Peace is what all God’s children crave for. It is what they all fall back on after experiencing in brief any of the gifts which the world has to give. These distract for the moment, but ever and ever again the soul within cries out for peace.
This great gift is in fact the greatest not only during the physical stages but the greatest possible that those free from the flesh can have on the Spirit side as well. But, first of all, you must understand that the peace to which you refer is not the peace which the Spirits set their wills and endeavours to gain.
In a world of many distractions, of sorrow and constant disappointment, the pain of the heart demands some relief; and so your mind asks for peace. You mean the end of that which troubles your spirit; the detachment of your physical life from those things that tease and irritate. In fact, peace represents to you a back-water out of the busy and crowded stream of life; that back-water being your ambition because you think that once you have thrust the boat of your mind into its winding ways you will find the harmony that now escapes you.
There is one thing you have forgotten. These little by-paths, as a rule, farther on either come out again into the crowded river or else they grow shallower and shallower and finally end against Mother-earth. No boat can stay for long in those dead ends. There are some who, in their endeavour to get away from that which tortures, force their craft so far up that winding way that almost before they are aware of what has happened it has emerged again into the noisy crowded main.
Your ideas of peace do not produce very much because you are ignorant of what peace should be. Peace is not getting out of the trouble when other people are in it; peace is not turning your back on the battle while others are fighting on. Peace is bought only by the courageous; by those who, instead of separating themselves from that which represents physical life, plunge into the thickest part and keep on until the fight is won.
This also applies to those who as yet do not acknowledge themselves as God’s children. It is so comprehensive that it is applicable to the world at large, and in you it should find a responsive note because of the training that you have been given; because of the preparation and because the Spirit of God is in your heart, even if now and again it seems to have been pushed outside the thinking mind.
Consider then God’s definition of that same coveted gift. To give you any impression that comes near to the real you must at once know that peace is so similar to joy that it is impossible to tell where one begins and the other takes its place. Love is so interwoven with peace and joy that God would not attempt Himself to draw the dividing line between the three!
There you have it, peace, joy and love; each one illustrating the other and each one bringing as part of its gift the other two.
Once more you must direct your thoughts above, not ignoring the trials of the present, and certainly not overlooking the steep road of the past. But these make it all the more essential that you should fix your eyes upon that brightest Star of all; upon the Christ your Saviour and King.
Then you would ask the quickest and most effective way of gaining peace, in any form. It all comes back to those little acts of service, to the constant re-dedication of the mind, and to the wish and the determination to build up faith as you go along. So simple, and yet so terribly difficult. All think that they have found it so. The Christ, who suffered the woes of earth and many others which could never be your lot, is not unmindful of the task that lies before you.
Listen then to the words of the Christ and take comfort; take comfort in the thought that when you fail, or when you think you have failed, the Christ is there to make good that which you missed, and which the spirit within you intends to have. Take comfort in the thought that the Christ can bring up to standard that which you failed to do yourself just by the wish to do better, even though that wish is trapped by the shadows and their temptations. But only if the wish beneath it all is to do better.
You have reached that stage now when the tendency to let things slide, because of the love of God, will prove no stumbling block in your path. You have reached that stage when the spirit within is not satisfied with anything but the best, and you will find, and have found, that when you fail the direct result is sorrow and darkness. There is no inducement to the spiritually enlightened to fail themselves; the price exacted is too heavy and the anguish is too great.
It is against the will of the Father that you, a child of Light, should find the road so steep and heavy. If only you would let Him help you more. But He knows it is not easy.
When the contending forces stand in so important an array it seems, for the time being, that by their very force they have intervened and pushed the helpers back. That is entirely the impression they wish to convey and they do it all too easily in some cases. Nothing in your world and nothing even from the darkest planes in the Spirit World could be strong enough to separate you either from the love and protection of God or from the constant companionship of those who love you in the spirit worlds. Nothing can do that, but the shadows have it in their power to draw the curtain of evil in between. God and the Spirits do not recede a step, but they have to wait for you not only to be willing, but to find sufficient effort to drag that curtain aside. Meanwhile, all the time the shadows tell you it is darkness itself and no veil at all.
So be more on your guard. You say that you pray and no answer comes. Looking at things from your point of view it does seem at times that prayer gains very little, but could you see things as they are actually taking place you would know without doubt that the smallest prayer which is voiced even by an unbelieving mind is creating power and bringing assistance as it rises. No waiting, even before the words find expression when they are way back in the physical mind, from that stage the help is forthcoming. But it must make sense to you that if there were outward and visible signs of the Presence of God at once there would be no test for your faith at all. It would produce nothing; it would be lifting the burden from you even before you had attempted to shoulder it yourself!
One day you will look back with amazement to see how close you were even now to peace; not the world's peace, but the only peace that counts. These last troubles are very wearing; they try you physically, mentally, and you think spiritually. They do try you spiritually in every truth, but each time the test comes, so the real you responds. A little delayed sometimes, but the spirit responds in a way you cannot grasp! When the contest is over a gain is added, and the remembrance of the pain is wiped out by the power lent to you by God. All have experienced that, and so take fresh heart. Things are only bad from the outside point of view, but underneath they are shaping splendidly, and it’s the underneath that counts. A passing wind; the destructive hand of mankind; many trivial things of this nature can alter the aspect of the surface of the earth and in a few short minutes destroy that which has been built or planted by much care and effort. You see from this the wisdom of carrying on the important part of the work under the surface. Instead of being at the mercy of destructive forces the surface is used as a cloak and a protection for the plans being worked out underneath. All the most important things are covered up; it is the only course, the safest and the wisest for those who intend to bring anything through without the destructive hand of evil.
Therefore, take heart of grace and be certain that things are not what they seem. God's Hand is at work in a wonderful way and soon you shall see something of the beautiful pattern which He has been weaving and which is going to produce so much.
The stillness of peace is the greatest instrument of all you could provide for helping those you love to come through, free and unhindered. Quietness; the stillness of thought and the peace which makes for perfect communion, through the grace of God, with those you love and those who love you far better than you can grasp until you pass out of the physical and the limited into the bigness and the grandeur of the things which are of the Spirit.
Peace can be your own. If you only show courage and resource you can rid yourself of the power of the shadows by stepping across the threshold out into the Light of God's perfect Sun. Steady your will a little longer; see in each evening the new threads which are being weaved in. There is not one that shall not justify its existence in a way you little understand. Follow the Star which is the Christ; keep your eyes above the level. There on high is your inspiration, and by the power of the Spirit you can realise your ideals, and you can bring them into your own life, if only the will and the determination holds good.
Could you but see it the clouds would be parted and the Heavens revealed right away. Nothing between you and the Spirit if you only could have more faith. Nothing between you and God except the enemy. Nothing between you and God although the enemy tries to make it appear so. Cling to this thought that between you and the Christ there is no division, and that temptation and testing and trying are only to prove your worth; to prove that you belong to Him in every truth. In spite of anguish this is demonstrated again and again and will be, whatever the opposing forces.
Keep yourself free from sorrow. Open your heart to joy and be certain that although the Christ is with you in your troubles, joy is the gift which comes from Him; grief but the blows of evil; happiness akin to the Spirit, sorrow linked to the earth. It is something from which you have to detach yourself, and thus emancipated rise above the valley and be free in the unlimited expanse of the blue.
Those far cleverer and more powerful than the brightest fairies are around you, all bringing their love-gifts and healing the wounds of memory of the past. Let the good work go on and help them by thinking of the brighter tomorrows.
That is God's will and this will be the future. Never forget it, and never forget the three-fold blessing.
