GO IN PEACE
‘Go in peace.’
Luke’s gospel abounds with lovely stories; it is he who tells of the penitent woman and the penitent thief.
I. Christ spoke a great deal about peace.—He knew the human heart through and through; He knew how restless it was, how much it needed peace. ‘I speak that which I have seen too often to have one shadow of a doubt upon the subject—and all the medical profession will endorse it— the best medicine is peace.’
II. Earthly things cannot give peace.—‘It is not in the power of houses, vineyards, gardens, orchards, trees, and pools of water to satisfy the heart of man. In one word, the material can never satisfy the spiritual. Build your fine houses, put on gold where you have now laid on gilt, put musical instruments in every room, make your beds of down and carpets of embroidered silk, and sit down in the midst of it on a chair of ivory, and one pang of heart hunger will turn the whole glittering scene into ghastly mockery.’
III. Only Christ can say, ‘Go in peace.’—He is the Lord of Peace, as St. Paul says, ‘The Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times in all ways’ (2 Thessalonians 3:16, R.V.). A prince gives princely gifts, so the peace of Christ is princely peace which sorrow and death cannot destroy. Those tearful Wounds speak peace. As St. Bernard said, ‘Good Jesus, Thy wounds are my merits, and we seal it all with the Sacrament of peace.’
Rev. F. Harper.