except the peace of God. Accept this fact,
and save yourself the agony of yet
more bitter disappointments, bleak despair,
and icy sense of hopelessness and doubt.
Seek you no farther. There is nothing else
for you to find except the peace of God,
unless you seek for misery and pain.
This is the final point to which all men
must come at last, to lay aside all hope
of finding happiness where there is none;
of being saved by what can only hurt;
of making peace of chaos, joy of pain
and heaven out of hell. Attempt no more
to win through losing, nor to die to live.
You cannot but be asking for defeat.
Yet you can ask as easily for love,
for happiness, and for eternal life
in peace that has no ending. Ask for this,
and you can only win. To ask for what
you have already must succeed. To ask
that what is false be true can only fail.
Forgive yourself for vain imaginings,
and seek no longer what you cannot find.
For what could be more foolish than to look
and seek and seek again for hell, when you
have but to look with open eyes to find
that Heaven lies before you, through a door
which opens easily to welcome you?
Come home. You have not found your happiness
in alien places and in foreign forms
which have no meaning to you, though you seek
to make them meaningful. This world is not
where you belong. You are a stranger here.
And it is given you to find the means
by which the world no longer seems to be
a prison house nor jail for anyone.
Freedom is given you where you beheld
but chains and iron doors. For you must change
your mind about the purpose of the world,
if you would find escape. You will be bound
till all the world is seen by you as blessed,
and everyone made free of your mistakes
and honored as he is. You made him not;
no more yourself. And as you free the one,
the other is accepted as he is.
What does forgiveness do? In truth it has
no function and does nothing, for it is
unknown in Heaven. It is only hell
where it is needed, and where it must serve
a mighty function. Is not the escape
of God's beloved Son from evil dreams
which he imagines, yet believes are true,
a worthy purpose? Who could hope for more
while there appears to be a choice to make
between success and failure; love and fear?
There is no peace except the Word of God
because He has one Son, who cannot make
a world in opposition to God's Will
and to his own, which is the same as His.
What could he hope to find in such a world?
It cannot have reality because
it never was created. Is it here
that he would seek for peace? Or must he see
that, as he looks on it, the world can but
deceive? Yet can he learn to look on it
another way, and find the peace of God.
Peace is the bridge which everyone will cross
to leave this world behind. But it begins
within the world perceived as different,
and leading from this fresh perception to
the Gate of Heaven and the way beyond.
Peace is the answer to conflicting goals,
to senseless journeys, frantic vain pursuits
and meaningless endeavors. Now the way
is easy, sloping gently toward the bridge
where freedom lies within the peace of God.
Let us not lose our way again today.
We go to Heaven, and the path is straight.
Only if we attempt to wander can
there be delay and needless waste of time
on thorny byways. God alone is sure,
and He will guide your footsteps. He will not
desert His Son in need, nor let him stray
forever from his home. The Father calls;
the Son will hear. And that is all there is
to what appears to be a world apart
from God, where bodies have reality.
Now is there silence. Seek no further. You
have reached to where the road is carpeted
with leaves of false desires fallen from
the trees of hopelessness you sought before.
Now are they underfoot. And you look up
and look toward Heaven, with the body's eyes
but serving for an instant longer now.
Peace is already recognized at last,
and you can feel its soft embrace surround
your heart and mind with comfort and with love.
Today we seek no idols. Peace can not
be found in them. The peace of God is ours,
and only this will we accept and want.
Peace be to us today. For we have found
a simple, happy way to leave the world
of ambiguities, and to replace
our shifting goals and solitary dreams
with single purpose and companionship,
for peace is union if it be of God.
We seek no further. We are close to home,
and draw still nearer every time we say:
There is no peace except the peace of God,
And I am glad and thankful it is so.
