Exodus 3:11

A Man Who Was Afraid

Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh? Exodus 3:11.

Boys and girls, I want to speak to you this morning about fear. Perhaps some of your grown-up friends think that is a mistake. They may be saying to themselves “If he wants to cure a habit of fear, let him preach about courage,” A very wise remark indeed. All the same. I feel sure that there are among you boys and girls so possessed by some nameless fear that at times they cannot allow themselves to think of courage at all. It is to these especially that I wish to speak.

Very few boys will acknowledge, even to a companion, that they are afraid of anything. Girls, on the other hand, cannot help showing that they shrink from certain things: you know how you boys laugh and make fun of your sisters over this. It is unkind. Laugh as you may, their shrinking very often is something they cannot help.

Some young men join the military, knowing that it might mean giving of their lives for their country, yet seem bashful when speaking to a roomful of people. Then some men have an indescribable fear of the battlefield, but face a life ending illness with courage and dignity, without fear.

Carlyle had a great friend called John Sterling. He loved him very much, and when he died he wrote his biography. This John Sterling was one of the gentlest, most timid souls one could meet; yet when he was very ill and going to die, he wrote to Carlyle, “I tread the common road into the great darkness without any thought of fear, and with very much of hope.”

And girls once a wonderful family grew up in a Yorkshire parsonage. They were all girls but one shy girls too. She who was best known to the world was a frail delicate little thing. Her life, from its very beginning, was full of experiences far too sad for a child to have to suffer. When, as a young girl, she went to school at Brussels she felt she could hardly pray because of a terrible fear that came upon her. “When I tried to pray,” she wrote, “I could only utter these words: ‘From my youth up Thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind.'” Back at home, in the parsonage, one family sorrow followed on the back of another. She was nearly heart-broken, but her courage was marvelous. Persevering all by herself, she became one of the greatest novelists of last century. Famous men in London wanted to meet Charlotte Bronte, the wonderful little woman who could write such bold things, but her shyness had never disappeared she shrank from any public contact, even from her fans.

I believe there is hardly a boy or girl in it who is not conscious of some fear that keeps him from doing the right thing at the right moment. It is a fear that grips very hard. God knows all about it.

There is put very near the beginning of the greatest book in the world the story of a great and strong man who was afraid. I do not think, however, that he was afraid as a boy. I rather believe he would be proud of himself, living as he did in the royal palace in Egypt. There was only the greatness of man to make him afraid there; and he had at his command everything that his heart could desire. But in Midian Moses found himself face to face with God. After thirty or forty years of the solitude he said, “Who am I?” Fear had been born within him.

I believe that most of yon boys and girls who fear have got your shyness, your diffidence, from God. You were born with it. It is what is called constitutional. If that is so, your Heavenly Father understands it. He is just He is more He is kind as a mother.

When your mother sends you to school or for an overnight trip, she puts certain things into your backpack or suitcase. She remembers what you need. If you are liable to take cold, she puts in warm things to protect you; if you wear out your socks quickly, she remembers you are no hand at darning there seem to be pairs of socks rolled round everything.

Your Heavenly Father remembers what you need for going out into the world. He knows you through and through. The “Who am I?” of Moses was met with God's word “I will be with thee.” He is constantly speaking to this fear in men and women, boys and girls “Fear not... Fear not.”

Once there was a minister who was always very nervous and timid when he stood up to preach. A good old elder noticed it, and sympathized with him. “Don't be troubled in the pulpit,” the old man said to him one day. “Don't think about anything but the word of the Lord and the souls of your people. We will pray for you; and maybe you will be able to say to yourself next Sabbath as you look down on us ‘They all love me.'”

Boys and girls, if sometimes you fear even to face your day's work, remember there is Someone who loves you very much, Someone who knows all about you. Then courage will come.