Editorial November 3, 1934 Issue

"Be not afraid"!

Duncan Sinclair

What would not humanity give to be entirely rid of fear! For fear claims grievously to beset mortal existence, being the apparent cause of a great many of humanity's woes. Sickness in numerous forms seems to arise from it; and while fear remains sickness tends to persist. Unhappiness springs from it, and will remain until fear is destroyed. And often after fear has gone and one is himself again, as the saying is, he may see that it was groundless; that he was the victim of hallucination. Fear is a product of material sense, and until this false sense has been overcome through spiritual understanding men will be tempted to be afraid, and to suffer should they succumb to the temptation.

It is apparent from a study of the Old Testament that the Hebrew seers understood the antidote for fear. We read, for example, in the fourth verse of the twenty-third Psalm, a Psalm which has often brought comfort to the afflicted: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and they staff they comfort me." And the fifth verse of the ninety-first Psalm conveys the assurance of God's protection to all who put their trust in Him, thus: "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day." Words such as these, so full of conviction, could have been penned only by men who knew whereof they spoke, men who had proved for themselves that in faith and understanding lies the antidote for fear.

Christ Jesus, the great Way-shower in all that pertains to spiritual mastery over material sense and its derivatives, rose above fear. This is indicated in the words he uttered, "Be not afraid, only believe," after healing the "woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years," and on being told that the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue had died, whom he afterwards raised to life. Had Jesus not overcome fear for himself he could not have healed the woman of hemorrhage or awakened the damsel out of death. Had he not been free from fear himself, he could not have walked on the water, nor supported Peter when on a certain occasion the disciple, essaying to do as the Master did, began to sink. Jesus had gained the mastery to a wonderful extent over materiality through his understanding of spiritual being, and a corresponding mastery over fear; and thus he was spiritually endowed to do those miracles, or marvels, recorded of him.

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