LESSON X.--SEPTEMBER 4.

TRUST IN OUR HEAVENLY FATHER.--MATT. 6:24-34.

      GOLDEN TEXT.--Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.--1 PETER 5:7.
      TIME AND PLACE.--As in the preceding lessons.
      HELPFUL READINGS.--Matt. 6:16-23; Luke 16:9-13; Psalm 55:22; Luke 12:22-31; Psalm 23:1-6.
      LESSON, ANALYSIS.--1. God and Mammon; 2. The Birds and the Lilies; 3. Seek ye first the Kingdom. [246]

INTRODUCTION.

      In the Sermon on the Mount the Lord outlines the principles of the expected kingdom of heaven which he would soon set up. He first presents its beatitudes, the character of its citizens, and their influence (salt and light) upon the world. He then shows that he does not destroy the law of Moses, but that he and his kingdom fulfil it; but he shows that the morality of the kingdom is far higher--reaching the heart and spirit--than that of the law, and reviews six different precepts of the old law, and gives them in their new form. After this, he shows what must be the righteousness of the kingdom, and illustrates by alms, prayer, and fasting. Then he shows that its citizens must not have their hearts set on getting lands, houses, and earthly treasure, as is the custom of earthly kingdoms, but that in the kingdom of heaven the treasure laid up must be heavenly treasure. Our present lesson shows that this is safe, because its citizens are under the care of the Heavenly Father, and he will see that his true and faithful and trusting children do not come to want.

      I. GOD AND MAMMON.--24. No man can serve two masters. He cannot give his heart to two services at the game time. He cannot follow two callings successfully, or have two chief goods. The heart demands a single paramount object, and the real service will go where the heart leads. This is a statement of a general truth. If the heart of a servant is stolen away, or the heart of any one dearer than a servant, then the service will go elsewhere. Two suppositions are suggested: He will either hate A and love B, or cleave to A and despise B. He may hate his proper master and love a usurper, or if he clings to and loves the former, he will despise the one who seeks to supplant him. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. This is the direct application. The Chaldee word "Mammon" means money or riches. It is here personified as an idol, like the Plutus of the Greeks, who worshiped the god of wealth. "Mammon" originally meant "trust" or confidence, and riches is the trust of worldly men. If God be not the object of supreme trust, something else will be, and it is most likely to be money. We must choose; not the possession of money, but its mastery over the mind is condemned.--Schaff. One hundred million dollars did not save Wm. H. Vanderbilt from falling dead in his own parlor, without a moment's warning. Money has its uses, but it cannot save. It is not a god. God only can deliver, and he is the only safe object of trust. We cannot trust both or serve both. Who shall have our hearts? [247]

      25. Take no thought for your life. At the time the Common Version was made, in the reign of King James, the expression "Take thought" meant to be anxious, to have gloomy forebodings. Many examples of such use of the phrase could be drawn from Shakespeare or his contemporaries. The Revision properly renders it "Be not anxious." The Greek word means "to have the mind distracted." Christ does not forbid prudent forethought, an actual necessity, but being distressed over the future, the prey of anxiety. Acquisitiveness in its extreme forms generally springs from anxiety about the future. Misers live in mortal fear of coming to want, and millionaires often dread poverty and the almshouse. Is not the life more than food? The argument is: Why should you be in constant fear lest you do not have food to sustain your life? God gave the life, and it is higher than food. If he gave it he will see that it is sustained, if you trust in him. So too he made the body. He will see that it is clothed.

      II. THE BIRDS AND THE LILIES.--26. Behold the fowls of the air. The birds of heaven. The one point that the Lord wishes us to behold is that the birds are fed without sowing or reaping. The argument is that if God feeds the birds, so that they have food in their season, and supplies all their wants, though they are incapable of forethought, how much more will he care for his rational creatures who are engaged in his service? It is possible that from his lofty position the Lord pointed, as he said these words, to flocks of birds that were careering over the plain, and this allusion was a beautiful object lesson, by which Christ made every bird of the air a preacher of trust in God.--Eggleston. God feeds the birds without their sowing or reaping, but the lesson does not teach us that he will feed us without our doing so. The birds do the work for which they were created, and God takes care of them. So too he will take care of us--not in idleness or improvidence--but if we do the work for which God created us. We need have no anxiety if we do our duty. That is the lesson the Lord teaches.

