\J 2. In a world where everything has to struggle for existence fear is inevitable. One of the strangest things in the organization of this world is the prevalence of a universal destructiveness. We are taught, and we believe, that God is a God of benevolence. We are taught, and we believe, that the world was ordained for the production of happiness. Yet, when the Apostle says that " the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now," every one who is conversant with history agrees with him. Every one who looks out into life and takes cognizance of the things that are going on — the silent sujfferings, the secret mischiefs, the v/astes, and the wails that spread throughout the whole human family — must feel that some defence is needed to make life tolerable or even possible. Now fear is the best defence of all the passions that are committed to men. If the world were all peaceful, fear would be a torment ; but on the supposition that the world is full of antagonisms and destroying influences, and that life is to be maintained and developed in spite of the difficulties and dangers which surround everything and everybody, fear is a preservation.
1] Wherever there is evil to be seen, there is fear or the seed of fear ; and evil is around us, and in us, on all sides, in this world of ours. Who can look around at the state of the world at any moment and not feel anxious at what we and our children may have to go through ? Who has not things which he values as the apple of his eye, things to which he has always been accustomed — things which he believes to be bound up with all that is good and precious in life, things whose removal would make days for ever dark and unbearable — and yet does not see that they hang but on a thread ; perhaps that what is to bring their ruin and overthrow has already begun to work ? Who does not feel that change is the law and order of the world, and never more so than in our own days ; and who does not feel that a change might easily
1 J. B. Figgis, The Ajiointing, 76.
352 LOVE CASTING OUT FEAR
come — in his circumstances, in his friends, in the neighbours among whom he dwells — which would make things very wretched to him ? Every one who thinks and looks forward to what may be in the world, and in the country where he lives, must some- times feel fear and anxiety coming over him, taking possession of him, and distressing him. "What may I not live to see ? What may I not live to see overthrown or set up ? What calamities such as I hear of on all sides may I not have to taste of ? Who can tell ? To-day for one, to-morrow for the other, is the rule of fortune. And when these thoughts come into the mind, of the judgments and trials of God's providence meeting us, we under- stand what is meant by the saying that " fear hath torment." ^
\J 3. Fear arises necessarily from our ignorajifig, A person altogether unacquainted with the operations of a machine, a steam-engine or the like, would fear to meddle with it, because it might do him injury in some way which he would have no reason to expect ; an engineer by profession would have no such fear as this. What is the difference between the two ? Clearly this, that one understands the action of the machine with which he has to do, and the other does not ; the machine must be spoken of as dangerous or not dangerous, according to the training of the person concerned. So an honest man is in no fear of a judge, provided only that he knows the judge to be himself an honest man and a competent judge ; if by any misfortune an innocent man were placed upon his trial, and he was well assured of the integrity and intelligence of his judge, he could not dread the result ; but suppose that the judge, either from ignorance, or ill- temper, or party-spirit, or any other cause, were well known as a capricious man, one whose judgments could never be anticipated, because he would not be guided by the high rules of honour and the laws of evidence — who would not fear to stand before such a judge ? The good and the bad must tremble alike ; there could be no confidence, no one would be able to guess whether a man would be punished for an alleged crime or not. Let a ruler be as stern as he pleases in enforcing laws, yet if those laws be just, and the penalties of them known, no one need fear for his safety ; but if the ruler be a tyrant, and if instead of acting according to law he act according to his own fancy, and treat his subjects in an
^ R. W. Cliurch, Village Sermons, iii. 258.
I JOHN IV. i8 353
arbitrary manner, then indeed he may well be feared (as all tyrants are) with that fear which has torment, which breeds hatred, and which can never be united with love.