Banks (L. A.), John and his Friends, 143.
Bright (W.), Morality in Doctrine, 209.
Churcli (R. W.), Village Sermons, iii. 258.
Cox (S.), Expositions, i. 364.
Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, ii. 247.
Figgis (J. B.), The Anointing, 67.
Gibbon (J. M.), The Gospel oj Fatherhood, 43.
Goodwin (H.), Parish Sermons, iv. (1856) 48.
Gregory (B.), Perfect in Christ Jesus, 104.
Hart (H, G.), Sermons Preached in Sedbergh School Chapel, 20.
Kingsley (C), Village, Town and Country Sermons, 341.
Lushington (F. de W.), Sermons to Young Boys, 9.
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„ „ Tri^iraphant Certainties, 296.
Price (A, C), Fifty Sermons, i. 161.
Temple (F,), Sermons Preached in Rughy School Chapel, ii. 47 ; iii. 212. Trench (R. C.), Westminster and Other Sermons, 32. Christian World Pulpit, ii. 355 (Bainton) j iii. 212 (Beecher) ; xiv. 195
(Proctor) ; xxi. 84 (Beecher). Church of England Magazine, xxiii. 112 (Ayre) ; xliv. 67 (Morris). Literary Churchman, xxiv. (1878) 235. Preacher's Magazine, v. (1894) 317 (Eldridge).
34»
Love Casting Out Fear.
There is no fear in love ; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment ; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love. — i John iv. 1 8.
1. St. John's name does not call up before us the fiery zeal that stirs some to noble deeds, or the unfaltering faith that nerves others to meet danger, or the calm endurance that lifts others above pain and trial ; though zeal, and resolution, and endurance are each and all so commonly the offspring and the evidence of love in the hearts of men. What St. John, for the most part, represents to our minds is love in its softer aspect. We often forget that he was Boanerges. We picture him to ourselves as the tenderest of men, and the most unselfish ; at once the most ready to sympathize with and comfort others in distress and the most quickly responsive to affection shown by others for him. And so it is, not only with St. John, but with other characters also ; we are apt to forget that other side, the necessary complement, of love — namely, courage, and resolution, and all that is akin to these. Often, when we see men soft and gentle, like St. John, we fail to remember that there must be a stronger side to their characters ; just as, on the other hand, when we see men who are evidently cast in a sterner mould, we frequently forget that there may be — often, indeed, that there must be — warm springs of feeling within their hearts which we cannot see, to account for that strict or even rigid performance of duty which we can see.
2. But the love which he commends in this Epistle is not an emotion based upon mere feeling and impulse, or a passion having its roots and energy in the lower nature of man ; it is a love entirely in subordination to principle, and sanctified by its hearty consecration to God. According to the Apostle, therefore,
348 LOVE CASTING OUT FEAR
Christian love is elevated into the very highest type of spiritual chivalry. It is emphatically an affection based upon a reasoning perception of worth in the object of its choice, and hence it is a moral power, and not an unintelligent emotion of instinct or habit. In the fulness of its strength it has power to call forth forms of spiritual beauty more thrilling than any manifestation of mere animal passion. In Christian life it is a profound reality, being the true secret, of man's happiness and well-being.
Such is the love which the Apostle puts in opposition to fear. It is the "perfect love" — the love which is fostered with the truest sincerity, and from a purely unselfish motive — that has power to cast out fear. There is no fear in that great passion of the human soul which is called " the love of God " ; for, on the contrary, it is instrumental in producing in the heart that beats and burns with it a blessing which surpasses all human anticipa- tion. It is the prize and glory of the spiritual life, the master grace that enriches the fellowship of a soul with heaven. The modes of its action and the forms of its life are such as give it free and glorious course, and show, in proportion to its sincerity and intensity, how pre-eminently it is the conqueror of all fear.
\ ^ In heaven, love will absorb fear; but in this world, /ear and love miLst go together. No one can love God aright without fearing Him ; though many fear Him, and yet do not love Him. Self- confident men, who do not know their own hearts, or the reasons they have for being dissatisfied with themselves, do not fear God, and they think this bold freedom is to love Him./ Deliberate sinners fear but cannot love Him. But devotion to Him consists in love and fear, as we may understand from our ordinary attach- ment to each other. No one really loves another, who does not feel a certain reverence towards him. When friends transgress this sobriety of affection, they may indeed continue associates for a time, but they have broken the bond of union. It is a mutual respect that makes friendship lasting. So again, in the feelings of inferiors towards superiors. Fear must go before love. Till he who has authority shows he has it and can use it, his forbear- ance will not be valued duly ; his kindness will look like weak- ness. ■* We learn to contemn what we do not fear ; and we cannot love what we contemn. So in religion also. \ We cannot under- stand Christ's mercies till we understand His power, His glory, His unspeakable holiness, and our demerits; that is, until we first fear Him. Not that fear comes first, and then love ; for the