NOTE.
The connection between the fear of God and holiness is most intimate. There are some who seek most earnestly for holiness, and yet never exhibit it in a light that will attract the world or even believers, because this element is wanting. It is the fear of the Lord that works that meekness and gentleness, that deliverance [p45] from self-confidence and self-consciousness, which form the true groundwork of a saintly character. The passages of God’s Word in which the two words are linked together are well worthy of a careful study. ‘Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises?’ ‘In Thy fear will I worship towards Thy holy temple.’ ‘O fear the Lord, ye His holy ones.’ ‘O worship the Lord, in the beauty of holiness; fear before Him, all the earth.’ ‘Let them praise Thy great and terrible name; holy is He.’ ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.’ ‘The Lord of hosts, Him shall ye sanctify; let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.’ ‘Perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.’ ‘Like as He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy; and if ye call on Him as father, pass the time of your sojourning in fear.’ And so on through the whole of Scripture, from the Song of Moses on to the Song of the Lamb: ‘Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord! and glorify Thy name, for Thou only art holy.’ If we yield ourselves to the impression of such passages, we shall feel more deeply that the fear of God, the tender fear of in any way offending Him, the fear especially of entering into His holy presence with what is human and carnal, with aught of our own wisdom and effort, is of the very essence of the holiness we are to follow after. It is this fear of God will make us, like Moses, fall down and hide our face in God’s presence, and wait for His own Holy Spirit to open in us the eyes, and breathe in us the thoughts and the worship, with which we draw nigh to Him, the Holy One. It is in this holy fear that that stillness of soul is wrought which leads it to rest in God, and opens the way for what we saw in Paradise to be the secret of holiness: God keeping His Sabbath, and sanctifying the soul in which He rests.