should Christians FEAR?
by Vance Havner
may terrify him further by accusing him of some secret sin when he has already perhaps confessed more than he is guilty of. Other earnest and well-meaning souls would like to help Mr. Fearing and they try but they have never had any such experiences as his and that totally disqualifies them. Our Saviour was tempted in all points like as we are and that is one reason why He can help us. But not every Christian has been along the' desolate sloughs of despondency and passed sleepless nights and been tor mented by bugaboos and hobgoblins of the soul. It is impossible to help such weary pilgrims through such lowlands if you have not been their way. Experience grants an insight because “ you know how it is.” I know whereof I write. I made my way through several dismal years when, like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, I could not distinguish the voices I heard and verily thought the whisperings of the Accuser sprang from my own mind. I dared not turn to some for help for their very hilarity discouraged me. And what a failure many devotional writers and spiritual helpers turned out to be! I was not helped out of my dungeon by ex perts. When I emerged, I had sympathy I had never had before for all similarly afflicted. But, although many helpers failed, I became well- acquainted with some rare and precious souls both of the past and present who did not disappoint me. What a fresh debt to dear old John Bunyan! Modern psychia trists would have a picnic analyzing the Bedford Tinker’s ups and downs but that immortal pilgrim knew more about the human heart than all the experts of today. Who has better described the misgivings of some of us than Christian (who is of course Bunyan anyway) saying in the Valley when he perceived that God was with others similarly beset: “ And why not with me? though, by reason of the impediment which attends this place, I cannot perceive it?” And Mr. Fearing himself! Alexander Whyte grows exuberant and says, “ Show me another passage in our whole literature to compare with John Bunyan’s portrait of Mr. Fearing.” Now I do not defend Mr. Fearing nor do I hold him up as a model for Christian conduct. Per haps he should have gone through singing instead of sighing and sturdy souls would now call him a neurotic. But I perceive that he did not get into as much trouble with sin and Satan as some of the hardier souls. “ The highest flames,” says Jeremy Taylor, “ are the most
“ Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling . . . (Phil. 2:12). “Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear . . .” (Pet. 1:17). I am w e l l aware that what is in mind in these verses is a reverential fear of God and not a nervous fear of judgment. We are not to be subject to bondage all our days through fear of death. He that feareth is not made perfect in love and perfect love .casteth out fear. Many verses could be brought up to reprove us for an improper fear, for trembling when we ought to triumph. But we have with us many dear souls who, for one reason or another, are sore beset by fightings within and fears without. They get scant help from most sermons and books that seem, somehow, to move all around their problem but never actually touch it. Some of these fear ful souls were bom that way. They are temperamentally set in a minor key. Others have become that way through great adversity or illness. Melancholy plays devilish tunes on unstrung nerves. Some are afflicted with that perverse ingenuity of mind, of which MacLaren writes, that manages to distill a bitter vinegar of accusation out of grand words in the Bible that were meant to afford them but the wine of gladness and of consolation. Whatever the precise form of their trouble these trem bling souls will get scant help from most preachers and teachers and books. Certainly they can expect nothing from the school of happiness boys who fairly trip through the Christian life with a tra-la-la. Christians with natural ly sunny dispositions who have not had much trouble can do nothing but theorize at best and a cheap gay optimism will not do for Mr. Fearing. Indeed it will not do for anybody. Try as you will, you cannot build up from the gospels a hail-fellow-well-met Jesus giving hooray pep- talks. The Man of Sorrows who sighed and wept and groaned in spirit because He knew the world’s heart break does not fit into our cheer-leader brand of Ameri can Christianity very well. There is a world of difference between what this world calls happiness and what God calls joy. There are other Christians of robust rugged constitu tion and faith who will have little patience with Mr. Fearing. Strong of will and dogmatic, they seem so sure and positive that they but make him the more wretched and drive him to despair. They may admonish him to “ snap out of it” but they cannot help him for their sturdy natures just cannot understand such fellow-travelers and
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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