point, either of doctrinal, or even of | practical, theology, within the narrow limits of one discourse. To develope the full claims which this beautiful text has on your attention, we must take a far higher ground than that of mere apologists. We must not only extricate it from the trammels of a false interpretation, but show you its excellence when well interpreted not only clear it of the charge of being incompatible with our conditions in society, but set forth on the contrary, its admirable adaptation to the moral and intellectual state of man: not only acquit it of a severity which it breathes not, but bring forward the spirit of mercy and of benevolence which it breathes. We must point out how a more general compliance with it would be calculated to augment the sum of human happiness, and reduce the mass of human misery. We must, in addi- | tion to the strong motives for enforcing our obedience, suggest such considerations as appear most likely to enable each man, in his own individual capacity, to reduce to practice so beautiful a theory. We need scarcely add that this is more than can well be attempted in a single sermon; and, if it could be accomplished, more than it is probable could all at once be impressed upon your memories. Reserving, therefore, the remaining considerations for some future opportunity, we PROPOSE, in this discourse, to GIVE, AS FAR AS WE MAY, AN ELUCIDATION OF THE TEXT, BY CONSIDERING IT IN ITS APPLICATION, FIRST, TO THE CASE OF THE DISCIPLES WHO HEARD IT; AND, SECONDLY, TO OUR OWN. And may the Spirit of all truth dispose us to receive, as we ought, these divine admonitions from the mouth of him, who spake as never man spake! FIRST, then, it is necessary that we consider for a moment the precept as delivered to those who heard it, to qualify us for appreciating the degree of personal interest we have in it, and for feeling in what sense we are required to apply it to ourselves. For it will obviously bear two very different senses, according as we refer it to the first followers of Jesus, or indirectly, through their transmission, to the church of Christ in after times. And here, let us first observe that while, on the one hand, it hath pleased the Divine Author of Revelation to render the fundamental doctrines of justification by faith, and sanctifica→ tion through the Spirit, so plain and intelligible to all, that he who runs may read, yet, on the other hand, the collateral precepts must frequently of necessity be understood with reference more or less made to the time when, and to the exigencies under which, they were spoken. And should any feel inwardly disposed to question our right to attempt in any degree to qualify what our Lord hath said, we beg before we proceed further to remind them, in passing, of this remarkable passage in St. Luke: "and he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? and they said, nothing. Then said he unto them, but now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip; and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one:" words which, though addressed exclusively to the apostles, have been preserved and handed down to us, probably that they might serve to silence such unfounded scruples, by showing, out of the mouth of Christ himself, that while his sublime code of ethics is universal, and given for the benefit of mankind at large. several of his minuter details of con duct were addressed to his immediate | from the most finty breast. Thus, followers; and were, even with res- excepting the persecution of the world pect to them, confined to the palling and the crown of martyrdom to which emergencies which they were adapted they were ordained, they marched to encounter. under the immediate banners of the Most High, and needed no thought of the morrow, no mixture of worldly anxiety to interrupt their career of glory, or disturb the serenity of their trust:they were bent on a high and sovereign mission, which required their affections to be exclusively set on those things above, which they were revealing to a fallen world :how then could they preserve the slightest attachment to things below, or admit into their thoughts the grovel were messengers of heaven, and har bingers of immortality? Within this class of precepts we must range our text, so long as we confine it to its first literal sense; for, in the days of our Lord's ministry, they who were blessed with the immediate light of his presence, had, as might be expected, peculiar privileges, belonging to their high and holy calling. They were a godly few, rescued out of a faithless and guilty generation, to hear continually from his mouth the words of eternal life, to be the instruments of re-ing cares of earth and time, while they claiming, first, "the best sheep of the house of Israel," and afterwards the gentiles and the whole world,— and to bear witness by their martyrdom to the truths of those miracles, by which Christ was declared the Son and the copartner of the Eternal. It was fit, therefore, and even necessary, from the nature of the case, that they should be entrusted with a power and a privilege to which no subsequent Christian, however holy, might lay claim and to them, accordingly, the gift of tongues, the interpretation of prophecy, and the working of miracles, in imitation of the Saviour whom they proclaimed, were given at a time when such outward manifestations and signs were required to confirm and to pro-derstand it, for they were made as the pagate their religion through the earth; suitable to such a mission was the authority wherewith they were invested, the rules which they were made to observe, and the absolute confidence they reposed in him in whose name they were sent. They were told that by faith they might invert the course of nature, remove mountains from their seat and the dead from their graves, strike water out of the barren rock, and draw tears Well, therefore, to them, and to them alone, did the text apply in its strictest acceptation: "Take no thought of the morrow, but seek ye first the kingdom of GOD and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." A precept, in their case, exactly parallel to that in which they were told to use no premeditation as to what things they should say, for the spirit would prompt and give them utterance, whenever the occasion should arise. Yea, and verily was the promise fulfilled, and "all things were added unto them?"