The Penn's Grove record., 1910-08-12
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. ARTHUR MERCER.
Theme: Fear in Religion.

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 specta-
cular splendor, present two nantes
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 a noble mountain. In both
the spectators are rough, uncultured
men; In the n 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, a 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
writhes in the spasm of ar earth
quake. And all the people in the
camp tremble.
This is the prelude to the giving
of the Ten Commandments to Moses,
like a scene from a thrilling drama,
skillfully 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 and waned since
the scene in the wilderness, and a
greSter than Moses has appeared
among the Jews. The great drama
of Redemption has reached a climax,
so surprising, so startling, and yet
so wonderful and beautiful as-to send
a 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, a Galilean workman who walks
in lowly ways, with lowly disciples,
on errand of human service, yet I'm
manuel, God with us. He has bowed
the heavens and come down." He
has clothed Himself in our infirm hui
mainly, has4mmersed Himself in all
the woes and all the evils of our suf-
fering 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 Cod
head, and a 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 T 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 fame,
the mountain is bathed in light, for
loi the face of the Man of Sorrows did
shine as the sun, and His raiment
was white as light.
The one scene al the revealing of
the Law, and the other the revealing
of the Life. For Jesus had come to
be the fulfilling of the law, to show
it's true nature to us, to strip away
the misconceptions of the centuries,
49, -r,axh nnd tho torrnr and ~
show that its true nature was the ten
derest love.
And so we have the two concep-
lions 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
ond was intended to ~supersede and
supplant 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 develop
the truest and the noblest 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-
casion for fear. The cloud and the
darkness on the mountain, and the
laundering and threatening of Sinai
were the misconceptions of primitive
stages of spiritual unintelligence and
benightedness.
But evil remains a terrible fact.
We cannot abrogate the fact, nor the
terror of the outraged Majesty, nor
the black cloud Illuminating wrath
and punishment overhanging the yio-
lated law. All that we a succeed
in doing is to confuse, and finally to
destroy our power to properly distin-
If we say there is no evil, and no God
prescribing the good and warning
against the evil, the latter does not
thereby to exist. We merely af-
firm that evil Is not evil, and en-
throne our own unregulated appetite
as the final arbiter of what we shall
regard as good. The human mind
has no power to determine the abso-
lutte character of anything. Our judg-
ments are merely relative. We al
know light only by its contrast with
darkness. We can know good only
as set over against that which men
have come to recognize as not good.
And the recognition of this by hui
mainly has been, throughout its his
tory, always connected with the OBJ
servable penalties attaching to the
violations of law. The law of God
is the law of love when operating in
it's normal channels, but it becomes a
factor of destruction In the life of
those who disobey. AS the electric
fluid, though a benef1cent energy in
itself, becomes a descriptive violence
when its current is obstructed. Or
as the life-giving heat of the sun is
turned into decay when 1t flows into
dead organic matter on the ground.
The Bible, especially the Old Tesla
ment, is regnant with the presence of
the God of wrath. His lightnings full
inmate at frequent intervals. And
the passages are there for a perma-
porflu hoo nfifr1 nurn0SQ They are