homo, was closing his lectures at Cambridge on The Expansion of England, he said: “I am often told by those who, like myself, study the question how history should be taught, Oh, you must before all things make it interesting! I agree with them in a certain sense, but I give a different sense to the word interesting—a sense which after all is the original and proper one. By interesting they mean romantic, poetical, surprising; I do not try to make history interesting in this sense, because I have found that it cannot be done without adulterating history and mixing it with falsehood. But the word interesting does not properly mean romantic. That is interesting in the proper sense which affects our interests, which closely concerns us and is deeply important to us. I have tried to show you that the history of modern England from the beginning of the eighteenth century is interesting in this sense, because it is pregnant with great results which will affect the lives of ourselves and our children and the future greatness of our country. Make history interesting indeed! I cannot make history more interesting than it is, except by falsifying it. And therefore when I meet a person who does not find history interesting, it does not occur to me to alter history—I try to alter him.”
