"Great peace have they who love thy law; nothing can make them stumble"(Psa.119.165 RSV). So wrote the poet king of Israel, who in spite of his faults exalted the law of God.

Peace is on1y a word to many people. In a demanding, pushing, rushing world, it means no more than a cessation from work, noise or competition, a freedom from domestic strife or party feuds or an end to the hostilities of war. Calm repose, serenity of mind, is neither desired nor sought until the frayed system is driven to desperate measures for its preservation in some degree of health and sanity. Even the still silence of quiet, places is something generally shunned as unnatural. Modern man has become addicted to the din, the discords of a roaring, restless age where peace is a stranger to his environment.

If outward peace is hard to find how shall inner peace, great peace, be attained under conditions of stress and strain where solitude is frightening and to the busy multitudes, the ceaseless hum of activity is both familiar and safe. Once gained, how can it survive amid the gruelling pressures and discords imposed upon the everyday life of all classes of people? Few are free from fret and worry; anxiety, pain and sorrow stamp many faces. Discontent, disappointment and frustration spoil many more. The varied and hurrying crowds of mankind bear few traces of that serenity and happy confidence defined as peace. That peace of harmony with God is not the calm of a stoic indifference or the quiet of a resigned and uncomplaining spirit, or the dumb lethargy of those who have ceased to hope. It is the strength of confidence, of harmony with the great fountain of life, a blessed assurance amid the contrary tides and treacherous currents of human frailty and evil forces. For lack of it many people are sick in mind and body. All the pills and treatments of the medical world cannot cure the divided, unhappy souls who voyage through life without the rudder of love and the anchor of faith.

The plausible arguments of natural wisdom and philosophy cannot produce peace, and certainly not that great peace that comes to those who love the word of God, who endeavour to live by it, who make a practical application of it to life's daily affairs. It does not mean they live in a charmed circle, hedged in from the world or the experiences common to man. It does mean they are saved from the consequences of rebellion and self-seeking, from foolish mistakes and empty follies that waste the time and substance of the shallow minded. In a world beset by fears and confusion they are saved from ignorance and doubt. They depend for counsel and guidance upon the invisible source of wisdom and power.

The mistakes of man create danger and bring defeat. God does not make mistakes. There is no room for the seething jealousies and hatreds that torment so many minds when the peace of God occupies the central place. The 'why?' of offended self-will has no voice in the affairs of those who rest their all in the hands of Him who steers the universe through ages without end.

Limited in wisdom, knowledge, power and length of days, dependence upon and submission to a higher authority in no way belittles an intelligent human being. It is the best insurance for the life we now have and for that which is yet to come. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (Psa. 7.19). The instructions are ideal, they sum up all that ensures social and personal peace. In their observance lies the power to change people from discontent to noble dignity. They are the standard of human behaviour well within the ability of normal, intelligent understanding and performance. Spoken and written for a nation selected to teach other nations by their example, this second attempt to gain the affections of men foundered on the reefs of a hard human wilfulness and indifference. The riotous worship of the golden calf by the multitude who had shrugged off the absence of their leader as a thing of small account; the broken tablets of the Law and the ensuing miseries of the camp, seem like an omen of all that was to follow. The denial of God has been less than the indifference. The nations of Christendom have professed to know God, to understand and accept His law, but performance has been poor.

The requirements of God are both just and reasonable. The law of the golden rule has in every century been an ideal, ignored or found impossible of achievement except by a persevering few who have been looked upon with curiosity as oddities, or venerated as saints beyond the common touch. The simplicity of the Law, like the simplicity of the Gospel, has been largely lost, overlaid by additions, by creeds, by conventional ritual and a lip-service which has robbed it of its life-giving qualities. The letter of the Law is a dead letter without the stimulating spirit which moves the mind to an acknowledgement of its rightness with a corresponding urge to obey, to carry out and live up to its precept. Its value to man and the trouble arising from a lawless or law-breaking state have never been in question with the discerning. "In the keeping of them there is great reward."

In spite of all these assurances, testimonies and the evidences of the need and safety of the governing laws of nations created by or modelled upon the Ten Commandments, written by the hand of God in His mountain rendezvous with a choice and chosen man, there are those who ask "Why the law? Why should we observe rules ancient or modern? Why bother with religion? It is the cause of a lot of trouble. Why do we not think what we like and do what we like?" Such freedom is a tempting proposition to youthful ardour impatient of restraint. The questions are those that every self-willed generation has put to its austere and critical elders who condemn or mourn the waywardness of its youth. The experiences of life alone offer the best answers and teach the best lessons. The fees are somewhat heavy. It is when they are demanded, when fear, loneliness, pain and frustration assail the human mind and body that men and women begin to realise that everything has a price, even freedom to cast out the Word of God like an old shoe.

For Adam, the ancestor of the race, the beginning of intelligent human relationship with God, the answer was clear but devastating. He was a free agent with liberty to enjoy a thousand lawful pleasures in the sylvan glory of his paradise. Only one restriction tried his metal. The simple record of that first failure, all too readily classed as allegory, folklore or an unforgettable dream of a desirable residence and a care-free life for which the generations, as they pass, persistently search but do not find, has left its mark upon all nature, a black-mark for which there has been no man-made erasure or remedy.

Untried, unready for knowledge, man chose his own way and broke the one rule of his kingdom. Thus he broke faith with his Maker, lost his trust, his friend and advisor, so setting in operation another law whose grim results are still at work throughout the earth, a law which can neither be defeated nor repealed except by the Author of all law.

As that wise monarch Solomon, after what seemed to be a successful and profitable life, observed somewhat bitterly, "There is a way that seems right to a man but the end of it is death" (Proverbs 14.12). Not only were its fleeting pleasures and transitory treasures "Vanity of vanities", but the day came when the whole experience stumbled to a full stop.

(To be continued)

BJD