The thing from which one merely flees can have no real power over
our spirit; but if we know God as a fatherly Heart behind nature,
who is leading us on our way, then indeed we can walk joyfully in
happiness, and undismayed in trouble; because troubles then become
only the wearisome incidents of the upward ascent, the fatigue, the
failing breath, the strained muscles, the discomfort which is
actually taking us higher, and cannot by any means be avoided.
But fear is the opposite of all this; it is the dread of the
unknown, the ghastly doubt as to whether there is any goal before
us or not; when we fear, we are like the butterfly that flutters
anxiously away from the boy who pursues it, who means out of mere
wantonness to strike it down tattered and bruised among the grass-
stems.
IV
VULNERABILITY
There have been many attempts in the history of mankind to escape
from the dominion of fear; the essence of fear, that which prompts
it, is the consciousness of our vulnerability. What we all dread is
the disease or the accident that may disable us, the loss of money
or credit, the death of those whom we love and whose love makes the
sunshine of our life, the anger and hostility and displeasure and
scorn and ill-usage of those about us.
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