Secret, Subtle, and Insinuating!!

The pride of the wicked is the principal reason why they will not seek after the knowledge of God. Pride renders God a disagreeable and undesirable object of contemplation, to the wicked.

Pride consists in an unduly exalted opinion of oneself. It is, therefore, impatient of a rival, hates a superior, and cannot endure a master!

In proportion as pride prevails in the heart, it makes us wish to see no God above us,

to acknowledge no law but our own wills, to follow no rule but our own inclinations. Thus, pride led Satan to rebel against his Creator; and our first parents to desire to be as gods.

Since such are the effects of pride, it is evident that nothing can be more painful to a proud heart, than the thoughts of such a being as God one who is infinitely powerful, just, and holy; one who can neither be resisted, deceived, nor deluded; one who disposes, according to His own sovereign pleasure, of all creatures and events;  one who, in an especial manner, hates pride, and is determined to abase and punish it! Such a being, the proud man can contemplate only with feelings of dread, aversion, and abhorrence! The proud man must look upon God as his natural enemy; his great enemy, whom he has to fear!

But the knowledge of God directly tends to bring this infinite, irresistible, irreconcilable Enemy fully to the view of the proud man. It teaches proud man that he has a superior, a master from whose authority he cannot escape, whose power he cannot resist, and whose will, he must obey or be crushed before Him and be rendered miserable forever! It shows proud man what he hates to see that, in despite of his opposition God's counsel shall stand, that God will do all His pleasure, and that in all things, God is above them.

These truths torture the proud unhumbled hearts of the wicked, and hence they hate that knowledge of God which teaches these truths and will not seek it. On the contrary, they wish to remain ignorant of such a being, and to banish all thoughts of Him from their minds!

They endeavor to believe that God is altogether such a one as themselves. How foolish, how absurd, how ruinous, how blindly destructive of itself does pride appear! By attempting to soar, pride only plunges itself in the mire! And while endeavoring to erect a throne for itself pride undermines the ground on which it stands and digs its own grave!

Pride plunged Satan from Heaven into Hell, banished our first parents from paradise, and will, in a similar manner, eternally ruin all who indulge in it!

Unrepented pride keeps us in ignorance of God, shuts us out from His favor, prevents us from resembling Him, deprives us in this world, of communion with Him, and will bar the door of Heaven forever against us, and close upon us the gates of Hell.

O then, my friends, beware, above all things, beware of pride! Beware, lest you indulge it imperceptibly, for it is the most secret, subtle, and insinuating of all sins!

[Edward Payson]

Psalm 10:4 ... The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

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Loathsome Moral Leprosy!

Pride has a high and overweening conceit of its own possessions and acquirements, and ostentatiously boasts of what it is, has done, can do, or intends to do. Pride signifies such an exalted idea of us as leads to self-esteem and to contempt of others. 

Pride is self-admiration self-doating. Pride is the sin which laid the moral universe in ruins. Pride is the original sin, the inherent corruption of our nature. Pride spreads over humanity with contagious violence. Pride is the loathsome moral leprosy, raging alike through the palace and the cottage, and infecting equally the prince and the peasant. 

Love is no less opposed to VANITY than it is to pride! Pride differs from vanity thus pride causes us to value ourselves; vanity makes us anxious for applause. Pride renders a man odious; vanity makes him ridiculous. Love does not boast of, or ostentatiously display, its possessions, abilities, or good deeds. 

[John Angell James] 

1 Corinthians 13:4 ... Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

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My Real Name!!

 To Rev. John Newton,

Oh, what is man! How easily we spy the vanity and inconsistency in another, and how hardly we discern it in ourselves. The foulest stain, and worst absurdity in our nature, is pride! And yet this vile hedgehog so rolls himself up in his bristly coat, that we can seldom get a sight of his claws. Pride cleaves to us, like a shirt soaked in tar cleaves to the skin. No sharp ploughing and harrowing will clear the ground of it. This foul weed will be sure to spring up with the next rain!

