Not many years ago some workmen were digging a tunnel, when a sudden
fall of earth blocked the mouth of the opening. Their companions on the
outside found out what had happened, and started to dig through the mass
of earth to the rescue. It was several hours before they made their way
through. When they went in they found the workmen going on with their
labour on the tunnel. "We knew," said one of them, "that you'd come to
help us, and we thought the best way to make time pass quick was to keep
on with the work." That is what a Christian may say to Christ amid the
dangers and disasters of life. We know that He will never forsake us,
and the best way to be at peace is to be about His business. He says to
us: "As the Father sent me, even so send I you."

III. The Christian peace is the peace of being divinely forgiven.

"In every man," said a philosopher, "there is something which, if we
knew it, would make us despise him." Let us turn the saying, and change
it from a bitter cynicism into a wholesome truth.

In every one of us there is something which, if we realize it, makes us
condemn ourselves as sinners, and hunger and thirst after righteousness,
and long for forgiveness.

It is this deep consciousness of sin, of evil in our hearts and lives,
that makes us restless and unhappy. The plasters and soothing lotions
with which the easy-going philosophy of modern times covers it up, do
not heal it; they only hide it. There is no cure for it, there is no
rest for the sinful soul, except the divine forgiveness. There is no
sure pledge of this except in the holy sacrifice and blessed promise of
Christ, "Son, daughter, thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace."