Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-07-29
THE FEAR OF GOD.
Il Keeps the World from Dreadful,
UnhOly Excuses.

The world needs The fear of God. the
fear of His righteous judgments, to
keep the world from intolerable license.
We who are theists and Christians need
God for the protection of our own moral
character and not for the protection
of society. Without Him we do not
know into what worthless lives or into
what sins and crimes we might fall.
For we look upon a bad, life as in itself
the worst disaster that can befall a
man; not merely or chiefly because of
the suffering that IMAM endures for
it in this life or the next, but because
wickedness and all selfshness is in it.
self only bad. 1t not only leads to bad,
but it is bad even when, as often is the
case, it leads its agent to success and
happiness. The happiness is only a
snowy, luxurious fungus, growing out
of rot. Against this worse evil we know
that we need all the protection which
the threatenings as well as the prom
Uses of God can provide us.
There may be men who have reached
such sublimated heights of philosophy
and whose study of the world has car
ried them so far above the flesh that
they do not need ever to remind them
selves whether purity and virtue will
bring happiness or misery. Perhaps
there are those who recognize our moral
instincts as a long-inherited experience
of the race and are willing to accept and
follow this race experience even when
it leads them to their destruction, as so
many noble men have preferred death
to dishonor. Neither men por animals
follow their inherited memory" as we
have learnedto call instinct, when they
see it will kill them. Yet we will not
deny that there may be some philoso-
pliers with whom fealty to the inherited
experience of the race-if that is the
proper scientific term for conscience
may be quite potent, who have a more
than Christian reverence foS their an.
cestors, and who can be controlled by
what they have inherited from them
rather than by their own pains and
pleasures. But it is not so with us, and
we are sure it is not so with the world
generally. We fear if their philosophy
should prevail that while ethics might
exist as possible science itwould hard
ly seem of much practical use to cult
vate it.
For we know that men are controlled
by their hopes and fears; hopes and
fears for the immediate or the distant
future. If regard for the distant fu-
ture is eliminated we believe they would
be controlled by regard for the future
of the day or the morrow. We know
that men work not because work is
duty and therefore pleasure, but be-
cause they hope to get comfort and es-
cape discomfort by it. Efforts to avoid
sin convince us that it is decided help
to remember that God sees us, and that
He will reward or punish. We thank
Him every day for the revelation of His
righteous Judgment, because it nerves
us in the contest against the evil that
is in us. We want all the help we can
get; and if this motive of a present and
rewarding God were taken away we do
not know into what evil we might fall.
When we have most forgotten Him we
have most yielded to the tempta tions of
the flesh. We want to conquer, and,
therefore, we want q God to be feared.
But if God should be taken away from
US, and if life is but an accident, what
have we to hope or fear beyond this
life? If our existence is, but bubble,
why not let 1t be as gaudy as it may?
1t will make no difference tomorrow;
let us eat and drink, like the swine of
Epicurus' herd, for tomorrow we die.
If there be no tomorrow to us, then
let US enjoy to-day. The experience of
the race may tell us that theft or ABDUL
terry, or falsehood, is unlucky; but per-
sonal observation proves that it is often
lucky. And,why shouldInot we seize the
pleasures that offer themselves and
trust to concealment or strength to
avoid the evils of which the experience
of the race might warn us? We fear our
philosophy might not stand the strain
of such temptation. Paul's philosophy
was no better, and he was a saint. IF
Christ be not risen," said he, ''let us
eat and drink, for tomorrow we die"
We know what society has been when
the restraints of religion were thrown
off, and we shudder at the prospect.
Therefore we want, because we know
we need, the terrors of the Lord and of
His retributions-such retributions as
we know do not come in this world.
The world needs more than inherited
experience, more than any mere moral
sense; it needs a God, who yields the
thunders of the lawn. Y. Independ-
emit.