Pride follows me like my shadow! This diabolical sin has brought more scourges on my back than everything else! It is of so insinuating a nature, that I know not how to rid myself of it. I hate it and love it. I quarrel with it and embrace it. I dread it and yet allow it to lie in my bosom. It pleads a right, through the fall, to be a tenant for life. It has such an amazing appetite that it can feed both on grace and garbage! It will be as warm and snug in a monastery, as a brothel and be as much delighted with a fine prayer, as a foul curse!

Lord, save me! If pride must dwell with me, let it not be a lordly master, but a loathed viper! Oh, that I could once say unto you, foul pride: "Farewell forever!"  There is no Christian grace, but pride will creep into its bosom and mix with it as freely as oil with oil. Nor is Lady Pride ever so delighted as when she becomes intimate with humility, and by soft caresses and kind speeches, encourages the sweet damsel to think highly of herself, even when she looks and talks humbly.

One moment she whispers and tells me that I am a fine fellow and then I am elated. By and by, she calls me a fool and then I am sullen. I can do no religious act, but pride is skulking at my elbow and much affecting me both by her smiles and frowns. This foul pride besieges my heart, besets all my steps, and meets me at every turn. Pride has more heads than a Hydra! (A mythological serpentine water monster which had many heads. Every time someone would cut off one of them, two more heads would grow out!) Pride has more shapes than Proteus! (A mythical Greek figure who could assume a different shape at will.)

It is such an odd mysterious evil that I can even be proud of loathing my pride. Henceforth if you ask my real name, it is Pride!

[John Berridge]

Proverbs 16:18 ... Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

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The Rules for Domestic Happiness

1.  Be humble. "Pride only breeds quarrels."

2.  "Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit."

3.  Find your own happiness in trying to make others happy.

4.  Mind your own business. Do not be meddlesome.

5.  Beware of a fretful, suspicious, or censorious temper.

6.  "Overcome evil with good." "Bless and curse not."

7.  "Love one another deeply, from the heart."

8.  Do not magnify the trials or afflictions of life.

9.  Beware of sloth. There is no greater enemy of peace and happiness.

10. Make it your business to serve God.

11. Keep out of debt. "Owe no man anything." Loans breed bad tempers and harsh dispositions.

12. Keep the ultimate purpose of life in view to glorify God. This will repress many vain wishes and chasten immoderate desires.

13. Let your prayers be frequent and fervent.

14. Never listen to scandal nor backbiting.

15. Do not grieve or worry over things which cannot be helped.

16. Set the Lord always before you. Seek His glory. Do and suffer His will with readiness. Let Christ be all and in all. Trust in the Lord forever.

[William S. Plumer]

Psalm 37:4 ... Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. ❤

"Pride"

Nebuchadnezzar had "walked in pride," and been abased for it below the most contemptible of men. As secure as he had imagined himself from any calamity, God had inflicted in a moment a punishment, which might well deter all who heard of it from the commission of a similar offence. God is never at a loss for means to accomplish His righteous will! In the judgment inflicted on this haughty monarch, God has sufficiently shown, that He is both able and determined to "abase all who walk in pride." 

Now this consideration is of infinite importance, not to kings only, but to all the human races. Pride is natural to man. There is not a more powerful principle in our fallen nature, than pride. The ungodly world is full of it. There is not any distinction, natural or acquired, which is not made an occasion of self-exaltation and self-delight. If a man is born of high parentage or has acquired rank or fortune by his own exertions, how will he be puffed up with his honors, and almost imagine himself to be made of a finer clay than others! 