-not indeed all things, as we sons of low ambition would un offscourings of the earth, a spectacle of persecution and of woe unto God, unto angels, and unto men; but "all things," nevertheless, “were added unto them," for their doctrines triumphed, while they themselves were vanquished: their truth endured, while they themselves perished: their creed was spreading in all directions, while they themselves had not where to lay their heads: and the courage that endures, and the constancy that bleeds, and the charity that covereth the mul- | over superabundant care, that fretful titude of sins, and the faith that overcometh the world, and the hope full of immortality, and the inward foretaste of the joys of heaven, and the secret assurance of the indwelling of the spirit, and the light that shineth in darkness, and the certainty of the coming day, when "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the" channels of the deep, and glimpses of the holy city and of the glory that issues from the throne, "all these things were added unto them;" and what cared they for the morrow, or what feared they of earthly death?-Nay, more; as much as they were God's chosen instruments for the propagation of our holy faith, it was essential to the success of their ministry that not a single earth-bound consideration should interfere, to make them even for a moment, vacillate in their endeavours, or in the slightest way to draw back the full impulse of their energies-Forward, forward,was their cry; in season and out of season, through evil report and good report, for their mission admitted of no delay, they were the beacons of the human race: they were these poor unknown fishermen of Galilee, to give unto Christ the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. II. And so much for the text as referred to the Apostles. But now, in extending its application, we must circumscribe its meaning. If we take it as a general direction to us, in all times, and under all circumstances, it is then to be understood, as we will presently prove, as a caution, not against all anxiety, (some degree of which is inseparable from our very nature,) nor against that diligence in the discharge of our respective callings which reason and religion every where inculcate, but against that and feverish disposition, that tumultuous restlessness of the soul, that yearning after worldly enjoyments and worldly pleasures, that dissatisfied anticipation of futurity, that insolent murmuring at the decrees of Providence, which, wherever they are found, betray a heart, if not utterly void of religion, at least so choked up by the fumes of earthly care, as to leave no room free to admit the influence of grace and the operation of the holy Spirit of GOD. Such a solicitude, to which we are all but too much inclined, the heavenly founder of our faith might well condemn:—and this sense of the words, when generally interpreted, is not only apparent from its agreement with the whole doctrine of Scripture, but also from fair and critical analysis of the context itself:--and this will be rendered equally evident, whether we examine the manner in which the precept is introduced, or the reasons adduced in the concluding clause, or the idiom in which our Saviour spoke. First. For, first, observe the connexion with the argument used in the beginning:-" No man can serve two masters-ye cannot serve God and mammon." THEREFORE say I unto you, take no thought for your life; that is, do not so let these things engross you as to debase you into the slavery and servitude of mammon,— and to cast around your free born souls the unholy fetters of the thraldom of sin and death.-Saint John, in his first Epistle, gives a similar exhortation, to be understood under the same qualifications :-" Love not the world, neither the things which are in the world; for, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."-And Saint Paul, in another place, thus designates the thoughtless votaries of a giddy world, "Lovers of pleasures MORE than lovers of GOD;" a passage very analogous to the present, and well cal- | culated to throw light on it, for the line of demarcation is here drawn, and the ground of distinction clearly marked, which will characterise that degree of love of the world and of earth-bound anxiety which the Gospel and the Saviour condemn. Not the temperate use, but the inordinate abuse, of the world; not the pursuit of happiness, but the excess ;-are blamed:-and that abuse is then truly known, when the love of earth and the stimulus of pleasure, or fame, or ambition, or whatever the ruling passion may be, becomes so exclusive as to gain the mastery over that purer passion which should always be foremost in the soul, even the love of GoD and the longing for immortality. "Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." While we innocently enjoy the blessings which the goodness of the Creator hath imparted; while we zealously dispense a share of them unto those who are less signally the objects of his care; while we follow the footsteps of our blessed Lord, and endeavour like him to "go about doing good;" while we give thanks and glory unto God for all we possess, remembering that "all our sufficiency is of