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next words the duty of forgiveness. Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any. And this he enforces with a very powerful argument-even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye!

My brethren, this surely is counsel not to be disregarded. There is not one amongst us who does not need to lay it to heart. Every week, every day, brings with it an occasion on which to exercise this leading duty of forgiveness. We have our quarrels, and our strifes, alas! pursued sometimes to terrible consequences; we are ruffled in temper, and feeling, and apt to make the most of our grievances, and to desire redress, and to press hard for punishment against the person who may have done us wrong. We are impatient if told that we ought to be more forbearing, more long-suffering: we stand upon our right, and will not listen to those who counsel forgiveness. And why? Surely because we have forgotten how much we ourselves stand in need of forgiveness! We have forgotten what is our condition before God-sinners, open to condemnation, pardoned solely through the merits, and intercession of our Redeemer!

Would it not be well, if we all kept this truth more constantly in mind? Would there not be less quarrelling, less bearing of malice. less com

plaining of our neighbour, if we had always before us the recollection of our own state before God-of the mercy which we ourselves need, and have received? As Christ forgave you, so also do ye!

Not less valuable, not less to be laid to heart, are the next words of this Epistle,—And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. We know from another passage of St. Paul's epistles what he has spoken in praise of charity; how he has set it, as it were, on a pedestal by itself-above faith, above hope. We remember that he tells us that all gifts and graces, however great and precious, are, apart from charity, nothing. And we do not wonder that when, as in this Epistle to the Colossians, he is laying down the rule of a Christian life, enumerating the chief qualities of mind, and character that ought to be ours, he should sum up all by insisting upon the surpassing excellence of charity. And above all things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness!

It is but saying in a little what he has said elsewhere more fully. But the fact that St. Paul has twice emphatically recorded his opinion on the subject, must make it of yet greater weight with his readers. There can now be no excuse for us who accept him for an inspired teacher-a man

blessed with immediate revelations from God-a man who thought, nor without reason, that he had the mind of Christ—if we do not follow after charity—charity in thought-charity in word— charity in deed-as the first and foremost of our Christian duties-that which can never be dispensed with in any man, "the bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before God!"

The next words—and I shall go no further than this to-day-the next words in this Epistle are the words of my text,-And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body. The peace of God! peace which is the end of strife- which is the opposite to confusion-which is the fruit of the Spirit who would not wish that this blessed peace might rule in his heart? We are called to it in one body-we hope to share it in one body; should we not all then study to attain it? should we not avoid all that may tend to the breaking of peace, or to the loss of peace? should we not follow after things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another?

But it is not so much peace with our neighbours of which the text speaks, but the peace of God; and this must be the peace which comes from God, which God bestows-that tranquillity of

mind, that repose and rest of the soul, out of which all disturbing, and terrifying influences have gone that peace which the poor demoniac found, out of whom the devils were departed, when he sat at his Deliverer's feet, calm and collected, and in his right mind!

That, surely, is the peace referred to in this passage that is the peace which in another epistle (the Epistle to the Philippians) St. Paul promises to his converts, and which he describes as the peace of God which passeth all understanding; which shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus!

We use in our English Church these very words at the conclusion of our service; and it is a great privilege to utter them-a comfort too, I believe, to many, to hear them. They are words which come home to us, which seem to be charged with the very message which we most need. For what can the heart of man, toiling, restless, uneasy, so much desire as this very thingthe peace of God?

And how is it to be obtained? how shall we arrive at this great blessing? Looking back to what goes before the mention of this peace in the Epistle, we find these words,-Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto

God. And then he adds, as the consequence of so doing, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

It would appear from this that prayer -a habit of seeking God in all our wants and difficultiesbringing our whole life, its troubles, its sorrows, its perplexities, before Him, is one condition of enjoying what is here described as the peace of God.

And such is ever the teaching of the Bible. The poor cry and the Lord heareth them; yea, and saveth them out of all their troubles. -Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Thee. None know, but those who have made the experiment, what a true word this is how sure a refuge God is to those who seek Him-how deep the rest which they enjoy who make God their trust, and “lean upon the hope of His heavenly grace."

But, again, the peace of God is that which the soul enjoys that is reconciled to Him.

So long as we are enemies to God through wicked works, we can know nothing of true peace. There may be an assumed peace, a reckless hardihood of indifference; there may be the peace of an unawakened conscience, but there is no real genuine peace, no rest, no tranquillity, in the heart of the man who goes on still in his wickedness.

Such a

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