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at Waterloo. “My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth.” When a man wants a drink of whisky, the world says,, “Get peace by going into the public house and taking it” ; but Christ says, “Get peace by conquer ing your thirst.” “Not as the world giveth.” Yet the glory of Christian ity is not in the sword. It is Truth on the altar, Truth aglow with sacrifice, Truth that is willing to die, Truth that ' refuses to defend itself, while it dies for the untruthful. We have also the glory of Sacrificial Power Power exerts itself, and it ought at times. We must admire the omnipo tent power of God, as we see it work ing in so many ways. But power ex erting itself is not glorious, compared with power withholding itsejf. “Think- est thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me twelve legions of angels?” But if He had prayeM, the glory of Christ had been eclipsed. Oh, the power that held back while love worked; oh, the power that refused to exert itself while Jesus Christ went to the Cross in weakness for the salva tion of the weak! We have again, the glory of Sacrificial Holiness Now holiness is apt'to cultivate itself, and none too much! It is well to cul tivate it, in public and in private. Use every means possible for the promo tion of holiness. But I submit that even holiness cultivating itself is not as glorious as holiness sacrificing itself on the altar for God, holiness giving itself in loving sacrifice for the salva tion of others. If vou will turn to a Scripture,' you will have that suggest ed. “Being justified freely by His gtace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteous ness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His right eousness; that He might be just, and the justifier of Him that believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:24-26), The Cross of Christ is the declaration o f the’ righteousness of God. Join that with the other text, “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were vet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5 :8t. The Cross of Christ is the com* mendation of His love, and the decla ration of His righteousness; and Jesus Christ died because God is righteous as well as loving. That brings us to the glory qf Sacrificial Mercy Mercy is a species of injustice, of uri-> righteousness. The moment a judge begins to be merciful, he ceases to be just; and the moment he begins to be just, he ceases to be merciful. I re peat, mercy is a species' of injustice; and no man can be just and merciful unless justice has somehow been sat isfied. There is an official justice. The Governor of Massachusetts is permit ted to set free a prisoner from the state prison on Thanksgiving Day every year. Governor Guild went down and selected the wickedest man he could find and set him free, because there were some extenuating circumstances. It was an act of mercy, but certainly not of justice. Judge Kerr, of North Carolina, sat on the bench, and heard the case of a thief who had. stolen. He recog nized that thief as a man whom he had known in boyhood. They had eone to the village school together; they had played on the green together, fished and hunted together. After the case was tried, and the majp was found
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