Norwich bulletin., 1922-12-27
SHOP TALK ON
 CONQUEST OF FEAR

CONQUEST OF FEAR
 An interesting shop meeting was con ducted Tuesday noon at the Richmond Radiator Company by the Y. M. c. A. The speaker for the noon hour was Rev. Charles H. Ricketts, who, in forceful manner. told the men to Fear Not" if>they desired to become leaders. His address in part was as follows:
 Yesterday was Christmas day. In some form or other the great festival was celebrated in all civilized coun- 1 tries, and to some extent-larger, per 1 haps than we think-in all the great pagan lands. It seems fitting. then. that my message to you today should have 1 it's inspiration in what is confessedly i the greatest event in the history of mankind.
 Now I am not going to preach even a short Christmas sermon here to you to- 1 day, but I am going to talk on a theme that is closely connected with Christmas i; it is the conquest of fear. It was the first word uttered by the angel when he announced to the shepherds tho great event of Bethlehem. And that first word was the key note of the coming power which was to emancipate human ity from that great enemy, Fear
 But why did the angel tell these shep- herds not to fear? There was certain
 
 : late that should make them afraid. Peo- pie generally are startled by what is seemingly supernatural. The hour is midnight, calm, probably dark, into the midst of which there suddenly came a clear, bright light. They knew it came from neither sun, moon, nor star
 and in this universal light the angel appeared and spoke to them. Suppose the same experience should come to us
 on dark night, possibly, we, too
 would be more afraid" Remember that this was a great age for supersti- tion and that these shepherds, being
 plain, common, uneducated people, were 5 likely to believe the current opinions 1T 5 regard to supernatural visitations. Ant hence the angel seeks to quiet them by = saying, "Fear not" From what fol l lows it/ is quite clear that the shep
 herds were completely won over, ant , the calming of their fears evidently cam
 from the consciousness that the LOT, had sent them a message.
 Am l wrong in saying that fear i one of the greatest enemies to both in
 dividual and community advancement 2 Think of the man who is afraid t u utter what he honestly believes ough
 to be said. Is not such man mere
 ly namby pamby non-entity? Woul
 the awful curse of slavery have bee
 rooted out of our national life if me | 1 like Beecher, Phillips. 1emner and ct $ CTS of like spirit had not thundere a against it in the teeth of the most vi j. olent opposition? The fear not, 0 5. Bethlehem stood by them during tn Q holy crusade. ..--..~ |: l. When in 1917 the call came yer $ loudly to defend civilization, the youn Il men of, the country were at once d 10 vided into three classes: First, thos r who were necessary workers who ha T to stay at home because they had rels y tives dependent upon them; secondly, th
 heroes who volunteered for service, an
 thirdly, the slackers, those who move heaven and earth to escape defendin
 their country Now the difference b, T tween these last two classes, the h, .- roes and slackers is fear.
 T. Suppose the great captains of 1T s dustry' had been timid men, afraid n branch out in new and untried char
 ;nels of trade, America would not hay v possessed her wonderful economic sy le tems. If Fulta1, Morse, Vanderbilt l. Ford, Rockefeller, Edison and SCOT, n of others, whose enterprise and darin ir along scientific and economic lines hay " made the country rick, had bee
 timid men, bound hand and foot by fea s- Einstead of being the United States re America we would be Mexico, a fourt l. class nation, whose natural resource
 ought to put her into the front ranl
 But she haSNno. men of daring who al
 bold enough to venture into rich and uI
 explored fields.
 [ Tell >me, if you please, what is th r difference between these two men; bot n of them have ten thousand dollars tt :. lf1rst invests his capital in some leg \ innate businesS-a business that is g .- safe as anything on earth can bean
 from it derives a fair income. Tn s other man takes his 510,eo0 and hide : 1t in mattress or in an old boot fc a safety, which is safe until some on o bats. him over the head and takes tb l., money. l ask what is the difrerenc l. between those two men? The word fes e explains it. Is it not true that tt
 knowledge of protection banishes tn Isense of fear? For instance, if yo fhave funds invested in our, governmel
 security, you need to have no fear fC " their safety, for nothing on earth ., safer. That is why say knowledge r protection banishes, the sense of fear,
 Now the consciousness of being und, ,S the protection of power that 1 stronger than we drives fear complete - -a out of us. May I give you an illustr: S tion of this taken from my early lift
 1Ah AAJ DoyHOOu udSS my EaIner uSk
 to take me with him in some of h 'e walks. On one occasion I rememb,
 that we came to a brook that was qui Il wide. was afraid to cross it,
 seemed such fearful task, but to n T father it was nothing but a mole hi 1T To me 1t was a mountain. But fath r said, I'll help you and al I felt Il
 Hove and warmth and strength of tn et hand the last yestige of fear left rn k. Since that day, men. I've had to pa 'f through some. tough places, but haver Us been aIt1e, my hand has been held I ot one that has inspired faith. confden of and. courage.