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take one step in the road to happiness. If we think this one of Christ's hard sayings, we bear witness against ourselves, that our eye is not yet single.

SECTION XIII.

Chap. vi. ver. 24-34.

WE ARE NOT TO BE CAREFUL FOR WORLDLY THINGS.

24. No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

The God of heaven and the god of this world, or the covetous desires of it. Some choose the service of the latter, with an open contempt of the former, and more pretend to serve both. But the wisdom from above says it cannot be. It is impossible that the love of two things, so contrary in their nature, should dwell in the same heart.

25. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.

Not no thought at all, for the scripture is as much for industry and prudent carefulness as any book in the world; but an anxious, distressing, distrustful thought, as if this world were our all, or as if there were no God in it, and he had not given us sufficient evidence of his fatherly care over us, or we could procure anything for ourselves without him, or, as if contented, cheerful dependence on him were not our best security for the supply of all our real Let us see what follows in this view, and may God give us understanding hearts!

wants.

25. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment ?

26. Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27. Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

All such care is as vain as impious. We can no more gain our ends by it, than we can add to our stature, or prolong our lives.

28. And why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Look at the book of nature, at yourselves, about, above, and beneath you, and see whether you have not abundant proof in everything of God's power and will to provide

for you.

31. Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed ?

Our Lord has been endeavouring to argue us sweetly out of this worldly, carking, unbelieving, fruitless care, and repeats his own words to add weight to them. And now hear what cause you have to pray for yourselves.

32. (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek :) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

If we do seek these things, to the neglect of our souls, we are just such heathens, whatever we think of ourselves, or by whatever name we distinguish ourselves. We are, in fact, unenlightened by Christ, and no better for his teaching, than if we had never heard of him.

Our heavenly Father knows that we have need of ne

cessaries for the body, and will give us what we want; but is too wise and good to give us all we desire. Most of the heathenish, soul-destroying care that is in the world is among those who have enough and to spare.

33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

A place and inheritance in God's kingdom, as your chosen portion from God, together with the righteousness by which it is distinguished, and which all must have who belong to it; and take notice, it is here called his righteousness, the righteousness of faith; both that which he gives in Christ, and that which he alone can work in us. Do we indeed seek this in the first place? Let us not be ignorant of what we are concerned above all things in the world to know and do; for it is in vain to seek it only in the second place.

What are we, if we cannot stay ourselves quietly upon this promise of Jesus, "All these things shall be added unto you ?"

34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day

is the evil thereof.

The morrow shall be provided for by Him, who takes care for to-day, and who alone can provide for any day. Let not any foolishly double the burden of every day by adding that of the next to it.

Every day has trouble enough of its own, and will require all our thought to pass well through it. But why has every day some evil attending it? Because we are sinners, and to correct and bring us back again to God.

Happy, O Lord, is the man who takes thee for his God, and makes full proof of it, by trusting in thy providential care, and resigning himself wholly to thy wise disposal! Let thy Spirit convince us of our sin in the want of this disposition, teach us an acceptable righteousness, and purge out the worldliness of our hearts, that, under a deep sense

of thy infinite purity, we may do all our works as unto thee, who seest in secret, and will reward us openly, not for our imperfect and polluted services, but for the alone merits of Jesus Christ.

SECTION XIV.

Chap. vii. ver. 1-12.

EXHORTATIONS AND ADMONITIONS.

1. Judge not, that ye be not judged.

All depends upon a close inspection into ourselves; and nothing hinders this more, or blinds us more fatally, than looking at the faults of others. The evil of judging does not consist in seeing things and persons as they are, or fancying them to be good against plain evidence, but in imputing worse motives to the persons, or putting a worse construction upon their actions, than is necessary, in scorn and the pride of self-preference, without pity, prayer, or endeavour for their amendment.

"That ye be not judged." Not so much by others, though we deserve their utmost censure, and shall be sure to have it, but of God, for our malice and uncharitableness. If this does not strike terror into us, and give some check to the daily, unheeded, reigning sin, what will? It is something to govern the tongue, but look farther, and remove the evil from thy heart.

2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

Having sins of our own, we have already pronounced sentence upon ourselves, and shall be condemned out of our own mouths.

3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

This is no unlikely supposition. Thy brother has his mote, some spot or blemish in his character; thou seest it with a scornful eye, to judge him; alas! thou art hidden from thyself; for thy corruption is naturally great; and if thou knewest it, and wert striving against it, it would certainly teach thee more compassion for others.

4. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

How canst thou have the face to do it with all thy own blindness about thee? Christ, who had a perfect knowledge of the world, knew that nothing is more common.

5. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Thou mayest be tolerably clear in thy morals, but, perhaps, chargeable with disregard of God in thy inmost soul, base ingratitude to thy great Benefactor, and wretched defect in thy religious character. Let this sharp rebuke guide thee to every beam in thine own eye, and, not least, to this of uncharitable judging.

6. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

If this is to be understood as a precept, it is, to leave men to themselves, when nothing else is to be expected but provoking and inflaming their brutish natures. But as this cannot certainly be foreseen, and endeavours must be used, and hazards run, to reclaim the worst of men, it seems to be rather a warning of what would too frequently happen in offering the precious truths of the Gospel to them. In the same manner as he said to the disciples at another time, "Beware of men," x. 17, not meaning that they should be

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