and then he guarded them against the fear of man (which would induce them to put their light under a bushel) ; and, as the best antidote to it, to cultivate the fear of Goda.
The subject of our text cannot be rendered more clear by any artificial arrangement of it, nor can the words be treated in any better order than that in which they stand: we shall therefore follow them simply without any particular division.
The fear of man is a very powerful and prevailing evil —
[Scarcely does any one begin to feel a desire after salvation, but he is beset immediately with this temptation : though perhaps he never at any time regarded the good opinion of men so far as to be deterred by it from the commission of any sin, noiv he is filled with apprehensions lest this or that person should despise him. He scarcely dares look grave, lest his friends should think him melancholy ; nor will he venture to acknowledge any compunction for his past iniquities, lest they should say that he is going mad. He is persuaded in his mind that they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake are on the whole in the best way ; but he dares not join himself to them for fear of participating in their reproach ; nor dares he shew any attach- ment to a minister of Christ, from whom he would wish to derive instruction, lest he should be classed with his followers. He dares not even go to a place of worship where Christ is more faithfully preached, lest he should be loaded with some opprobrious name. To bear an open testimony against sin, or to vindicate the ways of righteousness, would be an effort which he could not even contemplate without dread : so tied is he and bound with this ideal chain — the good opinion of the world.
If he have been enabled to surmount these first difficulties, he still is in bondage to fears of another kind. His father perhaps threatens to disinherit him, his master to dismiss him, his patron to turn his back upon him : the question then arises in his mind, How shall I sustain this trial ? and then, to avoid the cross, he sacrifices his conscience, declines from the ways of God, and goes back again to the world : " tribulation and persecution arising because of the word, he presently is offended." Nor is it uncommon for those who have appeared bold in the cause of Christ, to turn back, when they are called to " resist unto blood." When Paul was first called before the Roman Emperor, there was not " found one single Christian
a ver. 1, 4, 5.