always results from unbelief, the sin of sins. Unbelief takes away the very Godhead from God; for if He be not true, if He be not fit to be believed, He is not God.

2. It feeds sin. The man who believes in God will fight with any temptation, but the man who does not believe in Him is ready to fall into any snare (H. E. I. 1920-1922). He who cannot trust God in times of difficulty soon begins to trust in the devil, and to adopt some of his expedients for relief; and he who trusts the devil soon finds himself in the

snare.

3. It injures yourself. Nothing can weaken you so much or make you so unhappy as to be distrusting (H. E. I. 2050-2054).

4. Fear weakens the believer's influence, and so causes mischief to others. Converts are not brought to Christ through unbelieving Christians. It is faith that wins souls (H. E. I. 1090). For your own sake, for your neighbour's sake, fear not, neither be dismayed!

III. THE PROMISES WHICH GOD

GIVES TO PREVENT FEAR AND DISMAY.

1. Many a man fears because he is afraid of loneliness. More or less we must be alone in the service of Godin suffering-in old age-or in a strange land. But, believer, you are not alone, because God is with you. Omnipotence will be with you to be your strength, omniscience to be your wisdom, immutability to be your succour, all the attributes of God to be your treasury. "Fear thou not, for I am with thee" (P. D. 3145).

2. Men fear they may lose all they have in the world, and they know very well that if they lose their property they usually lose their friends (H. E. I. 23, 24, 2151-2159). But here the second promise comes in, "Be not dismayed, for I am thy God." Jonah's gourd was withered, but Jonah's God was not. Your goods may go, but your God will not; and having Him, you may laugh at penury and distress, for you shall lack no good thing (Ps. lxxxiv. 11, 12).

3. Fear sometimes arises from a sense of personal weakness. "I have a battle to fight, and I am very weak; I have a work to do for God before I die, and I have not sufficient power to perform it." But here comes in the next word of the text: "I will strengthen thee." God can, if He wills it, put Samson's strength into an infant's arm. Transfer the figure to spiritual strength. The strength we need for our work does not lie in us, or it would be all over with us. It comes from God, and He will give it. Preacher, Sunday-school teacher, look up to Him and take courage. There was a bush in the wilderness, and it was nothing to look at nothing but a bush; but oh! how it glowed with splendour when God came into it; it burned with fire, and yet was not consumed." God can come into you, and can make you blaze with glory like the bush in Horeb.

4. Some fear that friendly succour will fail. A fear apt to trouble those who have large purposes of benevolence towards their fellow-men. The cooperation of others seems necessary to their accomplishment, and in the critical moment they may fall away. But let them note this word: "I will help thee." (a) If the work on which we have set our heart is God's work, He will send to our aid all the succour we need.

5. Many a child of God is afflicted with a fear that he shall one day, in some unguarded moment, bring dishonour upon the cross of Christ. This is a very natural fear, and in some respects a very proper fear. But grasp this precious word: "I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." The self-same hand that spans both sea and shore bears up the unpillared arch of heaven and holds the stars in their place. Can it not bear you up? Oh, rest upon it, and you shall not be cast down! (H. E. I. 2363-2373, 2791).

Here you have angels' food; nay, the very bread of life itself lies in these choice words. The only fear I have is lest you should miss them

through unbelief. Go home, and take this text with you in the hand of faith. It shall prove to you like the widow's barrel of meal and cruse of oil.-C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 930.

(a.) You know what a grand matter is God's help. A minister was one day bringing his books upstairs into another room, for he was going to have his study on the first floor instead of downstairs, and his little boy wanted to help father carry some of the books. "Now," said the father, "I knew he could not do it, but as he wanted to be doing something, to please him and to do him good by encouraging his industry, I told him he might take a book and carry it up." So away he went, and picked out one of the biggest volumes-Caryl on Job or Poli Synopsis, I should think-and when he had climbed a step or two up the stairs, down he sat and began to cry. He could not manage to carry his big book any further; he was disappointed and unhappy. How did the matter end? Why, the father had to go to the rescue, and carry both the great book and the little man. So, when the Lord gives us a work to do, we are glad to do it, but our strength is not equal to the work, and then we sit down and cry, and it comes to this, that our blessed Father carries the work and carries the little man too, and then it is all done, and done gloriously. It is a simple illustration, but may it comfort some desponding heart. I will help thee."-Spurgeon.

66

Yea,

I. There are fears which rise in the heart at the thought of God. Let a man confront himself even in imagination with Jehovah, and the first and strongest emotion within him is terror. We have all trembled when in darkness and solitude we have thought of God (Job iv. 13-17). An horror of great darkness creeps over us when first the truth takes possession of us that we shall stand naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. The root of all this is our guilt. We have broken God's law, and however we may forget that at other times, it is the first thing we remember when we feel that God is near, so that if we could, we would flee from His presence. How many illustrations of this we have in the Scriptures! (Gen. iii. 8; Exod. xx. 19; Judges xiii. 20; Isa. vi. 5; Luke ii. 9, v. 8). Whenever in our own case anything occurs which seems

cause.

to us to belong to that mystic borderland between the visible and the unseen, we have the same spirit-shudder, which must be traced to the same The mercury becomes peculiarly sensitive when the thunder-cloud is overhead; the needle is most restless when some magnetic substance is near; and so when conscience, by reason of any occurrence in providence, feels God to be close at hand, it becomes most active and fills the soul with alarm. There are few who would not quake with fear if they could be compelled to think for but one short hour on God, judgment, and eternity.

