It is of all importance, for the comfort of the soul, to distinguish accurately between peace and joy. The confounding of one with the other leads to uncertainty with reference to our standing before God, and, as a consequence, the certainty of salvation is never known. Believers, while in this state of mind, make everything depend upon their joy, and thus their joy becomes the basis of their peace and assurance of salvation. When they are happy they feel at peace with God and assured of salvation. When unhappy they have no peace, and are afraid that they have never been truly converted, and therefore are not saved. Living thus upon the feelings of joy in their own hearts their peace and assurance of salvation rise and fall, though never entirely obliterated, like the mercury in the tube of a barometer. When the mercury is well up the tube inside it is all fair weather outside, and correspondingly when the mercury is down in the tube inside all is gloom and foul weather outside. In other words, when the tide of joy runs high it is all peace and the assurance of salvation, arid when the tide of joy runs low it is all restlessness and gloomy forebodings of judgment to come.
Now, that the tide of joy in the believer should always run high, we fully admit, but then it does not always run high, and yet peace and the assurance of salvation may, abide in the soul, even when the tide of joy has run dry, or, in simpler language, a believer may be really miserable, and yet peace be retained, and not a doubt as to salvation enter the mind. When once this possibility-is accepted it is a great help to an unsettled soul; and when, from scripture, the fact that this can be so is established in the mind the difference between peace and joy is readily perceived.
Peace and joy equally flow from simple faith in Christ, ministered in the heart by the Holy Ghost; the normal state of the believer being to be filled with both. This is very plainly taught us by the apostle in the 15th of Romans. where, after bringing forward Christ as the object of faith, equally for Jew and Gentile, he says, "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in. hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." Here We have peace and joy equally filling the soul, and at the same time, but it does not necessarily follow that they must always do so simultaneously.
Practically we find believers in four different states of soul, as to peace and joy. Same have neither peace nor joy, and these form by far the largest class. Some have at times much joy and no settled peace. Some unvarying peace, but little or no joy. And, lastly, sonic are Lull of peace and joy, but these, alas, form the smallest class. In all cases Christ and His work are the objects before the soul; faith the means by which these objects are laid hold of; and the Holy Ghost the alone power by which they are ministered. These different states of soul depend upon the difference of degree in which tins: objects of faith are apprehended.
The state of soul being then the effect of the object that couples it, it follows that according to what the object is ordained to produce will be the resulting state of soul, and this, not merely as matter of degree in apprehension. but of character in what is produced-that is to say. where the object that can produce peace is before the soul, peace will be the effect produced, and the peace will be deep according as ibis object is, by faith, fully apprehended; while, where the object that can produce joy is before the soul, joy will be the effect produced, and the joy be Mil according as this object is fully apprehended. The stream, in character, is according to the source from which it flows, and in fullness, according to the depth of the channel by which it flows.
The difference between peace and joy being allowed, and the ground of this difference being seen, we. are prepared for the question; What is the object that 'produces peace, in contrast with that which produces joy? But before answering this question, we would make the remark, in order that the subject before us may he more clearly defined, that when we speak of peace it is the conscience we have in view. and that when we speak of joy it is the heart that we have in view. The conscience is the seat of peace, and the heart is the vessel of joy. 'Our inquiry, then, may now take this form: What is it that gives peace to the awakened conscience; and what is it that gives joy to the unsatisfied heart? We think, too. with this additional light thrown in upon the subject, it can be more readily understood that there may be peace without joy; the one being a question of the conscience; and the other a question of the heart,. and how by not defining between the conscience and the heart, and, consequently. not between that which meets the need of the—one, and that which meets the need of the other, neither peace nor joy are fully known or retained.
That which meets the need of an awakened conscience is the work of Christ for us on the cross, and hence this is the object that the Spirit, in order to produce peace, sets before the soul. The Lord Jesus has "made peace through the blood of His cross." and simple faith in that blood saves the soul, and gives peace in the conscience.
In type, we let this blessed efficacy of the blood very simply set before us in the 12th of Exodus. The destroying angel could enter no house on which the blood was sprinkled, but into every house on which the blood was sot sprinkled. he mast enter. Where the blood was there was salvation and peace. It mattered not what the state of the Israelite was, it the blood was on his house. he was safe. Jehovah had said. "When I see the blood I will pass-over, and the plage shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt."
The Israelite might be happy, or not happy, certain, or uncertain, that the destroying angel could not reach him, it mattered not, his state of heart had nothing to do with the value of the blood or the shelter it afforded. It was not the Israelite Jehovah looked at, but at tire blood On the lintel of the house of the Israelite. And that which alone could give an Israelite the certainty that he was safe, and thus produce peace in his conscience was the blood, for Jehovah had also said, "Tire blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses wherein ye are." What Jehovah looked at as the ground of His salvation for him, was the blue I, and what he looked at, as the assurance of that salvation, was tire blood.
The blood once sprinkled on his house the Israelite was saved. nothing could alter this, and event if he had mot peace in his conscience, through want of simple confidence in the blood, his person was sale, and his pewee depended on his looking at tine token, and nothing, but that token could give peace. 'Thinking of a work of grace in his own soul, real as such a work might be eating the passover, and fully believing that everything that Jehovah had promised to do for him He would accomplish would not increase his peace, though it might make his heart happy. The blood was the exclusive ground of peace.
And so it is with the believer now. 'The blood on the conscience alone gives peace. It speaks of a work done for the believer-a work outside himself, and thus it is, as looking outside himself to that work, of which the blood speaks. that peace of conscience becomes possible. That blood tells of the judgment of God already borne by Another, and of sins forever put away, and while looking at that blood the believer is able to say,
Lord, while our souls in faith repose..
Upon Thy precious blood,
Peace, like an even river flows
And mercy, like a flood.
That which produces joy is the knowledge of Christ in glory ministered in the heart by the Holy Ghost. The unsatisfied soul drinks from this source, and is made happy, according to the Lord's promise in the 7th of John, "If any man thirst, let him come unto tie and drink. Ile that believeth on Me, as the scripture hash said, out of' His belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spike tie of the Spirit. Which they that believe on Him should receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given: because that Jesus was not yet-glorified."
The object that the Spirit sets before the soul to pro-, duce joy, is Jesus Himself, a living man in glory, and from whom, to those who believe in Him, there flows the Holy Ghost. Here the affections (i.e. "his belly") are engaged and thus it is the work of the Holy Spirit in us that leads into joy. Not a work on they cross for us, which was what the blood on the lintel represented, and thus gave peace to the conscience.
Now the work of the Holy Ghost in us varies according to our occupation of heart with Christ, and hence our joy varies, and may at times be quite gone, as is the case when the Holy Ghost is grieved, through our want of watchfulness. The work of Christ for us on the cross never varies. The value of Ills blood never varies, and the blood once looked to by faith, is once and forever sprinkled on the conscience in God's sight, and hence peace, as the effect of the blood, need never vary, nor does it where once the blood is fully accepted.
'Ile blood, and thus peace in the conscience, is the starting point of our christian course, and then joy, fruit of occupation of heart with Jesus in the glory, sustains us in our journey across the wilderness to our, heavenly home. and we Might, if always- walking simply with Jesus be able to say with the apostle Peter, -Whom not having seen we love; in Whom though now we see Him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy, unspeakable and lull of glory."