The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-04-09
SERMON AT BATTELL CHAPEL
DR. COOPER TALKS ON THE WORK AND CHARACTER OF NEHEMIAH.

stone's TransvaaI Policy-Genernl
 Funston's Feat-Civic Needs of th.
 Present Time.
 Rev James w. Cooper, D, D., of New Britain, preached a very effective ser
 mon in Battell chapel yesterday morn
 ing from Nehemiah 5:15: "So did not l,
 because of the fear of the Lord
 He said in part: "Nehemiahs clear
 cut emphatic character shows all the
 self-devoted patriotism of Washington,
 all the fervid zeal of Knox, all the gen.
 tie obility of a Knight of the Round
 Table He was the most chivalrous
 gentleman of Biblical history. A strik-
 ing modern parallel is found in William
 Wilberforce whose early life and train | ing awakening and ideals show re-
 markabe correspondence to those of the
 cup-bearer Nehemiah. William Wilber-
 force spent his youth in the dissolute
 society so capably described in Winston
 Churchills romance, Richard Carvel.'
 His early life was spent i'll the arlsto-
 cratic circles there portrayed, where he
 was the pet of princes, the pride or
 kings. Then came change of purpose,
 the evolution of an ideal, and from the 1 pronigate courtier rose the Chrlstlon
 statesman who gave his life to the abol-
 ition of slavery in the English colonies.
 He was a public man of blameless life, 1 the keynote of whose character has been | fittingly described as an abandon of
 devotion to the welfare of man He
 found the motive for the crisis of his 1 life in the words the fear of the Lord is
 the beginning of wisdom.
 Nehemiah, like Wilberforce, was | favored and fortunate youth. As cup bearer he was the companion of kings. | He was witty, gay, accomplished and
 handsome. While enjoying his fortune | and gratifying his ambition, in high favor at splendid court, there came tidings of the affliction and reproach of
 the remnant of his people, The appeal touched his heart, whence sprung new strong, noble purpose, and his old ambitions died. He says: When I heard these words 1 sat, mourned, fast ed and prayed His noble discontent and the grief that he felt were apparent in the bearing of the courier formerly gay and careless and he was questioned regarding the change, and opened his heart to his king, who sent him as gov ernor over handful of his people, whom only statecraft and courage could save from ignoring and extinction. He became a philanthropist and statesman whose evry motive, as was that of his modern counterpart, Wilberforce, was in the fear of God, both strength and un- derstanding. Thenceforward God, not ArtaXerzes, was his sovereign. The fear of God as a motive is misunderstood by many and rejected by more. The imputation of fear carries with it, usu- ally reproach. The phrase knew no fear is often used in commendation. But God put fear in our hearts as He put there hope and love, and as much as these it is a part of each mans nature. Fear without cause is con- temptible cowardice. Fear with suffi- cient reason is honorable and legitimate. So-caled immunity from fear under these circumstances is foolhardiness. Funston did brave thing when he swan the river under fire. Gladstone, braving a danger not physical did grander thing when he withdrew the English forces from the Transvaal.
 One of the Hindoo deities is repre- sented as a monster withtwelve hands, and in each an instrument of torture. His worship is a false and debasing worship, a worship all fear. Not so very long ago Christian theologies terri fled men to religion by caricatures of God. It has been wisely said that vir- tue founded on such fear is only vice in a fit of dejection. Yet we should fear God, but not as those men did. We should feel fear for His tenderness, not fear of His strength; for His purity not of His power; for His love, not of His law.
 God is our Father as well aa our Master. Fiial love forbids grieving Him by neglect or defiance Fear should be rather the awe of love felt by the object of love. Such fear humbles, but does not crush us in His presence, and His power rests upon us only as benediction. Then We only fear the loss of it's exalting gentleness. Nehemiah prayed to a great and terrible God nd Jesus said Fear ye Him. yet these knew, and we know, that feeble, crng- ing, Awning fear makes unmanly re- ligion, while our ennobling fear with rev. erence inspires self-sacriticing service. Such fear was Nehemiah's, though he never knew God as we know Him. This fear gave him high ideals and great, new soul-thrilling motives. His pray CTS are evidence of a great souls first glimpseS of One at once a God and a Father. One who fears God thus need | fear nothing else. So Nehemiah was to combat might without | and treachery and conspir- acy within. The courier rose grandly | to the occasion, and prayed and set | watch saying, Be not afraid of them; the Lord, the watchword of | Cromwell's Ironsides. When a trusted | follower attempted to beray him into cowardice by suggesting that he hide from conspirators within the walls he said simply, Should such as I fiee?'
 True courage is not brute courage. Ordinary men meet physical pain as duty. Prophets aH I martyrs dare un- If one be Gods man he has this true courage, this moral courage 1odly fear cleared Nehemiah's vision, made him prudent and sagacioue, and fitted him above the wiles of the crafty.
 Seeing the abuses that affected Jeru- 'alem Nehemiah took great interest in he political life of his time, but was a