      27. Which of you can add one cubit, &c. There can hardly be a doubt that this ought to be rendered, "add one cubit to his age," or period of life. We [248] speak of life being a span, which is also a measure of length. The word rendered "stature" also means age, and that idea is more in harmony with the context. The idea is: "What is the use of anxiety? Who by his anxiety can add anything to life's journey?" "If it is proper to speak of "length of life," it is also appropriate to speak of adding a cubit to its length.

      28. Consider the lilies. God clothes the lily. If so why should you be anxious? You are worth more in his sight than the lilies. While the lilies do not toil or spin they do their work, draw up sustenance from the earth and drink in the dew, rain and sunbeams. If the lily could and would refuse to do these God would let it die. So we are to do our appointed work, not to be idlers, but the work unto which God has called us. If we do this, trusting in him, he will supply all our needs. Where we lack he will provide.

      29. Even Solomon in all his glory. To the Jew the court of Solomon was the highest representation of human glory. The magnificence of the court is not only celebrated in Jewish writings but in all oriental literature, and it is still proverbial throughout the East. Yet he was never arrayed with the taste and beauty of one of these. Many, because of the reference to the glory of Solomon, suppose the Huleh lily is specially meant. Thompson describes it as "very large, and the three inner petals meet above, and form a gorgeous canopy, such as art never approached and king never sat under, even in his utmost glory." The Huleh lily was common about Nazareth and grew in the vicinity of the Horns of Hattin, where the Savior is supposed to have spoken these words.

      30. If God so clothe the grass of the field. Wild flowers belong to the herbage that is cut with the grass. In Palestine the forests in many localities disappeared thousands of years ago and in the scarcity of fuel dried grass and weeds are often used to heat the oven. The argument is plain. If God clothe the grass in such glory, the grass that is short-lived and to-morrow will be burned in the bake-oven, will he not be far more likely to see that you, created in his own image and his child, are clothed? [249]

      31. Therefore take no thought. Have no anxiety over the question of food and raiment. Do your duty with a full trust in God that he will see that you do not lack for these things. The emphasis bestowed on these two human wants is justified by the fact that they are the great subjects of human anxiety. The great thought of two-thirds of the human race is, "Where shall I get food, drink and clothing?" These thoughts fill millions of minds with constant and painful anxiety. This anxiety poisons life and deprives it of all enjoyment. The Lord would sweep it away and give every soul a perfect sense of security.

      32. For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. This worldliness, anxiety and distrust might do in heathen who have no knowledge of a heavenly Father, and it is not surprising that "after these things the Gentiles seek," but you have a heavenly Father and he knows that ye need all these things. Will the Father let his children go in want when he holds the treasures of the universe in his hands?

      III. SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM.--33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. The way of the Gentiles and of the world is to seek first earthly things. The interests of this world are constantly given the pre-eminence. Christ has said that if we do our duty, as the bird and the lily do theirs, we will have our temporal wants supplied. He here tells us what is the first and great duty. It is to seek a place in the kingdom that he is about to establish and to promote its ends. The promise is made that if we seek it first, and its righteousness, that all earthly wants will be supplied. The condition demands, 1. That we seek the kingdom first in point of time. Some propose to secure a competence and after they have gained it, they will serve God. 2. We must make it first in importance. We must not say, "After I prove a yoke of oxen, get a piece of land, or get me a wife," I will look after the interests of the kingdom. Everything else must give way before its demands. 3. It must be first in our affections, have our whole hearts. We must "love the Lord our God with the whole heart," etc. The King and the Kingdom will occupy no second place. To those who seek and make the Kingdom first in these ways it is promised that earthly blessings shall be added. We may follow earthly callings, sow and reap, but our hearts and lives are to be given [250] to the Kingdom, and if they are we may dismiss all anxiety, for "God will provide." Who has ever heard of a true, devout, and faithful saint starving, or freezing from want of raiment! His righteousness. The righteousness that God bestows upon those who are in the Kingdom, Christ's righteousness, the forgiveness of sins in his name.

