The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1910-08-11
THE PULPIT.
a SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. ARTHUR MERCER.
Theme: Fear in Religion.

morning on Fear IS a Religious
Factor" He said:
Two scenes, widely separated in
time and space, one from the Old, the
other from the New Testament. both
attended by circumstances OF spectn-
cular splendor, present two manifes-
tations of God to men, and illustrate
two widely contrasting ideas concern
Ing Him. The physical settings have
some points Of resemblance. 1t Is in
each case noble mountain. In both
the spectators are rough, unculturcd
men: in the one a great multitude;
In the other, a small number.
In the first scene, the mountain is
Sinai, In the rugged cluster Of Horeb,
down in the little wedge between two
arms Of the Red Sea. In the level
valley at the foot are encamped the
host of Israel. escaped from EGYPTIAN
bondage. All around them are the
majestic hills, wild, unadorned by
verdure, but ruggedly sublime and
gorgeous with the varied hues OF the
| rocks and earths OF that region. Over
them arches the blue OF the still. Ara
bian sky. and here, out of the awe
some solitude, thick smoke goes up
from the mountain like the smoke Of
a furnace. with lurid flames palpitat-
Ing in the pail. betokening the pres
ence Of Jehovah in the cloud, and
the whole mountain shakes and
writhss in the spasm of an earth
quake And all the people in the
camp tremble.
This is the prelude to the giving
Of the Ten Commandments to Moses,
like scene from a thrilling drama,
sktllfully devised to impress upon
the spectators an adequate estimate
of the might, the majesty and the ter
ror Of Gods law.
The mountain OF the second con-
trasting incident was probably Her
mon, or some point on the lofty
slope Of that monarch Of the noble
range at the north of Palestine. Cen
turtles have waxed aGd waned since
the scene in the wilderness, and
greater than Moses has appeared
among the Jews. The great drama
OF Redemption has reached a climax,
80 surprising, so startling, and vet
SO wonderful and beautiful as to send
thrill to the heart. God has again
revealed Himself to His children, but
instead OF the accomplishments of
overwhelming splendor that flashed
from Sinai, He comes now in humble
guise. Galilean workman who walks
In lowly ways, with lowly disciples,
oh Oi anu VI SSiNlCe, Vet I'M
manuel. God with us. He has bowed
the heavens and come down" He
has clothed Himself in our infirm hu-
manity, has immersed Himself in all
the woes and all the evils of our suf-
fertng fesh-God seeking us and saw
Ing us. He is now to show that back
OF and within that lowly exterior is
the glory Of the fullness of the God
mead, and new version of the old
scene on the mountain is to be enact
ed for the behoof of all subsequent
ages OF men. In the place of the
great multitude there are now but
three fishermen. but these go up with
the Lord into the mountain. AS of
old, Moses is present, emerging from
| the mystery OF the spirit world to
lend His authority to the scene, and
| as Of old the cloud overhangs the
mountain. But it is now transparent,
| luminous. Instead of the black pail
| of smoke that went up from Sinai,
| assured by CLEANS Of hidden flame,
| the mountain Is bathed in light, for
10! the face of the Man Of Sorrows did
| shine as the sun. and His raiment
was white as light.
The one scene was the revealing of
J the Law, and the other the revealing
of the Life. For Jesus had come to
| be the fulfilling of the law, to show
| Its true nature to us, to strip away
the misconceptions of the centuries,
the wrath and the terror, and to
] show that its true nature was the ten
| derest love.
And so We have the two concep-
tions OF God, the God of wrath and
the God of love, and the two attitudes
toward God. the fear and the love.
But let us not suppose that the sec
on was intended to supersede and
sup ant the first. Let us see if 1t
be not rather the truth that the two
ideas really supplement each other,
and that both are needed to deYeloD
the truest and the nobIest human
character.
1t Is the tendency OF modern re-
ligion to greatly minimize, if it does
not wholly abrogate, the element OF
the fear of God. to lay a one-sided
emphasis upon love. According to
some OF the newest PHILOSOPHERS.
these is no such thing as evil and no
such thing as wrath, and thus no oc-
casfon for fear. The cloud and the
darkness on the mountain, and the
laundering and threatening of Sinai
were the misconceptions of primitive
stages OF spirit al unintelligence and
benightedness
But evil remains terrible fact.
We cannot abrogate the fact, nor the
terror OF the outraged Majesty, nor
the black cloud Illuminating wrath
and punishment overhanging the vio-
lated law. All that we can succeed
In doing is to confuse, and finally to
destroy our power to properly distin-
guish between the good and the evil.
live say there is no evil, and no God
prescribing the good and warming
against the evil, the latter does not
thereby cease 10 exist. We merely af-
frm that evil is not evil, and en-