And that same faith will again bring these two bright-winged angels into the most saddened and troubled lives, because that faith brings right relations with ourselves.  For our inward strifes stuff thorns into the pillow of our repose, and mingle bitterness with the sweetest, foaming draughts of our earthly joys.  If a man’s conscience and inclinations pull him two different ways, he is torn asunder as by wild horses.  If a man has a hungry heart, for ever yearning after unattained and impossible blessings, then there is no rest there.  If a man’s little kingdom within him is all anarchical, and each passion and appetite setting up for itself, then there is no tranquillity.  But if by faith we let the God of hope come in, then hungry hearts are satisfied, and warring dispositions are harmonised, and the conscience becomes quieted, and fair imaginations fill the chamber of the spirit, and the man is at rest, because he himself is unified by the faith and fear of God.

And the same faith brings joy and peace because it sets right our relations with other people, and with all externals.  If I am living in an atmosphere of trust, then sorrow will never be absolute, nor have exclusive monopoly and possession of my spirit.  But there will be the paradox, and the blessedness, of Christian experience, ’as sorrowful yet always rejoicing.’  For the joy of the Christian life has its source far away beyond the swamps from which the sour drops of sorrow may trickle, and it is possible that, like the fabled fire that burned under water, the joy of the Lord may be bright in my heart, even when it is drenched in floods of calamity and distress.

And so, brethren, the joy and peace that come from faith will fill the heart which trusts.  Only remember how emphatically the Apostle here puts these two things together, ‘joy and peace in believing.’  As long as, and not a moment longer than, you are exercising the Christian act of trust, will you be experiencing the Christian blessedness of ‘joy and peace.’  Unscrew the pipe, and in an instant the water ceases to flow.  Touch the button and switch off, and out goes the light.  Some Christian people fancy they can live upon past faith.  You will get no present joy and peace out of past faith.  The rain of this day twelve months will not moisten the parched ground of to-day.  Yesterday’s religion was all used up yesterday.  And if you would have a continuous flow of joy and peace through your lives, keep up a uniform habit and attitude of trust in God.  You will get it then; you will get it in no other way.

III.  Lastly, note the hope which springs from this experience of joy and peace.