clergyman of high standing and great purity shocked all the mothers in the land by calmly relating, as a great exploit, how he had broken the will of his little child, three years old, who had refused to eat a piece of bread, by keeping her shut up all day till she agreed to do what he ordered. In such cases, the devil of self-will disguises himself as the angel of Authority and Discipline. The devil disguises himself as the Angel of Truth, and so makes men bigots and sectarians. He disguises himself as the Angel of Conscience, and makes men intolerant and merciless to the sinner.

This class of temptations are the worst- and therefore Jesus was so severe against the Scribes and Pharisees, in order to arouse them to a sense of their hardness and coldness and cruelty and pride.

But there is always a way of escape from this kind of temptations, which beset the noblest and purest minds. Some of the best of men are deliberately gloomy and anxious because they think they ought to be so-so much, they say, depends on them. Other good men destroy themselves with work from a sense of duty. These per

versions of conscience are hard to cure, but there are ways of escape. Anxiety and care are sometimes cured, and the mind restored to its true balance by leaving all work and going where solitude and nature, or a change of scene and society, can break the rigid associations of habit. God has made the world so wide in order that we may find rest in a change of scene. I do not know any more blessed influence for one harassed by the anxieties of business or the turmoil of difficult duties than the immense peace of nature. Mr. Emerson represents a man going out of a meeting of excited reformers, and the stars looking down on him and saying "Why so hot, my little man?" A month spent among the great mountains of Colorado and the vast

regions of Arizona would be likely to quiet the nerves of most of us. Sometimes disease is sent, as a blessed help, to take us out of our insane activity. But the best remedy for all such anxieties is to believe in the providence of God; to believe that we and all other human beings are in the hands of one who knows how to guide the world.

For this purpose Jesus, in rebuking anxiety, calls our attention to the lilies of the field and to the fowls of the air. If we believe that God takes care of us, of society, of man, of the nation, of the church, of orthodoxy, as much as he does of dandelions and bluebirds, we should not be frightened as we are about them. Panic terrors are peculiar to cities and crowds. State Street and Wall Street are in a panic when Berkshire county and the Illinois prairies are quite calm. You remember the story of Mungo Park and the little flower in Africa. Some one says, "When I believe in truth as I believe in nature, I shall not be anxious about heresies and heretics, and not be afraid that skeptics and deists shall overthrow religion. I do not run to the window in the morning to see whether anybody has carried away the mountain opposite, or run away with the river."

The temptations of Jesus were all of this higher order. He was only tempted by the devil, not by the world or by the flesh. His temptation was to use his wonderful powers so as to convince mankind by an irresistible persuasion of his mission. The devil tempted him to work miracles, to make bread out of stones, to throw himself from the Temple — and the devil reinforced his argument by ample quotations from the Bible. He asked him to make a little compromise with truth for the sake of doing a vast good; for the sake of a great right to commit a little wrong; to worship the devil for one little moment in order to bring to God the kingdoms of the whole world. Jesus surmounted

these most subtle and difficult temptations, and so had nothing else to fear. In each case he threw himself on God. "God will feed me," he said; "I must trust in him and wait his time. I must worship him alone, the Infinite Truth."

These trials are necessary for us. They are the common lot. But there is always a way of escape if we will look for it. Sometimes it is found in solitude, sometimes in society, sometimes in prayer, sometimes in action. Sometimes friendship will help us ; sometimes the best thing we can do is to tell our troubles to another, and sometimes the only help is in telling them to God. The higher the temptation, the higher the help. To live in the spirit of trust and submission, of hope and faith and love this is the surest aid. If we live in the spirit, we shall walk in the spirit. There has no temptation come to any of us but what is common to man; no temptation which is above our strength; no temptation from which there is not an escape. All come to try us, and do us good; to humble and prove us, and let us see what is in our heart; to show us our dangers and our weakness. When we have learned these, then we may pray, "Lead us not into temptation," and we shall need it no longer, and God will command the devil to leave us and angels to come and minister to us.

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XII.

THE SPIRIT OF FEAR AND THE SPIRIT OF POWER.

"GOD HATH NOT GIVEN US THE SPIRIT OF FEAR; BUT OF POWER, AND OF LOVE, AND OF A SOUND MIND."

"WE MAY HAVE BOLDNESS IN THE DAY OF JUDGMENT; BECAUSE AS HE IS IN THIS WORLD, SO ARE WE. THERE IS NO FEAR IN LOVE; BUT PERFECT LOVE CASTEIH OUT FEAR, BECAUSE FEAR HATH TORMENT. HE THAT FEARETH IS NOT MADE PERFECT IN LOVE."

"FOR YE HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE SPIRIT OF BONDAGE AGAIN TO FEAR, BUT YE HAVE RECEIVED THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION WHEREBY WE CRY ABBA, FATHER."

"PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU, MY PEACE I GIVE UNTO YOU. LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED, NEITHER LET IT BE AFRAID."

I

HAVE brought together several passages in order to show that the spirit of the gospel is not a spirit of fear, that Christianity is not a religion of fear, and that Jesus comes to deliver us from all fear. I will endeavor to show how this is, and how we can experience this deliverance from fear.

But there are some objections to be first considered.

If life is full of danger and evil, ought we not to be afraid? it may be asked. Is it right not to be afraid? God has placed us between two worlds - the world of life and good, the world of death and evil, to choose between them. Ought we not to fear lest we should fail, through our own folly and sin, of choosing and adhering to the right? Do we not see thousands going carelessly and recklessly on in

the way which leads downward, and do they not need to fear? ought they not to be afraid? And if the Bible contains passages which teach us not to fear, does it not contain other passages which teach that we ought to fear? Does not Jesus tell us "not to fear those who can kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do, but to fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell?” St Paul says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." The Apostle Peter says, "Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." And everywhere in the New Testament and Old we are taught that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." How are these facts and statements to be reconciled with the assertion that it is the duty of Christians not to fear?

First, we may say that a distinction can be taken between fear as a subordinate motive and fear as a ruling motive of human action. As a motive subordinated to other motives, fear is always useful. As the sole or principal motive of action, it is always evil. Fear acting alone paralyzes, and makes one incapable of exertion. Fear as the ruling motive of conduct is degrading, because it is essentially selfish. But fear, when controlled by reason, when subordinate to hope, when joined with courage, becomes caution, watchfulness, modesty. It causes us to suspect and distrust ourselves till we have reason to trust in ourselves; makes us look around, look forward, measure the difficulty to be overcome, see the full amount of risk to be encountered, and so, at last, when danger arrives, it appears as presence of mind and self-possession equal to the occasion. This is our first explanation of the difficulty suggested. The Christian fears, but is never governed by his fears He fears, but also hopes. He has not a spirit of fear but a spirit of hope and power.

But, again, how much we need to fear and ought to fear