1 Perfect peace
"Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Isaiah 26:3.
Many years ago there lived a great man called Chrysostom. He was a good man, noted for the beautiful, kind words that he spoke. But one day he said something that offended the emperor. It was something true, but it was a truth that the emperor did not want to hear, so he decided to punish Chrysostom.
Consulting his great men, he asked, "What shall we do to punish Chrysostom?"
"Banish him from the kingdom," said the first counselor.
"Take away all his money," suggested another. "Put him in prison," a third one said. "Put him to death," came from another of the counselors. Then the voice of another man was heard a heathen man, but he had more wisdom than the others.
"All these men have given wrong advice," he said. "If you banish Chrysostom from the kingdom, he will not be unhappy. He will be glad that he can preach Christ to others. If you take away his money, you merely rob the poor, for all Chrysostom's money goes to help the poor. If you put him in prison, he will sing as some of the saints of his church sang. If you tell him you will kill him, he will have cause to rejoice, for happy are those, he says, who die for their Lord. No, there is no way to punish Chrysostom, the servant of Christ."
Chrysostom had the perfect peace that nothing could disturb. His happiness did not consist of the things of this life, but in the things of the life above, and that is why nothing could hurt him. He had the perfect peace that comes when, as the verse that we read tells us, our minds are "stayed on" God.
Do things upset and disturb you? Leave them with Christ and they won't worry you. You will have the peace of God in your heart.
2 The grasshopper on the royal exchange
"Remember his marvelous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth." Psalm 109:5.
Never forget the wonderful things that God does for you.
One of the places that visitors to London go to see is the building known as the Royal Exchange. It is the heart of the business world.
On the top of the building is a cupola on which is a weather vane in the form of a grasshopper. The Royal Exchange was built in honor of a great man called Sir Thomas Gresham, and he specially asked for the grasshopper to be placed there because the grasshopper had a special meaning for him.
One day a little boy on his way home from school heard a grasshopper chirping away in the field, and he lingered, watching it. He thought he would like to catch it, so he hopped over the fence to try to catch it and there right beside the grasshopper he saw something that interested him much more a tiny baby, abandoned by its parents. He forgot all about the grasshopper and picked up the baby and took it home to his mother.
When attempts failed to trace the baby's parents, the little boy's mother decided to adopt the baby. He grew up to be the great Sir Thomas Gresham, in whose honor the Royal Exchange building was erected. Sir Thomas never forgot the story of how he was found, and he always felt he owed a debt not only to his foster mother and brother but to the grasshopper that led his foster brother to the spot where he lay, a helpless infant. He ever remembered the way the Lord had led through such a humble creature as a grasshopper.
Has God done something wonderful for you? Perhaps He made you well after an accident or a severe illness. Perhaps you were an orphan and God blessed you with a good mother and father through adoption. Resolve never to forget the wonderful things God does for you.
You remember the story of the ladder that Jacob saw going from heaven to earth, and how it taught him that God is always giving us help. To help him never to forget this, Jacob built an altar. Read about it, in Genesis 28:16-22.
