Fear Not!

"And the angel said unto them. Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." Luke 2:10

What a beautiful message spoken by the angels to the humble shepherds as they watched over their flocks that night! HOw startled they must have been when out from the heavens there burst upon them the strains of sweetest music! Little wonder that they trembled at this unusual happening and were "sore afraid." How tender and assuring must have been the voice that bade them, "Far not." And thus the angel's announcement was made on that night of all nights; that holy nights; and Bethlehem's manager cradled a King! Your King! My King! The wide world's King! The God-sent King, from "out of the ivory palaces, into a wold of woe" - because "God so love!"

A number of years ago Dr. Cortland Myers, then pastor of Tremont Temple, Boston, when preaching from the text, Fear Not!" made several never-to-be-forgotten remarks, so applicable to this strange hour in the history of our stricken world. He said: "The two words, 'Fear Not' are the thrush-notes of the Bible! The thrush songs in the depths of the forest; a bit of music like that which occurs nowhere else in all the bird-world. It is marvelously sweet. It is unique, and absolutely alone. There is nothing else like it - and man's genius has many times tried to capture it and thrust it within the bars of music, and always failed in the attempt. It seems almost as if this is the note that was dropped out of the angel's music. Maybe they left it in the world the night they sang at Bethlehem; for, they had it in the Christmas anthem. Maybe they forgot it and let it here! It is a part of the angel's music. But is it a part of real life? Does it belong in reality, to every man's life and to all conditions of life? Is it a certainty? Something substantial? It is a positive reality! It is a part of the music of life; one of the high notes of music! 'Fear Not!'"

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, taken from "Streams in the Desert Vol. 2