middle way, no compromise. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thinq heart; " " Love not the world." 2. The one Master: his loving care for Ms servants, (1) Those who serve him must not be di\'idcd in mind; they must not allow over, anxiety concerning their earthly needs to distract their heart. They have been taught to address God as their Father; they must trust his fatherly love, his gracious pro. vidence. It is over-anxiety, not carefulnebS, that Christ forbids; he does not commend the thoughtless and careless. Holy Scripture bids Christian men to "work with quietness, and eat their own bread; " it condemns those who provide not for their own, and specially for those of their own house. What Christ forbids is distracting anxiety for the future. We must do our duty in the present and leave the future to Go<l, trusting him with loving faith. The body, the life, come from him. He made the body; he breathed into the nostrils the breath of life. He who gave the greater will give the less; he will give the things needful for that human life which is his gift. (2) Examples of his care, (a) '£he fowls of the air. 'l'he Lord of nature he by whom the worlds were made, directs us to the study of nature: "Behold the fo~ls," "Consider the lilies." Ee loved to contemplate the works of God, and to draw from them lessons of holy, heavenly wisdom. The vine, the fig tree, the corn-land, the sheep of the pasture, the fishes of the sea, supplied subjects for his parables. He has sanctified the love of nature, and elevated it by his own example. Doubtless in his early life he had watched the countless birds in. the clear skies of Palestine, from the s;iaring eagle to the humble sparrow. He watched them not in vain; he draws lessons of holy trustfulness from their free, wild life. "They sow not, neither do they reap; your hcarenly Father feedeth them "-your Father. He is not the Father of the irrational creature in the same holy, blessed sense in which he bids us call him "our Father." Yet he careth for the birds of the air; how much more doth he care for us, his children by adoption and grace I Therefore let us trust him. We cannot by the most anxious thought add to our lives a. cubit's length, a. day or an hour. Let us imitate the birds of the air in their happy, bright contentment, in their freedom from distracting care. (b) The lilies of the field. God has shown his love not only in providing for our actual needs by flocks and herds and harvests. He has clothed the ~arth with beauty; mountain and valley, sunlit seas and waving woods and gleaming rivers, bear witness to the goodness of the Lord. "God saw everything that he had made, a.nd, behold. it was very good." 'l'he sin of man bas marred the primeval loveliness of creation. Bat there are yet traces of that first beauty left. The Bowers of the fields are relics of Eden's bowers- " As pnre, as fragrant, and. as fair .&JI when they .crowned the sunshine hoUrB Of happy wanderers there." '!'he Lord gazed on the wealth of gorgeous flowers that deck the hills of Galilee in the spring; they were very fair in his sight; more delicate!Y: beautiful, more radiant in their bright colours, than any work of human art or skill. He draws a holy lesson from them: "They toil not, neither do they spin;" but God clothes them with.beauty. He bids us learn the happy secret of their calm loveliness. He bids us trust in God with quiet faith; he will give us food and raiment who feeds the ravens when they cry, ancl. adorns the lilies of tbe field with brilliant colour. a. We muat trust him. He knoweth our needs; he bids us ask him for our daily bread; he listens to our prayer. Bis children must not be like the heathen. 'l'bey have far higher privileges; they must live a hiaher life. The heathen seek eagerly after the good things of .this world;. Christian; must "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness "-that kingdom of grace in the heart, which is "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." 'fhat mullt be the first and paramount object of the Christian's hope and earnest effort; lhe glad submission of his whole hea,rt, with all its fears 9:nd hopes, all its joys and l!Orrows, all its desires and all its thoights, to the heavenly Kmg, who would make that heart bis dwelling-place, reigning there with undivided sovereignty. Seek that first, above all thinas else-above riches, honour, comfort, ease, even above the love of those who a1e neare:t and dearest. Seek that first, seek it of God with unresting, unwearied energy of suvplication; and for other things trust his love. He bids us ask him f@I' our daily bread, not to be over-anxious for the morrow. We must not allow dis• cm. VI. 1-34.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 2(1
tracting fears for the morrow to interfere with the calm performance of the dut;ea of the day. Each <lay bas its burden, ils difficulties, its temptations; each day, too, brings its help from God, its grace, its mercies, to his children, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow. . . . Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof." Give your whole energy, all your thoughts, to the work of the day, the duty which is present: "Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." Do not allow the day to be darkened, and its work to be marred, by gloomy forebodings of possible troubles in the future. They may never come; we may pass a.way before they come; if they should come, .God will giv,e his people strength and wisdom. Do your duty; and then leave the future in his hand.~, to whom alone the future is known; who has promised to make "all things work together for good to them that love him." LESSONS. 1. "Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven." 2. Make no compromises; give the whole heart to God. 3. God careth for his chihlrcn; trust in him, be not over-anxious. 4.. The present is yours; the future is God's. Do your duty, and trust.