The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 285

work and relations. If the aim be a high and noble one, It will brighten and ennoble ~ hie doings. If it be a low and ignoble one, it will discolour and degrade all his doings. Or, to take another view : a man's aim in life will be like the eye, through_ which he comes into relation with everything. If it be clean and healthy, everything is seen as it is. Ifit be impure and diseased, it is as if a man saw everything through coloured glasses. Then the anxiety of a Christian disciple should concern fixing the right aim, settling the one supreme purpose <{ life. Christ says our aim should be "righteousness." We do but put the same thi1g in another form when we say it sbouI~ be Ohrist-lil.-ene,ss. "Singleness of intentio11 will preserve us from the snare of havmg a double treasure, and therefore a divided heart." The question to press on attention is-What are you living for? I. NOT HING. There are thousands of persons who are just living on, they know not an~ care not how or why. Enough for them is the butterfly-life of self-indulgence. Neither when~ they came, nor wha~ t~ey are here for, nor whither they are going, troubles them in the l~t. And theirs 1s but as the life of the "dumb, driven cattle," who have no "uplookmg eyes." IL SoMETHING LOW AND POOR. Such things as wealth for wealth's sake, position for position's sake, power for power's sake. A soul has but a low aim who only asks " What shall we eat? what shall we drink ? " and lets the " lust of the desh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" decide what his aim shall be. fil SollETHING NOBLE FROH HUlliN STANDPOINTS. The world has its heroes in all its spheres. We may fix on one, find his aim, and make it ours, and let it inspire us to noble things. IV. SOMETHING DIVINB. Here show that God has been pleased to come into our human spheres, in the Person of Jesus Obrist, that he might make himaelf our inspiring and sanctifying aim.-R. T. Ver. 25.-The proper limits of hu11na,n ana;iety. Tbe evil dealt with in this passage is " undue secular anxiety." "Think of the uncertainty of almost everything we have-life, health, friendship, domestic relationships and affections, riches, commerce. Life has many sad surprises and disappointments. Our own day is full of care." There is abundant cause for anxiety. But Christ reminds us of a truth which should put our earthly care into strict limitations. We have a Father who is actually and effectively concerned in securing the constant and the highest well-being of his children. The children ought to have proper children's anxieties, but they shouid not take upon them cares which belong to their Father, who "knoweth what they have need of before they ask him." I. THE EAllTHLINEBB OF THE UNEARTHLY MAN. Think of the Christian as the "unearthly man," and then see that his unearthliness ought not to be all-absorbing. It should be placed under wise limitations. He is in the body. He stands in relations, He has duties and responsibilities. It is no true spirituality to escape from common earthly responsibilities into monasteries, nunneries, and hermit-cells. "The Son of ma.n came eating and drinking." Human interests were sought by him, and human cares were borne by him. A saint must never forget that he is husband, or father, or brother, or friend. or citizen. Earthly anxiety is God's present burden for bis saints; and it has to be cheerfully taken up and borne. II. THE m.""EARTHLINESS OF THE EARTHLY MAN. This is turning the figure round, In order to warn the spiritual man how very absorbing earthly care may become, and to advise him that his supreme anxiety should be soul-culture. "Taking thought" is but an older form of our idea of "worrying," which is "anxiety overdone." " What the Lord bids us guard against is conjectural brooding over the possible necessities of the future, and our possible lack of the resources required for their supply." The spiritual man shouid be "using the world as not abusing it.'' In safe limitations keeping both earthly and unearthly.-R. T. Vers. 26, 28.-7'he God of the fowls and the flowers. Tbo point which seems to bo prominently suggested here is this: Fowle and flowers repreaent the creatures and the adornments of the Father's house. Disciple, represent the children of the Father's ~WK'. It ia fair and forcible argument; it 01nnes close hon1e to us, by its appeal I.A ou, vu.1-29.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 279