Collect. O Almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men: Grant unto Thy people, that they may love the thing which Thou commandest, and desire that which Thou dost promise: that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. CHRIST'S DOCTRINE OF SONSHIP. MATTHEW Vi. 25-34. Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. 1 PETER V. 7. XII. CHRIST'S DOCTRINE OF SONSHIP. THE Mountain Teacher has been laying down rules for holy living, or rather setting forth the righteousness He requires of His disciples. He has warned us against the spirit of retaliation, and unchastity, and frivolity, and ostentation, and covetousness, and double-mindedness; and now He proceeds to warn us against the spirit of fret: Father: Matt. vi. 25-34. "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought Trusting the for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 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? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day Christ does not forbid Forethought: is and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 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. It is Christ's Doctrine of Sonship. man. Does the Mountain Teacher mean, then, to forbid all forethought? Would He have us live heedlessly, improvidently, idly? Most certainly not. For, as we saw in our last study, the instinct to forecast the future and provide for it is one of the original, constitutional, ineradicable instincts of This is precisely one of the characteristics which discriminates man from brute: the brute lives in to-day, man in to-morrow. And the Son of Man came not to annihilate human instincts, but to redeem them, giving them fuller play, and, in very truth, fulfilling them. Eternity is man's true to-morrow; and concerning that morrow the Lord of Eternity would have us take first and chief and ceaseless thought. Meanwhile, concerning the world that now is, He would have us live sagaciously—that is to say, providently. Nowhere does He encourage thriftlessness or indolence. Let one of His own apostles interpret Him |