Let the Peace of God Rule

Robert Philip, Christian Experience; or, A Guide to the Perplexed, pp. 211-212:

"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts." Yes, let it! Some do not allow it to rule or rest in their hearts. "We have peace with God," when the Holy Spirit enables us to see and believe that we are "justified by faith:" but this way of arriving at, and retaining, peace of conscience, is so different from all our natural, and from the spirit of many of our acquired, ideas, that we are prone to flinch from it, or to be afraid of it; and thus we unsettle that peace which springs from believe. We talk, indeed, of "living a life of faith:" but in general, this is made to include almost every thing but faith itself. Nor is this the only way in which peace with God is disturbed and lost: it comes into the heart by believing; but it comes to "rule" in the heart; and, therefore, if it be not allowed to sway its sceptre over our habits and tempers, it will not shed its sweet influences over our hopes. Oh, charge all that is within you, to let it rule over you!