Not afraid of evil tidings.
I. MOST PEOPLE ARE. The postman's knock, much more a telegram, will often set their hearts palpitating. They realize how precarious is the tenure by which they hold their good things; they have many times had experience of the instability of that in which they have most trusted; and hence they are afraid, etc.
II. BUT OF THE SERVANT OF GOD IT IS SAID, "HE SHALL NOT BE AFRAID OF EVIL TIDINGS."
1. As a fact, real religion does ensure this. See Daniel, when he knew the decree was signed (Daniel 6:10). See Paul's letters in his imprisonment. See Nehemiah, etc.
2. It does not mean that evil tidings do not come to them as to others. They do, and often of a disastrous sort, affecting them in body, mind, and estate.
3. Nor does it mean that such tidings have no effect upon them. They do, saddening and distressing them much. Jesus wept.
4. But they are not afraid of them. They do not recognize such things as having power to touch them where their real treasure is, or as having any power in themselves at all; they are but God's ministers, and the ultimate issue of them cannot but be good. And those foreboding fears which so often precede them, God's servants are delivered from; for they believe the words, "As thy day so shall thy strength be."
III. THE SECRET OF THIS BLESSED FEARLESSNESS. It is plainly pointed out in our text.
1. "His heart is fixed;" that is, he has come to a settled conviction as to his relation to God, and as to God's mind to him. He is as certain of God's good will and all-sufficient power and grace as a dear child is of his mother's love. His feet are on a rock; he has come to be fixed in heart as to the Lord's leading him in the right way. He does not merely think it, he is fully persuaded of it, he knows in whom he has believed (Isaiah 26:3).
2. This fixedness of heart, which is so blessed, is the result of habitual trust. "Trusting in the Lord." We can form habits of trust, as of any other act of the mind. It is not a single act of faith, or a spasmodic intermittent trust, which will ensure this fixedness of heart. Built must be perpetually repeated until the habit is formed. We must put our will into it, and we must abandon everything which would render such trust impossible, as all allowed sin will and must.—S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK