The subject treated of in this discourse is one of the most important, and frequent, that is presented in the Scriptures.  He who examines is startled to find that the phrase, “fear of the Lord,” is woven into the whole web of Revelation from Genesis to the Apocalypse.  The feeling and principle under discussion has a Biblical authority, and significance, that cannot be pondered too long, or too closely.  It, therefore, has an interest for every human being, whatever may be his character, his condition, or his circumstances.  All great religious awakenings begin in the dawning of the august and terrible aspects of the Deity upon the popular mind, and they reach their height and happy consummation, in that love and faith for which the antecedent fear has been the preparation.  Well and blessed would it be for this irreverent and unfearing age, in which the advance in mechanical arts and vice is greater than that in letters and virtue, if the popular mind could be made reflective and solemn by this great emotion.

We would, therefore, pass by all other feelings, and endeavor to fix the eye upon the distinct and unambiguous fear of God, and would urge the young, especially, to seek for it as for hid treasures.  The feeling is a painful one, because it is a preparatory one.  There are other forms of religious emotion which are more attractive, and are necessary in their place; these you may be inclined to cultivate, at the expense of the one enjoined by our Lord in the text.  But we solemnly and earnestly entreat you, not to suffer your inclination to divert your attention from your duty and your true interest.  We tell you, with confidence, that next to the affectionate and filial love of God in your heart, there is no feeling or principle in the whole series that will be of such real solid service to you, as that one enjoined by our Lord upon “His disciples first of all.”  You will need its awing and repressing influence, in many a trying scene, in many a severe temptation.  Be encouraged to cherish it, from the fact that it is a very effective, a very powerful emotion.  He who has the fear of God before his eyes is actually and often kept from falling.  It will prevail with your weak will, and your infirm purpose, when other motives fail.  And if you could but stand where those do, who have passed through that fearful and dangerous passage through which you are now making a transit; if you could but know, as they do, of what untold value is everything that deters from the wrong and nerves to the right, in the critical moments of human life; you would know, as they do, the utmost importance of cherishing a solemn and serious dread of displeasing God.  The more simple and unmixed this feeling is in your own experience, the more influential will it be.  Fix it deeply in the mind, that the great God is holy.  Recur to this fact continually.  If the dread which it awakens casts a shadow over the gayety of youth, remember that you need this,