about its issue take possession of our minds, we make the mistake our Lord deprecates. 2. The evil is concerned with bodily needs. The life, the food, the raiment. 'l'he idea is of being absorbed with deep concern for these temporal and external things. 3. The evil prevents concern for our higher interests and duties. Here is its greatest con- demnation, not simply that it pains us, but that it injures us. Jesus does not advise freedom from anxiety merely on its own account, that we may have the satisfaction of being at peace. He sees that worldly anxiety fills the mind and heart, and so keeps out thoughts of the great purpose of life. "The cares of this world" are tares that choke the Word. "The life is more than the food." We are to cast aside anxiety about food and clothe.a, that we may be free t.o "seek first the kingdom of God and his :rigb teousness." ~n. THE CURE OF THE Evn.. All deplore it; but few see how t.o conquer it. Some even regard the words of Christ as applicable only to an idyllic state of society-possible among the flowers and sunshine of Galilee in those old dreamy days, but quite imprac- ticable in the busy, crowded West of t.o-day. Let us see if there are not permanent lessons in this teaching of our Lord. 1. The spirit of nature. Our Lord was preaching on a mountain, with flowers at his feet and birds above his head. His illustrations lay close at hand; but his choice of them was evidently suited t.o his object. He touches on the beauty and fresh life of nature, so that his very langnage is soothing. It carries us quite away from the fret and fever of life. If we would spend more time in con- sidering the lilies we should be calmed and refreshed. Wordsworth re-echoes this wholesome lesson. 2. The analogy of the lower world. God cares for the grass that is enamelled with flowers in the spring, then scorched by the sun and bumt as fuel in the su.mmP.r, He feeds the wild birds. Nature is wonderfully adjusted in its mutual minis- tries so as t.o support its most fragile creatures. If we can " live according to nature" we shall be provided for. This does not mean becoming savages--who are not in a state of nature at all It means observing the laws of nature, as flowers and birds are bound to do, but as men do not. 3. The revelation of our Father's care. He knows our need. He does not despise it, or snppose that we can face it with Stoical indifference. There- fore we can entrust it t.o him. Faith is the great antidote to care. 4. The call to higher duty. It is wrong to waste our lives in anxiety. It is incumbent on u11 t.o give ourselves to the service of God. When we do this we shall find it easier to trust God. Then the evil may come; but we need not snatch at it prematurely. It can -wait for its day, and when that arrives we shall find that as our day is so our strength will be.-W. F. A. Vers. 1--4.-~ to the duty of giving alms. The matter of the discourse of our Lord proceeds from his illustration of the hithert.o unpract-ised and unnoticed spiritual significance, depth, and far-reachingness of the Law, t.o admonitions which must ever be so sure to be needed--of simplicity of motive and purity of heart in our works of "righteousness," or, as perhaps we should more naturally describe them in modern phrase, of religion. It must be noted that the Received Version reads mistakenly, in ver. 1, "alms" instead of "righteousness." This last word, recalling our thought t.o ver. 20, easily keeps for us unbroken the thread of Christ's discourse. The more specific of these admonitions as t.o our religious actions are three in number, and concern the duty of gi\'ing al.ms (vers. 1--4), of praying (vers. 5-15), and of fasting (vcrs. 16-18). Notice-- I. THAT THE PRINCIPLE CONTAINED IN THE INJUNCTION CHRIST HERE UTTERS IS NOT THAT HlB DISCIPLES SHOULD .ARTIFICIALLY AND UNNATURALLY SMOTHER AND OOVEB UP IN DARKNESS EVERY ACT OF CllilllTY. 1. This would be to the derogation of a previous and important injunction of this very discourse, that they should "so let their light shine before men that," a.a a consequence, "they might see their good works, and glorify their Father in heaven." 2. The present injunction is explicitly worded to the effect that such good works as almsgiving are not to be done/or the purpose of being seen of men, and thereby winning a most superficial glory of them. li. THE INJUNOTION 16 THAT THE WORKS OF CHARITY SHOULD TRAVEL SO DIIIECT FROM THE HEART TO THE OBJECT OF THEM THAT THEY SIIOULD IN NO WISE CONTEMPLATE ANY OUTER OBSERVATION, AND SHOULD, 80 FAB FROM TIUS 1 EVEN ELUDE THAT 01' T.ll.ll LEFT ILU!D WliEN DONE BY THE BIGHT BAND, cm. vr. 1-34.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 253
III. '!'HAT ANYTHING SHORT OJI' THIS, ANY ADMJXTUBE OJI' SECRET, UNBAJl'E, UNHEALTHY, ORA'flNG FOR HU1U.N N0TIOE AND PRAISE, 18 OJI' A DISENABLING SORT, AND PRECLUDES .rUE CONTINUAL DEW OF TEE DIVINE APPROVAL AND REW.A.RD, IV, TH.AT NEVERTHELESS OUR WORKS OF CHARITY ABE FREE AND OPEN-NAY, BATHER, .ARE EVEN TO BE ENCOURAGED TO SUBMIT THEMSELVES-TO THE INSPECTION OF THE ONE CLEAR, CALM, UNERRING, A.ND UNB.A.BMING GAZE OF THE DIVINE EYE, AND THERE HAVB THEm BEWABD,-B,