It has been said that there is a kind of peace that is not of this
world. How is it recognized? How is it found? And being found, how can
it be retained? Let us consider each of these questions separately, for
each reflects a different step along the way.

First, how can the peace of God be recognized? God’s peace is recognized
at first by just one thing; in every way it is totally unlike all
previous experiences. It calls to mind nothing that went before. It
brings with it no past associations. It is a new thing entirely. There
is a contrast, yes, between this thing and all the past. But strangely,
it is not a contrast of true differences. The past just slips away, and
in its place is everlasting quiet. Only that. The contrast first
perceived is merely gone. Quiet has reached to cover everything.

How is this quiet found? No-one can fail to find it who but seeks out
its conditions. God’s peace can never come where anger is, for anger
must deny that peace exists. Who sees anger as justified in any way or
any circumstance proclaims that peace is meaningless, and must believe
that it cannot exist. In this condition peace cannot be found. Therefore
forgiveness is the necessary condition for finding the peace of God.
More than this, given forgiveness there must be peace. For what except
attack will lead to war? And what but peace is opposite to war? Here the
initial contrast stands out clear and apparent. Yet when peace is found
the war is meaningless. And it is conflict now that is perceived as
non-existent and unreal.

How is the peace of God retained, once it is found? Returning anger, in
whatever form, will drop the heavy curtain once again, and the belief
that peace cannot exist will certainly return. War is again accepted as
the one reality. Now must you once again lay down your sword, although
you will not recognize that you have picked it up again. But you will
learn, as you remember, even faintly now, what happiness was yours
without it, that you must have taken it again as your defence. Stop for
a moment now, and think of this: Is conflict what you want, or is God’s
peace the better choice? Which gives you more? A tranquil mind is not a
little gift. Would you not rather live than choose to die?

Living is joy, but death can only weep. You see in death escape from
what you made. But this you do not see; that you made death, and it is
but illusion of an end. Death cannot be escape, because it is not life
in which the problem lies. Life has no opposite, for it is God. Life and
death seem to be opposites because you have decided death ends life.
Forgive the world, and you will understand that everything which God
created cannot have an end, and nothing He did not create is real. In
this one sentence is our course explained. In this one sentence is our
practicing given its one direction. And in this the Holy Spirit’s whole
curriculum is specified exactly as it is.

What is the peace of God? No more than this; the simple understanding
that His Will is wholly without opposite. There is no thought that
contradicts His Will yet can be true. The contrast between His Will and
yours but seemed to be reality. In truth there is no conflict, because
His Will is yours. Now is the mighty Will of God Himself His gift to
you. He does not seek to keep it for Himself. Why would you seek to keep
your tiny, frail imaginings apart from Him? The Will of God is one and
all there is. This is your heritage. The universe beyond the sun and
stars, and all the thoughts of which you can conceive, belong to you.
God’s peace is the condition for His Will. Attain His peace, and you
remember Him.