Now see how the Gospel meets this dread with its benignant "fear not." In all the cases in the Bible in which God is represented as coming to talk with men, He begins with these words, "Fear not." He thereby says, in effect, that we have a wrong idea concerning Him when we think of Him with terror. We regard Him as an enemy, whereas He is our best friend. We run away from Him, when, if we really knew Him, we should betake ourselves to Him in the sure confidence that He will receive us. You ask me how I know all this. I point in answer to the cross of Christ, whereon our innocent Substitute gave Himself up to death for us, that we might be righteously forgiven. That cross, with all its mysterious accompaniments, was God's great "Fear not!" spoken to the trembling heart of humanity. is the declaration of His love to thee. Take hold of that, and thy fear will give place to gratitude, as His forgiveness comes into thy soul (H. E. I. 2233-2236, 2319-2321).

It

II. There are fears which arise in the heart as we think of our fellowmen. We have been often hampered in our discharge of duty by our regard to those who are around us (Prov. xxix. 25). There is a course of conduct which we clearly see that it is our duty to take, but if we follow it we shall forfeit the friendship of many whose esteem we have been accustomed to value, and so we pause and try to compromise with conscience.

Or we are afraid of the opposition of our fellows, and so we are brought to a halt. We have many such cases described in Scripture. Abraham

lying to preserve his life; Aaron making the golden calf to save himself from being stoned; Saul sinning because he feared the people and obeyed their voice; Herod beheading John the Baptist for his oath's sake and the sake of them that were with him; Peter vacillating at Antioch when he saw those who had come from Jerusalem. And we have been ourselves oo often in the same condemnation. Now see how the Gospel comes to us with its "Fear not " for this ensnaring trepidation. It assures us that It assures us that God is on our side. It declares that He will never leave us nor forsake us. It does not declare, indeed, that we shall have exemption from suffering, but that we shall be upheld under it, and supported through it, and be at length more than conquerors. To die is oftentimes to conquer. the real victor on Calvary? Was it not He who bowed His head and said, "It is finished"? Who was the conqueror when the proto-martyi

"Heeded not reviling tones,

Who was

Nor sold his heart to idle moans, Though cursed and scorned and bruised with stones?"

This "Fear not " does not guarantee immunity from trouble, but it is God's word of reassurance whispered into the ears of His tempted, tried, and sometimes weak and irresolute people; and when it is heard in faith, the timid one becomes courageous, and takes his place among the heroes of humanity. See the efficacy of this sovereign antidote to the fear of men on those valiant youths who stood before the monarch of Babylon (Dan. iii. 16-18). Behold its power in the conduct of the Apostles when they stood before the Council (Acts v. 29). Behold its success in the aged Palissy, when the French monarch said to him in his cell in the Bastile, "Palissy, if you do not recant, I shall be forced to give you up." And he replied, "Forced,

sire; this is not to speak like a king; but they who force you cannot force me. I can die." And what met the need of these great sufferers is surely sufficient to meet ours. Oh, ye timid ones, who are terrified by the men around you, hear a few reassuring words from God (Deut. xx. 3, 4; Neh. i. 8; Isa. xli. 14, 15, and also ver. 10). There are multitudes of promises of this same character, and if we would but keep hold of them, no mortal influence would ever be able to move us from our purpose, and no storm of temptation would ever drive us from our anchorage. anchorage. The Lord is on thy side, therefore go forward undauntedly, for He will make rough places smooth, and crooked things straight before thee (Rev. ii. 10).

III. There are fears which spring up in the heart at the thought of the future. We know not what a day may bring forth, and whenever we permit ourselves to think of what may come upon us, except when we do so in the light of the Gospel, we become despondent and afraid. In all there is some anxiety. In some it may have regard to temporal concerns. In others it may respect their spiritual safety. In others it may centre in their children. In others, still, it may relate to the time and manner of their death. In many more it may be the future of the spirit-world that puts fear into their souls, and the thought of judgment and eternity may ride like a nightmare over their troubled breasts.

