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atmosphere of tranquillity wherever he goes.' That is perfectly true,
but there is a great deal more in the text than that. If we consider the
Scriptural usage of this great word 'peace,' and all the ground that it
covers in human experience; if we remember that it enters as an element
into Christ's own name, the 'Peace-Bringer,' the 'Prince of Peace'; and
if we notice, as I have already done, the place which this Beatitude
occupies in the series, we shall be obliged to look for some far deeper
meaning before we can understand the sweep of our Lord's intention here.

I do not think that I am going one inch too far, or forcing meanings
into His words which they are not intended to bear, when I say that the
first characteristic of the peace, which His disciples have been passed
through their apprenticeship in order to fit them to bring, is the peace
of reconciliation with God. The cause of all the other fightings in the
world is that men's relation to the Father in heaven is disturbed, and
that, whilst there flow out from Him only amity and love, these are met
by us with antagonism often, with opposition of will often, with
alienation of heart often, and with indifference and forgetfulness
almost uniformly. So the first thing to be done to make men at peace
with one another and with themselves is to rectify their relation to
God, and bring peace there.

We often hear in these days complaints of Christian Churches and
Christian people because they do not fling themselves, with sufficient
energy to please the censors, into movements which are intended to bring
about happier relations in society. The longest way round is sometimes
the shortest way home. It does not belong to all of us Christians, and I
doubt whether it belongs to the Christian Church as such at all, to
fling itself into the movements to which I have referred. But if a man
go and carry to men the great message of a reconciled and a reconciling
God manifest in Jesus Christ, and bringing peace between men and God, he
will have done more to sweeten society and put an end to hostility than
I think he will be likely to do by any other method. Christian men and
women, whatever else you and I are here for, we are here mainly that we
may preach, by lip and life, the great message that in Christ is our
peace, and that God 'was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.'

We are not to leave out, of course, that which is so often taken as
being the sole meaning of