"My might and my wisdom have procured all these things for me!" Nor is this confined to the ungodly. There are among those who profess godliness, many, who are as full of pride and conceit as those who are altogether ignorant of saving religion. Some, like the Pharisee in the Gospel, "trust in themselves that they are righteous, and despise others." They say in their hearts, "Stand by yourself; do not come near to me! I am holier than you." Of these God says, "They are smoke in My nostrils!" (Isaiah 65:5) 

Others, like Diotrephes, "love to have the pre-eminence;" and are never so happy as when they are setting forth their accomplishments, and passing judgment upon all that they see and hear. Self-admiration, self-conceit, self-seeking, and self-promotion are their characteristic features. Not a few, it is to be feared, "being lifted up with pride, fall into the condemnation of the devil." (1 Timothy 3:6) 

Even truly godly men are by no means so holy, but that they are in continual danger of being drawn into the indulgence of this evil principle.  Hezekiah, even after his most extraordinary deliverances from enemies without, and illness within so far forgot himself as to be lifted up with pride; and thereby provoked God to withdraw from his descendants the mercies that had been given to him. Paul himself was visited with a thorn in his flesh, to keep him humble, "lest he should be exalted above measure!" (2 Corinthians 12:7) 

Be it known then to all, that they need to watch and pray against this malignant evil; for God will surely abase all in whom it is found. Some, like Manasseh, God will put a hook into his nose, bind him in bronze shackles, and take him into captivity. Others, like Peter, God will leave to fall, and to disgrace their holy profession. Others, like Pharaoh or Herod, God will plunge into the bottomless abyss of Hell! Let us never then forget, that "the proud in heart are an abomination to the Lord!" "I hate pride and arrogance!" (Proverbs 8:13) "The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished!" (Proverbs 16:5)  

Those who are under the influence of the sin of pride, always find means to hide it from their own eyes. But it is to no purpose to deceive ourself, as God will not be imposed upon. He sees the pride, wherever it exists, and He hates it with a perfect hatred! Let us then endeavor to find out even the most hidden workings of this abominable evil and implore help from God to mortify and subdue it! 

[Charles Simeon] 

Daniel 4:37 ... Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.

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"Pride"

Pride is one of our greatest evils! To indulge pride, is to nourish a serpent in the bosom! The grace of God always humbles us; and it is only as we are sincerely humble, that we can be truly happy. God condescends to walk with the humble man, but He keeps the proud man at a distance. 

Consider what a vile sinner you were by nature, what evil now lurks in your heart, what you would have been, but for the grace of God and be humble. All you have which is truly good, is the gift of free grace! All you do that is good, is the effect of God's working in you! What then, do you have to be proud of? What reason then, do you have to boast? 

Oh, lie low in the dust of self-abasement! Nourish humbling thoughts of yourself! Admire the mercy, condescension, and infinite compassion of God in even noticing so vile, so unworthy a worm as yourself! 

[James Smith] 

Micah 6:8 ... He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

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Master-Scar of The Soul

Humility makes a man like an angel but pride makes an angel, a devil! Pride is worse than the devil for the devil cannot hurt you, until pride has possessed you. Proud souls are Satan's apes, none imitate him to the life like these; for as face answers to face in a looking-glass, so does a proud soul answer to Satan! "I hate pride and arrogance!" (Proverbs 8:13) 

Take heed of pride and haughtiness of spirit. Pride is the great master-scar of the soul; it will bud and blossom it cannot be hidden. Pride is the leprosy of the soul, which breaks forth in the very forehead! Pride is the sum of all vileness, a sea of sin, a mother sin, a breeding sin a sin which has all sorts of sin in its womb! In pride, all vices are wrapped up together in a bundle! Pride is Satan's disease! It is so base a disease, that God would rather see His dearest children buffeted by Satan, than that in pride they should be like Satan (2 Corinthians 12:7). 

Pride is a gilded misery, a secret poison, a hidden plague, the engineer of deceit, the mother of hypocrisy, the parent of misery, the moth of holiness, the blinder of hearts, the turner of medicines into maladies. "The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished!" (Proverbs 16:5) 

God will have nothing to do with proud people. He won't come near such loathsome lepers! Therefore as ever you would enjoy God's presence, arm yourself against pride, watch against pride, and pray hard against pride! 