Each has his own dread, but see how, with its consoling "Fear not," the Gospel hushes the heart of each to peace, even as a mother calms her troubled infant into quietness (Matt. vi. 25-34). In so far as the future of this world is concerned Jesus says, "Take no anxious thought for it." Learn a lesson here from the great German reformer, who, in a time of terrible perplexity and with a troubled heart, looked out into the twilight, and saw a bird hop into the shade of a thick tree. It stayed a few minutes on its first perch to sing its even-song, and then and then leaping upon a higher

branch, it placed its head below its wing and went to sleep. "Happy little bird," said Luther; "he sings his song and goes to sleep, and lets God think for him; and I will do the same." Or is it your spiritual safety that disturbs you? Then hear what Jesus says (John x. 27-29). Or are you anxious for your children? Then the promise is unto you and to your children; and if you will only do your present duty by them, and commit them in earnest prayer to God, all will yet be well with them. Or is it death you fear? Then for that there is a special assurance in these words addressed to the Patmos seer (Rev. i. 18): "Fear not; I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of Hades and of death." Yes! at the girdle of the Son of man hang the keys of Hades and of death. The door for your departure will not open until He unlock it; and when He opens it, He will be there Himself to greet you. Why then be afraid? (H. E. I. 1634, 1642, 1643). Then as to judgment and eternity, why should we fear for them except for sin and has not Jesus appeared already to take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself? So we come back to the great centre of the Gospel, the atoning death of Christ, through faith in which alone we shall have boldness in the day of judgment, and happiness throughout eternity. What has the Christian to fear from a Judge who is at the same time his Redeemer? And if Christ be with us through eternity, that is all we need.-W. M. Taylor, D.D.

Fear is very prevalent among Christian people, and is productive of very disastrous results. It seems to be the natural temperament of some and the easy habit of others. In the pious soul a more improper mental attitude could scarce be indulged; for of all men the Christian has the least to fear, as no ultimate injury can come to him, even though apparent dangers threaten him. I. THE OCCASIONS OF FEAR.

Sometimes occasioned by

1. The circumstances of the Christian life (Matt. xiv. 30). Fear is often awakened by life's physical necessities, by its secular conditions, by its intellectual anxieties, and by its moral inability to achieve duty in its highest method.

2. The phenomena of the material universe (Mark iv. 40). Man feels his weakness when brought into contact with the unyielding powers of nature; they heed not his cries, they care not for his rebuke. They are destructive. Man trembles before them. He fears lest they should lead him to the grave, or do him bodily harm. Such phenomena ought not to render timid the Christian heart, as the elements of nature are ruled by the Father's hand.

3. The phenomena of the spirit-world. Sometimes men imagine that they see visitants from the other world of being; and these, coming in strange garb, with mysterious tidings and ghastly appearance, inspire the human heart with fear. Such timidity is a folly. Heaven has better missions for the immortal good than to send them to frighten. the inhabitants of the earth; and hell takes better care of its unhappy crowd than to allow them a momentary release. Such visitations are imaginary. Only the superstitious are troubled with them.

4. Manifestations of the Divine presence (Luke v. 8; Rev. i. 17). The soul of man is too weak and sinful to bear without fear the near and the immediate approach of God.

II. THE CONSEQUENCES OF FEAR.
It often causes men-

1. To sink into the troubles of life (Matt. xiv. 31). Fear always makes men sink in their own estimation as valorous; in the estimation of others. as cowards; and often into sore perplexities of circumstances.

2. To be anxious without true occasion. God's ancient people-the disciples. Fear always makes men over-anxious, and makes them imagine danger when there is none. It makes them timorous in every enterprise, even though they have a refuge in the event of peril

Two persons are spoken of here: I and thee. "I," the person speaking, is Jesus, our God and Saviour; and "thee," the person spoken to, means everybody who needs His help and seeks it. In this passage, then, Jesus is presented to our notice as a Helper. We may have many helpers, but Jesus is the best. There are four reasons why Jesus is the best Helper. He is so

I. Because He is always near to help. If we were hungry, it would not help us to know that a hundred miles off there was a nice loaf of bread. If we were travelling in the desert of Arabia, would it help us any to remember that in England there were many cool and sparkling springs of water? God is always near when people are in trouble. He always could help them if He saw it best. But sometimes He sees good reasons for not helping those who are in need. E.g., there are the wicked men nailing Jesus to the cross. He is God's own dear Son. God loves Him as no other father ever loved a son. God is near. He sees all His sufferings. The angels of heaven see them. Multitudes of them would fly in an instant to His relief, if God would let them. But no! And why was this? Ah! there was reason enough for it. If Jesus had not died, none of us would have been saved. And just so in every case; there is always a good reason for it,

although we cannot always tell what

the reason is.

IL Because He is always able to help. Sometimes there are many helpers, and they are near at hand, but they are not able to help. We read a great deal in the Bible about those whom Jesus has helped. There we find how He helped Abel when he offered an acceptable sacrifice to God. He helped Noah to build the ark which saved himself and his family. He helped Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. He helped David to slay the great giant with nothing in his hand but a sling and a stone. He helped Daniel when he was cast into the lions' den. He helped Daniel's three friends when they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. He helped Paul to preach the Gospel; and, in the days of cruel persecution, He helped the "noble army of martyrs" to bear with patience the chain and the dungeon; yea, and even to sing for joy when the flames were kindling around them and the fire consuming their bodies. Rich men can help us with their money, wise men with their counsels, and Christians with their prayers; but Jesus can help us in everything. He can help you in studying your lessons and in all your daily duties. He can help kings and governors to rule and subjects to obey. He can help ministers to preach and