OCR Text |
Show - 1L. of 0o1 BDd ,h. rneu , War uetwn men and men is concluded con-cluded by terms of p.uee. There are : mutual agreements. Each yields some- 1 tulng. and If one- yields more thou the , other, yet the victor yields sometiUn '. to save the honor of the conquered , party, which yields more unwillingly. ! There is, or should be, a courtosy be- j tween the two In making terms o ! paace. But peace between God and man ta i concluded on the terms of unconditional uncondition-al surrender nothing lesa. Further than this, It is a heart surrender, not a surrender of mere material forces. The surrender is gladly made, not like terms of peace between nations after war, when the oonquered party only yields to force, yet declares he was in the right, but cheerfully as if in triumph, tri-umph, owning that the enmity with. God was all wrong, and that now God's conquest of the soul is its beat blessing. So the man who comes into peace with God yields everything, all he has, all he is. He holds back no fort, no arms, no wealth, no energy. He promises it all to the God into whose new service he has come. So in terms of peace between nations na-tions at war there is humiliation to the conquered party. Spain feels humiliated; humil-iated; so did France in 1870, when peace was made in Paris. But when a man comes into peace with God the days of his humiliation are over. Ha now feels himself a free man. He has become a son of God, and his heir. He has been both enfranchised and adopted, adopt-ed, and Jesus becomes his elder brother. broth-er. He counts his years from his new birthday, his independence day. A great love comes into his soul for his God and Savior, and he thrills with joy over the absolute, complete and unconditional un-conditional surrender which constituted consti-tuted the terms of his peace with God. When a victorious nation makes peaoe with a conquered one, It considers consid-ers chiefly its own interests. It takes an indemnity, or it takes territory, or forts, or trams, for its own advantage, and does not consider the advantage of its foe. It does not put into its terms of peace what will be useful to the vanquished party, but only to Itself. It-self. This is the universal rule in such treaties between men. When God makes peace with men he provides not first for his own dignity and honor, but for the welfare, the very salvation of his late enemies. His whole heart is in their interests. He wants to adopt them as his sons. He wants to save them from every imaginable ima-ginable evil. So his messengers are constantly calling on the enemies to lay down their arms, and are promising promis-ing not mere truce, but even heaven. God does not take so much as he gives. He gives "all things" to those who yield the world, life, death.things present, pres-ent, things to come, nothing withliold, not even the sacrifice of His own Son. So generous are the terms o the oeace of God. The Independent. |