It seems strange to us that St. John, of all men in the world, should be afraid of Jesus. He had spent with the Master so many familiar days. He had talked with Him on the highways, and listened to His voice by the seashore. He had joined with the inner circle of the disciples on the transfiguration mount, in the death chamber of Jairus' house, and in the solemn stillness of Gethsemane by night. He had leaned on the Saviour's breast at supper; and when the cross was upreared on Calvary, he had taken from the Lord's dying lips the direction to receive Mary, the mother of Jesus, into his own home. And yet now, with all his experience of the Master, when the vision of the glorified Christ flashed upon him, he fell in consternation and terror at His feet.
But there was a great contrast between the vision which dis- closed itself to the mind of St. John as he turned to see it and the memory which he cherished of the Lord as He was when he walked with Him in Palestine, or when he leaned on His breast at the supper table. St. John was the beloved disciple ; he had been on terms of exceptional intimacy with his Master, but this was the risen and ascended Saviour ; and so great was the contrast that he fell at His feet as one dead. He was overcome by the splendour of the vision ; he was overwhelmed with the majesty of the Saviour. But it was the same loving Lord. " And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not ; I am the first and the last, and the Living one ; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of death and of Hades."
H Martin Luther tells us himself that in his youth, while he
46 FEAR NOT
was still a devout member of the Eoman Catholic Church, he was walking one day at Eisleben in his priest's robes following the procession of the Mass, when suddenly he was overcome by the thought that the Sacrament, carried by the vicar-geneFal (Dr. Staupitz), was really Jesus Christ (as he then believed) in person. " A cold sweat," he says, " covered my body, and I believed myself dying of terror." Afterwards he confessed his fears to Dr;- ■u- i\ . Staupitz, when the latter (one of the more enlightened of the old school) replied : " Your thoughts are not of Christ. Christ never alarms ; He comforts." " These words," adds Luther, " filled me with joy, and were a great consolation to me." ^
There are three great encouragements in the text — I. Fear not to Live : " I am the Living one." 11. Fear not to Die : " I was dead, and behold, I am ali\ e
for evermore." IIL Fear not what comes after Death : " I have the keys of death and of Hades."
I.
Fear not to Live.
"I am the Living one."
1. The instinct of fear is deeply rooted in our nature. The thing that is unknown, yet known to be, will always be more or less formidable. When it is known as immeasurably greater than ourselves, and as having claims and making demands upon us, the more vaguely these are apprehended, the more room is there for anxiety ; and when the conscience is not clear, this anxiety may well amount to terror. According to the nature of the mind which occupies itself with the idea of the Supreme, whether regarded as Maker or Kuler, will be the kind and degree of the terror. To this terror need belong no exalted ideas of God ; those fear Him most who most imagine Him like their own evil selves, only beyond them in power, easily able to work His arbitrary will with them. The same consciousness of evil and of offence as gave rise to the bloody sacrifice is still at work in the minds of some who call themselves Christians. Naturally the first emotion
» J. Waddell.
REVELATION i. 17. 18 47
of man towards the Being he calls God, but of whom he knows so little, is fear.
(1) Human experience is steeped in the fears brought by a guilty conscience. In all ages men have been terror-stricken as they thought of their sin. Even the most cultured peoples of paganism found no relief from such dread in turning to their gods. They did not think so well of their deities as to conceive of their pitying, helping, and saving. The favour of these monsters was to be won by pain, by suffering, and by surrender of what they loved the most ; and so they hated their gods, and in their hearts ■ bewailed the dire necessity of religion.
The ease of a guilty conscience is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Living One. It is in the touch of His right hand, in the hearing of the voice of Jesus, in the steadfast regard of what Jesus is, of what Jesus has done, and in the apprehension of the place that Jesus fills, and of the power that Jesus wields, that St. John is to find the ground of his fearlessness and steadfast confidence. This is one of the commonplaces of Christian experience. Not in ourselves, not in our attainments, not in our circumstances, not in anything that is ours, not even in any suffering, surrender, or sacrifice, can we find any sure ground of confidence or of deliverance. It is in Christ, and in Him alone, that peace and rest can be found. While we look at Him, while we steadfastly contemplate Him, and dwell on His perfection, on His work, on the gracious relation He condescends to bear to us, we are safe from inward perturbation and from hesitation and doubt.