Marshal Joffre, that fine Christian soldier, said a memorable thing
about the winning of the war: "Our victory will be the fruit of
individual sacrifice." So of the coming of peace on earth we may say the
same: it will be the fruit of the entrance of peace into individual
hearts and lives.

A world at war is the necessary result of human restlessness and
enmities. "From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not
hence, even of your lusts, that war in your members?" Envy, malice,
greed, hatred, deceit,--these are the begetters of strife on earth.

A world at peace can come only from the cooperation of peaceful human
spirits. Therefore we must commence to learn what peace is, by seeking
it in our souls through faith.

Christ promised peace to His disciples at the Communion in that little
upper room in Jerusalem, nineteen hundred years ago. Evidently it was
not an outward but an inward peace. He told them that they would have a
lot of trouble in the world. But He assured them that this could not
overcome them if they believed in Him and in His Father God. He warned
them of conflict, and assured them of inward peace.

What are the elements of this wondrous gift which Christ gave to His
disciples, and which He offers to us?

I. First, the peace of Christ is the peace of being divinely loved.
Nothing rests and satisfies the heart like the sense of being loved. Let
us take as an illustration the case of a little child, which has grown
tired and fretful at its play, and is frightened suddenly by some