 [Thomas Brooks]

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Monster of Pride

What a monster of pride is man! How full of that cursed venom, is human nature! We cannot receive any grace or blessing from the Lord but corrupt nature is prone to be proud of it, and to boast in it! No one is exempt from this. I appeal to your hearts. I refer to your experience. When your heart has been enlarged in prayer; when your soul has been carried out in humblings, meltings, longings, aspirings, etc.; when you have heard the Word with warm affections and heavenly joy; when your tongue has with sweetness and liberty, talked of Christ to others; when your hand has been stretched forth to do any good work; now in all these, have you not found pride very busy? 

Have not you been ready to stroke yourself with pleasure, and to reflect with delight: "Well, now the Lord loves me indeed! Surely He loves me better now that I find myself so holy, and feel myself so heavenly!" But where is our precious Jesus all this while? We have looked at ourselves until we have lost sight of Him! We have been admiring our vile selves for our graces instead of being in raptures with Christ, who is altogether lovely, in whom all fullness of grace dwells, and out of whose fullness we receive grace upon grace!

[William Mason]

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Proverbs 16:5 ... Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

Proverbs 16:18 ... Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 8:13 ... The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.❤

Gurnall Quotes

 I hate pride and arrogance! (Proverbs 8:13)

The Lord detests all the proud of heart.  Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

   

A man may be very zealous and painstaking in preaching and all the while pride is the master whom he serves, though in God's livery.

   

It is hard starving this sin of pride it can live on almost anything!

Nothing is so sacred, but pride will profane it.

So far as pride prevails, the proud man prays and preaches to be thought good by others to enthrone himself, rather than Christ, in the opinion and hearts of his hearers.

Pride loves to climb up, not as Zaccheus, to see Christ but so that others may see himself.

"God resists the proud" (James 4:6). The humble man may have Satan at his right hand to oppose him; but the proud man shall find God Himself there to resist him. We must either lay self aside or God will lay us aside.

A proud sinner and a humble Savior will never agree. Christ is humble and lowly, and so resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

If God, says Augustine, did not spare the angels when they grew proud; will He spare you who are but dust and sin?

[William Gurnall]

Fighting Against a Holy God!

Nothing stops the current of His blessings so much as pride. He resists the proud.  He is at war with them. A futile war! A proud sinner fighting against a holy God! Who do you think will conquer? 

 Oh, beware of all high thoughts of yourself and your doings. Take heed of admiring your own greatness or goodness. Self-delight is a very pleasing sin, but more odious to a jealous God than the gross sins of the flesh. I am sure that the more we love Him, the less we shall admire ourselves. 

The Pharisee, full of self-delight, remained in his guilt. The poor publican, who loathed himself, went home justified. There is no perfect humility but in Heaven. Until we get there, we should be learning, and every day seeking for more grace to humble us learning from our Master to be meek and lowly of heart. May God make us better scholars. "If God," says Augustine, "did not spare the angels when they grew proud; will He spare you who are but dust and sin?" 

[William Romaine] 

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Proverbs 16:5 ... Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

Proverbs 8:13 ...  The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.❤

Pride Cannot Live Beneath The Cross

Jesus is the great teacher of 'humility of heart'. We need daily to learn of Him. See the Master taking a towel and washing His disciples feet! Follower of Christ will you not humble yourself? See Him as the Servant of servants and surely you cannot be proud!

Is not this sentence the compendium of His biography: "He humbled Himself." Was He not on earth, always stripping off first one robe of honor and then another until, naked, He was fastened to the cross. There He not emptied out His inmost self, pouring out His life-blood, giving up for all of us, until they laid Him penniless in a borrowed grave. How low was our dear Redeemer brought! How then can we be proud?

