March 23

Saturday after Septuagesima Sunday

Thanks be to God Who giveth us the victory. For He is our peace. I CORINTHIANS xv. 57; Ephesians 2:14.

VICTORY and peace, both these you must bring forth from your contact with the world. That peace which no earthly battles can disturb; that peace which reigns serene and deep in the heart during the onset of this world and Satan; and that victory which is the only proof that we are indeed God's servants, that He is with us and we with Him. Victory and peace! these two best gifts of the God of all victory, and the God of all peace, what blessings are they for us miserable sinners to hope for! And yet, clearly, we must have them or we are not finishing the work which He has given us to do! To toil patiently, cheerfully, hopefully, as long as He will have us, and then this to be the reward. There is always something very striking in the title of evening as applied to our eternal rest. We know very well how it is also represented to us as full noon—

There no cloud or passing shadow Dims the brightness of the air; Endless noonday, glorious noonday, From the Sun of suns is there.

But the coolness of the evening after the heat of the sultry summer day; the gorgeousness of the sunset vapours after the colourless clouds of the afternoon; the peace, the serenity, the love, if we may so express it, of the face of nature, they are indeed aptly and rightly taken as the types of the better, that is, the heavenly rest.

Joy of sad hearts, Bare thought, Freshen this weary life, while weary life shall be.