      34. Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow. Again it should read, as in the Revision, "Have no anxiety about to-morrow." The "therefore" refers to the reasons given before for freedom from anxiety. These reasons apply only to those who comply with the conditions; seek first the Kingdom, and its righteousness, live as men should live before God. Such may dismiss all anxiety about to-morrow. This does not imply that we are not to provide for it, but that we need have no fears. The morrow will take thought for itself. Not "take care of itself" but bring its own cares, anxieties and troubles. We should not foolishly increase our present burdens by borrowing trouble of to-morrow. Each day brings its own trouble and temptation from the evil world, but also its own help and deliverance through the aid of the Father. He helps to-day; he does not anticipate to-morrow and help it before it comes.

PRACTICAL AND SUGGESTIVE.

      GOD AND MAMMON.--The soul of a man cannot exert its full force in two directions at the same time, or upon diverse, and indeed, contrary objects. A man must need have two hearts, two souls, and two selves before he can give a heart to God, and to the world at the same time.--South.

      MAMMON may do very well as a servant, and may be a very good one if he is kept in proper subjection, but if he gains the mastery he will prove a very hard taskmaster.

      LIFE, has a nobler purpose than mere feeding of itself, and the body a nobler purpose than wearing raiment. It may be necessary to feed and clothe the body, but these are not the objects of life, not the matters to claim our thoughts. The great thought of life should be to do the Divine will.

      If you constantly make the best use of the present hour you are sure to be prepared for the hours that follow.--Fenelon. [251]

      RAIMENT.--In thy apparel avoid singularity, profuseness, and gaudiness. Decency is the half way house between affectation and neglect. The body is the shell of the soul; apparel is the husk of that shell; the husk often tells you what the kernel is.--Quarles.

      TAKING THOUGHT.--As you are obliged to leave the physical development of your body to God, so leave the result of your labor for its sustenance to him. For after all man's endeavor to acquire property, the result is very generally governed by circumstances beyond his control.--Eggleston.

      God governs the immense masses of matter in nature by applying his laws to every particle. The great mass is controlled by special attention to the atoms. Who that observes this in matter will deny that he extends his care to the individual in his higher creations? That he acts on the same principles with regard to men and that the very hairs of our heads are numbered? Would God care for the less and not care for the grater? Does he not care for the human race as a whole by caring for each member? Could there be a general providence, without a particular care of each Individual?

POINTS FOR TEACHERS.

      1. Illustrate the folly of trying to serve two masters whose commands are not in harmony. 2. Show what kind of a master Mammon is, how the human race served him and how it prevents the service of God; what sins men do for wealth. 3. Point out the curse of Mammon serving, covetousness, miserly conduct. 4. Point out Christ's cure for it. How may all fear for the future to be taken away. 5. Show what lesson is taught by the birds. 6. Show what lesson is taught by the lilies. 7. Show what is needful to have God's care, the bird to be a bird, the lily to be a lily, and the man to be a man. 8. Show that this offers no premium to idleness or improvidence, but what it does do. 9. Point out the first duty of the man, and why first, and how first. 10. Apply the blessed promise to those who thus do, and show that it has never failed. 11. Show how we are to act with reference to to-morrow and why. 12. Bring out the practical applications for each individual in this lesson. What duties does it teach and what is the chief thought. [252]

Source: Barton Warren Johnson. The Christian International Lesson Commentary for 1887. Des Moines, IA: