Happiness and rest are what all men pursue. But the things of the world, wherein most men seek it, can never afford it; they are laboring and spending themselves in vain. But Christ invites you to come to Him and offers you this peace, which He gives His true followers, and that so much excels all that the world can afford (see Isa. 55:2–3). You that have hitherto spent your time in the pursuit of satisfaction in the profit or glory of the world or in the pleasures and vanities of youth have this day an offer of that excellent and everlasting peace and blessedness that Christ has purchased with the price of His own blood. As long as you continue to reject those offers and invitations of Christ and continue in a Christless condition, you never will enjoy any true peace or comfort but will be like the prodigal, who in vain endeavored to be satisfied with the husks that the swine did eat. The wrath of God will abide upon you, and misery will attend you wherever you go that you never will be able to escape. Christ gives peace to the most sinful and miserable that come to Him. He heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds. But it is impossible that they should have peace while they continue in their sins (see Isa. 57:19–21). There is no peace between God and them, for as they have the guilt of sin remaining in their souls and are under its dominion, so God’s indignation continually burns against them, and therefore there is the reason why they travail in pain all their days.

From “The Peace Which Christ Gives His True Followers,” p. 92