Him;" while we refrain from temptation, and pray against our evil passions, and wage war with our senses, and limit our pleasures to that which is harmless and pure; we may safely enjoy the good which our situation hath afforded, and rest assured that we are incurring no guilt in the eyes of the Lord. But when we venture a step beyond what is hallowed by this law; when we suffer the world to be no longer our companion, but our master; when we no longer pursue pleasure as a relaxation from weightier cares, but as the main spring and end of life; when the love of it acquires an ascendency within us, and rules a tyrant in the breast, where it should be kept subservient and secondary; when, in short, we are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; or when the snares of ambition, or the evils of avarice, have entangled our thoughts in so fine a net, as religion can no longer unweave nor the love of Christ break asunder; then we may be sure that we are under the curse of his displeasure-then are we far, wofully far" from the kingdom of God and his righteousness," which the Saviour commandeth us first to seek! Secondly, if any thing farther were wanted to illustrate the meaning of the text, it might again be shown, as was observed, from the reasons which are given immediately after, in the concluding clause. "Take no thought' for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; for after these things do the gentiles seek;" that is to say, do not you, who are enlisted under my banners, betray such an anxious love for the things of this world as is manifested by my enemies -do not, like them, so dwell on things temporal, as though you were, like them, involved in darkness, not having the promise of things eternal'; say not, like the impure heathen, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die;" let us drain the last dregs of the fountain of joy, and press it, while we can, to our arid lips; for soon it will relinquish our nerveless grasp, and be dashed to the cold earth, in whose bosom we must for ever sleep; do not you, like these people, centre in such inferior enjoyments the whole sum and substance of your happiness; for, to you a light is given, and to you a star hath appeared, which their eyes have not seen and their souls have not perceived; for you an heir-loom is pre pared, from which immortal blessings, legitimate attention to our daily voflow, and where the cup of joy is for cations to which in our several callever full. Walk ye then in the world, not as though it were your home, but as pilgrims and exiles who look forward to the hour when, restored to the presence whence for a while they are banished, all things which they now sigh for shall be added unto them for ever. ings we are bound, but only, as we said, against such a solicitude about these things as implies a distrust in the Governor of all-as though they depended on chance, or fate, or pecessity, and not on the all-surrounding control of him who doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth. Thirdly. But our sense is even For this implied distrust, a Chrisfurther confirmed by the additional tian hath no excuse to plead, for he reason given in the close of the argu- knows by whose arm the whole ment" for your heavenly Father frame of this mighty universe is knoweth that ye have need of these upheld, he knows by whose power things;" for, if the fore-knowledge of the whole together started into life, our heavenly Father could be any rea- and without whom, in a moment, all son against our taking thought of these nature would soon be a universal things, in that method of industry fall, a chaos, and a wilderness, and a and honest labour by which he him- void. Yea, verily, your Father, self, who knows that we have need who "knoweth that ye have need of of them, and who sentenced man to all these things," will add them unto earn bread by the sweat of his brow, those who "first seek his righteoushath appointed them to be obtained; ness;" when he bends from the firethe same excuse might be urged as a encircled throne "where angels tremreason to dissuade us from prayer for ble as they gaze," he looketh from the divine blessing upon our endea- the same impartial height on, the cedar vours, which, that it cannot be, is evi- of the mountain and on the lilies of dent, not only from common sense, but the field; he formed, with the same also from a passage in this very chap- paternal hand, the worm that creeps ter, exactly parallel to this in the mode below and the eagle that soars above, of arguing: "when ye pray," saith he sheddeth the same impartial blessour Lord, use not vain repetitions, ings on the cottage of the poor and on as the heathen do; for your heavenly the palace of the great, he gildeth Father knoweth what things ye have with equal rays of hope the sceptre need of, before ye ask him." And, of the sovereign and the fetters of instantly after, he condescends to the slave, and feedeth the fowls of instruct them how they should pray the air that toil not, and clotheth the for these very things, saying, “give us | lilies of the field that spin not in this day our daily bread." As, there-brighter and more celestial hues than fore, he here urges the fore-know- all the splendour of all the courts of ledge of God, as a motive, not to dis- princes can attain: “and will be not suade from prayer, but, on the much more clothe us, oh we of little contrary, to pray in such a manner faith." as implies a suitable acknowledgment of our entire dependence on the sovereignty of God; so, in the text, our Saviour argues also from the Divine Omniscience, not against that 66 Should it please the Creator, says a great modern astronomer, to suspend, even for one hour, the great law of gravitation, the whole world would relapse into chaos. Fisher, Physique Mécanique, |