Stand at the foot of the cross and count the scarlet drops by which you have been cleansed. See the thorny crown and His scourged shoulders still gushing with the crimson flow of blood. See His hands and feet given up to the rough iron, and His whole self mocked and scorned. See the bitterness, the pangs, and the throes of inward grief show themselves in His outward frame. Hear the chilling shriek, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me!"

If you do not lie prostrate on the ground before that cross, you have never seen it! If you are not humbled in the presence of the sin-atoning Savior, you do not know Him. You were so lost that nothing could save you, but the sacrifice of God's only begotten Son. Think of that, and as Jesus stooped for you, bow yourself in humility at His feet.

A realization of Christ's amazing sacrificial love has a greater tendency to humble us than even a consciousness of our own guilt. May the Lord bring us in contemplation, to Calvary. Then our position will no longer be that of pompous pride but we shall take the humble place of one who loves much, because much has been forgiven him.

Pride cannot live beneath the cross! Let us sit there and learn our lesson. Then let us rise and carry it into practice.

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

Matthew 11:29 … Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. ❤

Pride!

Many think themselves most humble when they are wholly devoid of this lovely and rare grace.  Often a great show of humility in speech and behavior, covers the rankest and most diabolical pride in the heart! They are filled, it may be, with a high opinion of their self-abasement. Their humility is without one spark of gratitude to God, or any disposition to give Him glory.

The deceitfulness of the heart, and the subtlety of Satan, in no one thing appears so great, as in the workings of pride. Nor have we in anything more cause for continual watchfulness, than pride. Nothing is so subtle, so secret, so insinuating as pride! It often surprises us at an unexpected hour and is in actual possession of us, before we are aware of its approach.

Were we under the continual influence of a humble spirit, our religious attainments would not be so apt to glitter in our own eyes. We would be daily ashamed of, and sorely lament our great blindness and ignorance of God, our astonishing ingratitude, and the coldness of our love to Him!

The spirit of pride is eminently the work of the devil within our souls. Pride enters into the very essence of every other corruption, and is the life and soul of every other sin! Until this wretched pride is in a measure brought down and mortified--no grace will grow and thrive in the heart.

Until we are brought to this state of true humility, taking shame to ourselves, and giving glory to God in and for everything we cannot possibly enjoy communion with God, and growth in grace cannot possibly take place.

Real humility takes nothing to itself, but sin and shame. Real humility gives all the glory to God, who is the Giver of every good and perfect gift.

There is not one single blessing from god that can be received, but by a humble spirit.  Nor can we be partakers of the consolations of Christ, but in proportion as this humble spirit prevails.

[Thomas Charles]

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Proverbs 16:18 … Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.


Proverbs 29:23 … A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.


Proverbs 11:2 … When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.❤

Such An Amazing Appetite

The foulest stain, and worst absurdity in our nature, is pride! And yet this vile hedgehog so rolls himself up in his bristly coat, that we can seldom get a sight of his claws.   Pride cleaves to us, like a shirt soaked in tar cleaves to the skin. No sharp ploughing and harrowing will clear the ground of it. This foul weed will be sure to spring up with the next rain!  Pride follows me like my shadow!

This diabolical sin has brought more scourges on my back than everything else! It is of so insinuating a nature, that I know not how to rid myself of it.  I hate it, and love it.  I quarrel with it, and embrace it.  I dread it, and yet allow it to lie in my bosom.

It pleads a right, through the fall, to be a tenant for life. It has such an amazing appetite that it can feed both on grace and garbage! It will be as warm and snug in a monastery, as a brothel--and be as much delighted with a fine prayer, as a foul curse!

Lord, save me! If pride must dwell with me, let it not be a lordly master, but a loathed viper!  Oh, that I could once say unto you, foul pride: "Farewell forever!"

There is no Christian grace but pride will creep into its bosom, and mix with it as freely as oil with oil.  Nor is Lady Pride ever so delighted as when she becomes intimate with humility, and by soft caresses and kind speeches, encourages the sweet damsel to think highly of herself, even when she looks and talks humbly.

