1. A. Gurney, TJce Living Lard, 129.
Human Anxiety and Divine Care.
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Literature.
Arnold (T.), Sermons, ii. 1V3.
Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, vi. 382.
Edmunds (J.), Sermons, 74.
Ellis (J.), Golden Truths for Young Folk, 33.
Earningham (M.), In Evening Lights, 9.
Hort (F. J, A.), Village Sermons, ii. 167.
Humberstone (W. J.), The Cure of Care, 121.
Huntington (F. D.), Christ in the Christian Year : Trinity to Advent, 44.
Ingram (A. F, W.), Joy in God, 141.
„ „ The Call of the Father, 33.
Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year : Sundays after Trinity, ii. 474. Little (W. J. K.), Sunlight and Shadow, 152. Macgregor (W. M.), Some of God's Ministries, 245. McLeod (A.), The Child Jesus, 103. March (F. E.), Hindrances to the Spiritual Life, 50. Matheson (G.), Moments on the Mount, 259. Meyer (F. B.), Tried by Fire, 198. Mortimer (A. G.), Studies in Holy Scripture, 287. Newbolt (W. C. E.), Counsels of Faith and Practice, 161. Nicoll (W. R.), Ten-Minute Sermons, 27. Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, i. 249.
Spurgeon (C. H,), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, viii. (1862) 13. Symonds (A. R.), Sermons, 390. Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit) iii. (1863) No. 431 ; xiii. (1876)
No. 1009. Vincent (M. R.), God and Bread, 153. Whitworth (W. A.), The Sanctuary of God, 131. Wilson (S. L.), Helpful Words for Daily Life, 19. Wynne (G. R.), In Quietness and Confidence, 46. Christian World Pulpit, ii. 40 (White) ; xxx. 177 (Beecher) ; Ivi. 175
(Hallock). Church of England Magazine, xxviii. 272 (Thompson) ; Ix. 224 (Heurtley). Churchman's Pulpit : 3rd Sunday after Trinity, x. 128 (Symonds), 130
(How). Contemporary Pulpit, 1st Ser., iii. 362 (Barrett). Five-Minute Sermons, by Paulists, New Ser., i. 296.
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I
Human Anxiety and Divine Care.
Casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you.— i Pet. v. 7.
1. These words follow others of great significance : " God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time : casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you." The two verses taken together state this truth, that anxiety carries with it a division of faith between God and self — a lack of faith in God, proportioned to the amount of care which we refuse to cast on Him ; an excess of self-confidence, proportioned to the amount which we insist on bearing ourselves. If we refuse to let God carry for us what He desires and offers to carry, pride is at the bottom of the refusal. Therefore, the Apostle says, "Humble yourselves under God's mighty hand. Confess the weakness of your hand. Do not try to carry the anxiety with your weak hand. Cast it all on Him. Believe that He cares for you, and be humbly willing that He should care for you."
2. The Eevised Version has brought out a very important distinction by the substitution of " anxiety " for *' care." Anxiety, according to its derivation, is that which distracts and racks the mind, and answers better to the original word, which signifies a dividing thing, something which distracts the heart, and separates it from God. The word " careth," on the other hand, used of God (" he careth for you " ), is a different word in the original, and means supervising and fostering care, loving interest, such care as a father has for a child.
I.
Human Anxiety.
1. A famous man of letters said of the king whom he served [Louis XI.], " I have seen him and been his servant in the days
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136 HUMAN ANXIETY AND DIVINE CARE
of his greatest prosperity, but never yet did I see him without uneasiness and care." Is that for kings only, or do king and subject meet at this point ? Thackeray says of the world we all live in, " This is Vanity Fair, not a moral place, certainly, and not a merry one though very noisy. A man as he goes about the show will not be oppressed by his own or other people's hilarity. An episode of humour or of kindness touches or amuses him here and there, but the general impression is more melancholy than mirthful." Care would seem, then, to be a common plague, which, late or soon, begins to furrow every face ; and most of us know so much of it and so little of its remedy, that it may well seem wasted labour for a man to talk to his fellows of the cure of care.
^ Atra Cura — Black Care — was familiar to the light-hearted Eoman poet. It was impossible to ride away from it; wherever the traveller went, it went with him.
Horses ! landlord, and six good pair To bear the old Lord back to town.
Far from the broad lands gay with clover, Far from the rolling grassy down.
Flog the horses, post-boys, faster;
Let us fly like a ship before the wind, In the heart of these dull old country mansions
The old Hag Care we have left behind.
'Tis all in vain, For close beside our sleeping master There sits the old black Hag again.
After all these years of Christ the hard tyranny of circum- stance is unloosened. Perhaps it never pressed so heavily as of late. Every morning there rises the great army of the careworn to take up the daily toils with sinking heart. Every day com- petition grows more savage, and success more difficult. Every day the sensibilities and aspirations of youth are being killed by the pressure of low necessities. What is music to the man wait- ing for the footfall of his creditor ? What is poetry or philosophy to one intent on the fateful telegram which brings word that his venture has failed ? " We can live without poetry and religion and philosophy," such is the cry, " but not without food or cloth- ing or shelter, and these are at hazard." Many of the best hearts in the world are broken by such thoughts, and even those in which Kfe remains are well likened to houses in whose eaves the