for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.'

Anxiety-that is what we are to be freed from. It is not forethought, or 'carefulness' in that sense, against which our Lord is warning us, but anxiety. We are to trust God. To do daily the duty of the day, and then trust God for the consequences.

Our pattern in this freedom from anxiety is, of course, our Lord Himself. You notice that through all His ministry He looked forward, and lived His life as a whole, on a certain plan; but there was no anxiety as to results. It is a sort of symbol of this attitude of mind that once, amidst the howling storm on the lake, the Master was found asleep on a pillow. It is, as it were, an object lesson of what is said in Psalm cxxvii; which more than anything in the Old Testament expresses our Lord's meaning in this passage:

'It is vain for you that ye rise up early, and so late take

rest,

And eat the bread of toil:

For so he giveth unto his beloved sleep.'

That is the motto to write under the picture of Christ in the boat on the stormy sea.

Our Lord here, as elsewhere, is manifestly

expressing Himself in the proverbial manner. It is the proverbial manner to express a thing by an extreme one-sided instance. We have noticed this repeatedly: and that, for this reason, one proverbial utterance may need to be balanced by another contrary one. Thus, on another occasion our Lord bids us take thought of what His service will involve, looking towards the future like a man who is about to build a house or a king who is preparing for a campaign. Here He is putting the other thought, that we are to cast all our care upon God our Father, who careth on our behalf.

But indeed if taking this passage alone you think of the metaphors which our Lord employs -metaphors of the flowers of the field and the birds of the air-you will see that what He means to warn us against is anxiety, not prevision. For think of the growth of the plant; it is always looking towards the future in its own instinctive way; the process by which it grows is a gradual process; all its activity is directed towards the preparation of the seeds by which the permanence of the species is secured. And so with the birds when they build their nests: they are making provision. Everything is done by bird and plant in view of the future, but done with

a tranquillity which reposes unconsciously upon the purpose of God. What they do unconsciously we are to do consciously.

Here, then, is a lesson specially necessary for our time. There is no greater plague of our generation than the nervous anxiety which characterizes all its efforts. How many people are there who make their health much worse than it would naturally be, because they are always morbidly anxious about their symptoms or some possibility of infection. Again and again it is anxiety about health which is a main cause of our unserviceableness in doing our duty. We ought to be reasonably careful and to go boldly forward in the peace of God.

Again, how many good schemes fail because people are so nervously anxious about their success that they never reach that condition of peaceful persistence in work which is necessary if it is to be fruitful. 'Semper agens, semper quietus'' always at work, always tranquil'— that is the right motto.

Once more, as to holidays. What a vast mistake people often make in turning a holiday into an occasion of solicitude; seeking for distraction at the expense of repose, and forgetting that the only central repose for wearied or jaded

faculties is the reposing upon the Eternal. There alone is 'the central peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation.' People would get much more even of physical good from Sunday and holiday rests, if they used them first of all as occasions for returning to God and finding rest in Him. And this applies to the clergy no less than to the laity. Be still, then, and know that I am God.' That is what we are to learn. Repose upon God quietly, and do daily the duties of the day, and bear daily the evils of the day, and, like Christ our Lord, though it be through cross and passion, we shall come to the glory which is predestined for us by God.

And observe the phrase, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Our Lord is not in any sort of way promising us that we shall not suffer trouble if we put our trust in God. What He tells us is simply that 'According to thy day, so shall thy strength be.' We are in God's hands. God gives us the evil and the good. We are

only, like our Lord, to trust in His divine fatherhood; and doing our best to-day, exercising our judgement to the best of our power, we are to repose in His love.

CHAPTER IX

CHRISTIAN CHARACTERISTICS

THE seventh chapter-the last which belongs to the Sermon-is occupied with a number of accessory topics. The character of the citizen of the kingdom of God has now been portrayed for us; the relation of this character to the old law has been explained; its main motive or principle has been described. Now there follow some characteristics which flow naturally from the relation in which the citizen of the kingdom stands both towards God and towards man. The first of these is the uncritical temper. Judge not and ye shall not be judged.'

The uncritical temper.

We should observe that in the parallel passage in St. Luke vi, this exhortation follows very suggestively upon a description of the character of God which corresponds to an earlier passage