DISCIPLE

"Not Peace — but a Sword." Matt. 10:34 , 35 ; Luke 12:51-53 . J. A. Trench. Article 26 of 55 from 'Truth for Believers' Volume 2.     From the words of praise of the multitude of the heavenly host, the day that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, as given in Luke 2:14 , peace did certainly seem to have been presented to the earth in the Person of the Saviour. "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill" (or good pleasure) "in men" — as the last clause must be read. And if the object of God in His coming into the world was that a testimony of peace on the part of God should go out to the guilty rebel children of men — as Peter tells us it was ( Acts 10:36 ): "the word which He sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ" — could any embassy of peace have been more wonderfully devised, or better calculated to win men's hearts than that God should present Himself in Israel, as a babe, th...