The fear of man is one of the greatest obstacles which stand between the soul and heaven. — " What will men say of me P What will they think of me P What wiU they do to me P" — How often these Uttle questions have turned the balanoe against the soul, and kept men bound hand and foot by sin and the devil ! Thousands would never hesitate a moment to storm a breach or face a lion, who dare not face the laughter of relatives, neighbours, and friends. Now if the fear of man has such influence in these times, how much greater must its influence have been in the days when our Lord was upon earth ! If it be hard to follow Christ through ridicule and ill-natured words, how much harder must it have been to follow Him. through prisons, beatings, scourgings, and violent deaths ! All these things our Lord Jesus knew well. No wonder that He cries, " Be not afraid."
But what is the best remedy against the fear of man P How are we to overcome this powerful feeling, and break the chains which it throws around us P There is no remedy like that which our Lord recommends. We must supplant the fear of man by a higher and more powerful principle, — ^the fear of God. We must look away fix)m those who can only hurt the body to Him who has all dominion over the soul. We must turn our eyes from those who can only injure us in the life that now is, to Him who can condemn us to eternal misery in the life to come. Armed with this mighty principle, we shall not play the coward. Seeing Him that is invisible, we shall find the lesser fear melting away before the greater, and the weaker before the stronger. "I fear God," said Colonel Gardiner, '' and therefore there is no one else that I need fear." — ^It
LUKE, CHAP. Xn. VBB. 1 — 1, 61
was a noble saying of martjn'ed Bishop Hooper, when a Roman Catholic urged him to save his life by recanting at the stake, — " Life is sweet and death is bitter. But eternal life is more sweet, and eternal death is more bitter."
The last thing that demands our attention in these verses, is ChrisVa encouragement to persecuted believers. He reminds them of God's providential care over the least of His creatures : — " Not one sparrow is forgotten before God." He goes on to assure them that the same Fatherly care is engaged on behalf of each one of them- selves : — " The very hairs of your head are all numbered." Nothing whatever, whether great or small, can happen to a believer, without God's ordering and permission.
The providential government of God over everything in this world is a truth of which the Greek and Bon^an philosophers had no conception. It is a truth which is specially revealed to us in the Word of God. Just as the telescope and microscope show us that there is order and design in all the works of God's hand, from the greatest planet down to the least insect, so does the Bible teach us that there is wisdom, order, and design in all the events of our daily life. There is no such thing as " chance," " luck," or " accident " in the Christian's jour- ney through this world. All is arranged and appointed by God. And all things are "working together "for the believer's good. (Rom. viii. 28.)
Let us seek to have an abiding sense of God's hand in all that befals us, if we profess to be believers in Jesus Christ Let us strive to realize that a Father's hand is measuring out our daily portion, and that our steps are