Blessed Assurance Series

William Stidger tells this fascinating true story out of history: It was the final battle in the

war between the Tartars and the Russians as they faced each other across the Oka River in 1462.

For several days they were engaged in bitter fighting. Time after time the Tartar hordes tried to

drive across the river, but they were thrust back. The Russians were far inferior by number, but

the water of the Oka was their protection.

Then something happened that struck fear into the hearts of the Russian defenders. A cold

wave swept down from the snow-clad peaks of the Ural Mountains, and the waters of the Oka

began to freeze over. Once the ice was strong enough the Tartars could cross over and annihilate

the Russian forces. As they sat around the camp fire talking of the advantage the enemy would

soon have, and as they felt the weather getting colder and colder, their fear grew to a panic, and

before midnight the whole army was fleeing back to Moscow.

The following morning when the Tartar sentries were able to look across the river, they were

amazed to find that the enemy had vanished. The Tartars immediately suspected a trick. They

thought that perhaps the Russians had crossed the river several miles down and were planning to

attack from the rear. Uncertainty as to what the Russians were up to caused fear to spread

through the camp, and in less than two hours the Tartar host had abandoned its tents, and was in

full retreat. Two panic stricken armies were running from each other, both having been

conquered by fear.

Fear is a great conqueror. It is one of the most universal and powerful forces that man has to

contend with. Every man, even the bravest, has to fight with fear on many different fronts. We

feel fear because of inadequacy. We fear people who are superior. We fear those with more

education, and those with more talent. We fear those who are more widely traveled. We fear

dozens of different relationships with others because of our ignorance and inadequacies. The

result is that we flee in retreat and let fear defeat us and deprive us of many of life's blessings and

opportunities.

Not only do we have social fears that control us, but we have bodily pain fears. Certainly it is

a rare person who does not fear a heart attack every time they get a pain in the chest. We hear so

much about physical problems in all age groups that we are conscious that no one is immune

from serious and fatal diseases. The result is a constant weight of fear pressing down on us. Add

to this the fear we have over economics. We fear inflation and depression. We fear we won't be

able to afford to send our children to college. We fear a thousand different things in relation to

money. When a woman says she hasn't a thing to wear she is saying that she fears to be out of

style. Fear even plays a role in determining our wardrobe.

Children fear they will not win their parents affections, and parents fear they will not raise

their children right. Parents fear they will not maintain their love and loyalty to each other.

Everything seems to be built on shifting sand, and there is no certainty. Therefore, fear reigns,

and masses go down in defeat before fear every day. We haven't even mentioned the dozens of

religious and superstitious fears that fill our institutions for the mentally ill.

We quote, "I will fear no evil for thou art with me," but then we do not walk in fearlessness as

we talk. We shun the conflict with the enemy like weaponless orphans. Boldness and courage

are quenched by fear, and we do not witness as we ought. God says to go and conquer, but like

the Israelites of old, we let our fear reign and reply that there are giants in the land. Every

obstacle looks like a giant, and we feel like pigmies. I can't, I can't, is the theme song of the

average Christian. What they mean is, I fear, I fear. There is no victory march of certainty

ringing in their ears. They hear only the dismal dirge of doubt which holds them down.

John Masefield in The Hell-Hounds tells of a priest who let fear terrorize him into cowardice.

He became faithless to his duties, and he hid himself in fear. Then he heard the message of some

birds singing-

Open the door, Good saint, they cried;

Pass deeper into your soul!

There is a power in your side

Which hell cannot control.

The story is fiction, but the message is one of the most essential biblical facts that every child