May 9

15 ¶ If ye love me, keep my commandments 16 And I will pray the Father, and be shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

17 Are the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me; because I live, ye shall live also.

20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?

23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my

sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.

25 These things have I spoken unto you, being set present with you.

26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you: Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.

30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

"Peace I leave with you is much; 'My peace I give unto you' is more. The added word tells the fathomless marvel of the gift—'My peace.' Not merely 'peace with God;' Christ has made that by the blood of His cross, and being justified by faith we have it through Him. But after we are thus reconciled, the enmity and the separation being ended, Jesus has a gift for us from His own treasures; and this is its special and wonderful value, that it is His very own. How we value a gift which was the giver's own possession! What a special token of intimate friendship we feel it to be! To others we give what we have made or purchased; it is only to very near and dear ones that we give what has been our own personal enjoyment or use. And so Jesus gives us not only peace made and peace purchased, but a share in His very own peace—divine, eternal, incomprehensible peace—which dwells in His own heart as God, and which shone in splendor of calmness through His life as man. No wonder that it 'passeth all understanding.'—F. R. Havergal.

Closet Promise.—Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.—John xiv. 27.

Thy reign is perfect peace, Not mine, but Thine; A stream that cannot cease,

For its fountain is Thy heart. Oh, depth unknown! Thou givest of Thine own, Pouring from Thine, and filling mine. —Frances Ridley Havergal.