One moment she whispers and tells me that I am a fine fellow and then I am elated. By and by, she calls me a fool and then I am sullen.  I can do no religious act but pride is skulking at my elbow, and much affecting me both by her smiles and frowns.  This foul pride besieges my heart, besets all my steps, and meets me at every turn.

Pride has more heads than a Hydra! (A mythological serpentine water monster which had many heads. Every time someone would cut off one of them, two more heads would grow out!)

Pride has more shapes than Proteus! (A mythical Greek figure who could assume a different shape at will.)

It is such an odd mysterious evil that I can even be proud of loathing my pride. Henceforth if you ask my real name, it is Pride!

[John Berridge]

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Proverbs 16:18 … Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

1 Timothy 3:6 … Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

1 John 2:16 … For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.❤

True Love

Jesus never influenced people by mocking those who were broken, immature, blind and ignorant.  Pride mocks; be it religious pride or rebellious pride. It influences its position through the cutting down of others.

There is a more mature way. The heart of Jesus reveals the wisdom of 'mature Perfect Love'.  There is no shifting shadows in Perfect Love. For the true believer,  light comes into our darkened mindsets and begins to expose our dark shifty ways.  Those who lack the comfort and confidence of knowing mature love will attempt to control out of insecurity and pride, which merely means that they need to grow more in True Love.

Jesus lovingly reveals to the broken, the blind, the lame, the lost and the dying.

The ones Jesus was harsh with, and even this was out of love, were those shepherds, teachers and leaders, those who should have known His heart, but missed it in their 'representing' of Him.   Jesus is sincere, mature, perfect, 'True Love.'

[Troi Nelson Cockayne]

Ephesians 3:18-19 … May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;  And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. ❤

A Little Sin

Ah!" says Satan, "It is but a little sin, a little pride, a little worldliness, a little lust, etc. You may commit it without any danger to your soul. It is but a little one; you may commit it, and yet your soul shall live."

Consider, that there is great danger, yes, many times most danger in the smallest sins.   If the serpent sneaks in his head, he will draw in his whole body after him.

Greater sins sooner startle the soul, and awaken and rouse up the soul to repentance, than lesser sins do. Little sins often slide into the soul, and breed, and work secretly and indiscernibly in the soul, until they come to be so strong, as to trample upon the soul, and to cut the throat of the soul!

Many are eternally undone by the 'little sins', as they call them, that are nourished in their own bosoms.   A little hole in the ship, sinks it.   A small breach in a dyke, carries away all before it.  A little stab at the heart, kills a man.  A little sin, without a great deal of mercy, will damn a man!

[Thomas Brooks]

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1 Corinthians 5:6 … Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

2 Corinthians 2:11 … Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.


Acts 3:19 … Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.❤

The Genesis of Peace

This world is full of unrest and turmoil. There is turmoil in hearts and homes, in communities, churches and nations. There is international turmoil, until the world is a seething mass of unrest. People are longing for peace, but peace can begin only when the turmoil in the world is removed, and it is removed only by the eradication of its cause. Unrest, wherever found, indicates irritation. Unrest is a fever. It is a symptom that something is not going right somewhere.

When there is not peace in the heart, it is because two forces are striving against each other. When the forces of nature are at rest then everything is quiet and peaceful. But when the strong wind rages across the face of the sea then the wild waves toss and roar. When it wrestles with the mighty forces then they sway and creak and strain. So it is in the human heart, in the family, the community, the church, the nation, and between the nations. Where there is not peace, it is because there is irritation, and the only way to bring peace is to remove the source of irritation.

If we do not have peace with God, it is because there is something causing irritation in the heart.  One thing that causes irritation and destroys peace, is SIN. We never can have peace with God, with sin in the heart. The soul can never be at rest with that quiet peaceable rest, while indulging in sin of any sort or while sin that has been indulged in is un-repented of. But there is a remedy for sin. That remedy is available today. So, reader, if your heart is not at peace with God because of sin, you may get that source of irritation out of your heart by confessing it and taking God's way out. Do this at once then his peace will fill your soul.

