The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1902-10-13


There II the fear that has been called
tho fear OF isolation. IL is a kind OF awe.
We stand In the presence OF some great
work OF nature that seems In It's grand
eur and sublimity 10 threaten US. IL has
no part or parcel In our lives. We stand
for the first time In the presence OF some
great parsonage.
We feel that the life OF this one is en-
tfrcly Isolated from our life. II he speaks
to us we tremble. II he argues II Is only
TO confound US and show our weakness.
II II this conception of God and thfs fear
of God. God who Is isolated and entire
ly removed from our lives that the
church has so often worshpped with fear
and trembling and that so many men and
women still obey through fear.
This fear that springs from Isolation In
a sense Justifies itself for the man who
feels himself completely isolated from
God needs to trembe. But IL doesn't fol-
low that because We keep his command
ments In this spirit that we shall find ia
vor or escape punishment. Nothing is
surer than that such a man will find
punishment and fail to obtain favor. Why
dsive In the hereafter for substantination
OF this.
Fear now and consequent lack OF IA
vor are already living. stinging punish
ments more cruel than the fire and brim-
stone OF mythology. This fear. this feeling
of isolation, may In youth and the begin
ming OF the yearning OF the soul for God
be just what the Psalmist says II Is ''The
beginning OF wisdom" But for how many
Is the fear of the Lord tho end or wis
dom7
The fear. Of God that springs out Of
the consciousness Of our complete isola-
ton In itself. at Gods judgment bar. our
condemnation. and this Is death. this Is
condemnation. this Is punishment TO shut
ourselves. up alone and isolated from the
universal life
SECOND KIND OF FEAR.
But there IL q second kind Of fear. 1t
has been called the fear OF Identification.
But how different as coI,pared with the
fear OF isolation. The great parsonage
has become our friend Az we know Him
better. our awe and wonder increase.
But we no longer dread. He now is on
our side and Nights for Us instead OF
against US We still fear. but II Is not
the fear OF His crushing u.s. but the fear
that we shall not like Him. His excel
lence. not his wrath, Is our dread.
How different is the fear OF God for
the man who feels that his life Is identf-
fed with God and the man whose life IS
shut up inside the narrow confines OF
his own breast.
This man does not dread Gods power.
he fears his own weaknesses.
In our relations with man and with
God there is only one bridge on which
we can cross over from isolation to
Identification and that bridge is love.
Said Goethe: There is no protection
against excellence except love-" Stand
Isolated from the true and the true
brushes you because you are false.
Stand Isolated from honesty and you are
overthrown because you are corrupt
Stand isolated from greatness and In
your weakness you are overthrown and
lost. Stand isolated from Gods life and
you are shut into death.
Love. truth. honesty. greatness, God
and you and they become Identified and
in the overthrow OF the evil you triumph.
Fear has not disappeared. but II has been
caught up and transformed In the twink
ling Of an eye. Its sting has been re-
moved. Its bitterness has been exhaust
ed. IL no longer saps your strength. but
inspires you to greatness and the dream
Of being like unto God. with the dawn
ing sense of q life identified with His,
gradually becomes a reality.
There II no true religion without this
and there 10 little more beyond this that
Is worthy the name Of religion.
There is then suoh thing as a cour-
ageous fear. IL n the fear OF excellence
transformed by love.
Yet after ali is not Just here our diff
ficulty. II fear Is only transformed by
the Identification Of ourselves with the
object feared and love Is the means, how
shall we attain unto such love.
IMPERATIVE COMMANDMENT.
most imperative. yet In most respects
the most intangible Of all commands
given us. God seems so far from us. So
remote. But we have forgotten two OF
the teachings OF Jesus IN this respect
In one place He inquiries how we shall
love God whom we have not seen, II we
DO not love our brother whom we have
seen?
Jesus not only admits the difficulty OF
loving God but He at the same time
points out to us the way by which that
love IL to be attained.
There is a second thought Of His that
aids US. His conception OF man was that
OF q being endowed by nature with the
divine life. There II sense. therefore.
that In so far as a man loves his fellow
man. he loves God. For love seeks the
highest realization Of the object loved.
The man, therefore, who loves his fellow
man does not love him perhaps for what
he il. but for what he may become. He
loves the ideal man in the person Of him
who perhaps falls far below the ideal
To love the ideal man In the real man Is
I'm a true sense to love God.
To give ourselves for the best there Is
in our fellow men, to enlarge their lives.
to question their possibilities, Is to give
ourselves to God, To SO give ourselves
Is TO lose ourselves In His largeness. to
be identified with His excellence. to fear
Him with the fear that IL transformed
into the holy passion Of desiring TO be
pure and holy. as He is. This In the
significance OF fear. The fear that does
not become this sinks into cowardice and
disgrace.
All this should teach us some lessons,
and first. that we not only shall never
escape from fear. but that we ought
never TO seek such an escape. So long
as there Is excellence to which we have
not attained, there must be the same
hush falling over the soul as falls over
the child when II first comprehends the
heights and depths. the length and
breadth of mothers love.
But again. II we are never TO escape
fear we should be led TO ask ourselves II
that which we possess Is the fear OF
courage or the fear OF cowariice.
Is II the fear for God isolated and
away from us or the fear Of God with
whose life we are identified through love.
We need to ask ourselves this dupStfon