Another source of irritation in the soul is UNBELIEF. It is destructive of peace; so if we will have peace with God, calmness and rest in our souls, we may find it if we will believe in God. There is a sweet rest of soul that comes from trusting God, a peace that may be known in no other way than by trusting. The doubts and fears that irritate and trouble, that destroy the peace and bring heaviness, discouragement, and sometimes almost despair will vanish when belief comes into the heart; and peace like the calm after a great storm will settle down over the soul. But peace cannot come so long as unbelief irritates and annoys the soul.

Another thing that prevents peace in many a soul is SELF-WILL. There is a lack of submission to God's will, and so the relation with God cannot be a relation of peace and sweet confident trust. To have peace, we must rid ourselves of self-will. We must submit ourselves to the will of God. We must say from the bottom of our heart, "Not my will, but may Your will be done." We must be willing actively to engage in doing his will. Then the peace of God which passes all understanding, will keep our hearts and minds, and we shall know the blessedness of true rest of soul. 

Self-will is the cause of the lack of peace that exists in many families. This one feels he must have his way; that one feels she must have her way; and so there is a clashing of wills that brings irritation, unrest, dissatisfaction, and results in ill feeling, resentment and bitterness. 

Self-will brings unhappiness wherever it operates. Self-will is selfish; it is inconsiderate of others; it asserts its own right, to the exclusion of the rights of others. It will have its way, but when it has its way, it brings sorrow and unrest. Peace flies away from self-will. Peace cannot abide in the same heart or in the same home, with this destroyer of happiness.

Self-will in the church is the cause of more trouble than any other one thing. That disposition to demand that things go the way we think they ought to go, and the setting up of our will above the will of others, the winning of our way—may give us temporary pleasure of a certain sort. It may give us a selfish satisfaction that comes from having our own way but it will destroy the peace of the church and the peace of our own hearts. 

Submitting our will, is the hardest thing we have to do, but it is the thing we must do before we can have true peace. Self-will is based on pride. Where there is contention in the family, in the community, in the church, in the nation, we can easily locate the trouble. We can easily find the root of the matter. The wise man tells us that, "Pride only breeds quarrels" (Proverbs 13:10). Here the destroyer of peace is traced back to his den. Excess of self-esteem, which is a form of pride, causes people to be self-willed, and self-will destroys peace.

The nations could be at peace, if they would justly esteem each other and each other's rights—but this they will not do. In the same manner, communities could be at peace, but pride brings contention. Homes could be at peace, churches could be at peace if they would get rid of that pride that breeds quarrels. It is useless to deny the source of contention. People do not feel disposed to contend, unless they have pride in their hearts. 

To be sure we must contend for the faith sometimes, but this is quite another thing. We may contend for the faith in a thoroughly peaceable manner or we may do so in a self-willed contentious manner. The latter never brings peace, but only turmoil and division.

Would you have peace with God? Do you wish rest, comfort, and happiness in your soul? God is not your enemy. His thoughts toward you are thoughts of peaceableness (Jeremiah 29:11), and he tells us that the effect of righteousness, shall be peace (Isaiah 32:17). To be at peace with God is to get rid of those disturbing elements in our own hearts and minds get rid of our sins by trusting in Christ for salvation get rid of all unbelief by taking God at his word and trusting him sincerely get rid of our self-will through the blood of Christ and through submitting our wills to God then we may have peace with God and peace within ourselves. We shall have "all joy and peace in believing" (Romans 15:13). 

But to keep this peace we must follow after the things that make for peace (Romans 14:19). We must "seek peace, and pursue it." We must do those things which belong to peace. We must hold that attitude that brings peace. Peace will begin and peace will abide when those things are removed which destroy peace.

[Charles Naylor]

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