Bible Commentaries

Matthew 6:2

"Practically at present," Ruskin writes, in Sesame and Lilies, "advancement in life means, becoming conspicuous in life; obtaining a position which shrill be acknowledged by others to be respectable or honourable. We do not understand by this advancement, in general, the mere making of money, but the being known to have made it; not the accomplishment of any great aim, but the being seen to have accomplished it."

He who sincerely takes life in earnest finds it quite natural and a matter of course to do Matthew 6:3

Carlyle, after quoting this verse in his essay on "Characteristics," adds: "Whisper not to thy own heart, How worthy is this action. For then it is already becoming worthless. The good man is he who works continually in welldoing; to whom welldoing is as his natural existence, awakening no astonishment, requiring no commentary; but there, like a thing of course, and as if it could not be so." He returns to the same idea at the close of his essay on Varnhagen von Ense's Memoirs: "Is a thing nothing because the morning papers have not mentioned it? Or can a nothing be made something, by never so much babbling of it there? Far better, probably, that no morning or evening paper mentioned it; that the right hand knew not what the left was doing!"

Brave deeds are most estimable when hidden.... What was finest in them was the desire to hide them.

—Pascal.

In his Life of Chalmers, Dr. Hanna quotes the grateful remark of an old, unfortunate teacher: "Many a pound-note has the Doctor given me, and he always did the thing as if he were afraid that any person should see him. May God reward him!"

Bees will not work except in darkness; Thought will not work except in Silence; neither will Virtue work except in Secrecy. Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth! Neither shalt thou prate even to thy own heart of "those secrets known to all". Is not shame the soil of all Virtue, of all good manners and good morals? Like other plants, Virtue will not grow unless its root be hidden, buried from the eye of the Sun. Let the Sun shine on it, nay, do but look at it privily thyself, the root withers, and no flowers will glad thee.

—Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, bk. iii. chap. iii.

References.—VI:3.—A Scotch Preacher, The Strait Gate, p138. VI:4.—W. M. Sinclair, Christian World Pulpit, vol11896 , p58. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iv. p245. VI:5.—E. Lyttelton, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, p228. C. E. Jefferson, The Character of Jesus, p55. F. E. Paget, Sermons on Duties of Daily Life, p269. VI:5 , 6.—J. Oswald Dykes, The Manifesto of the King, p373.

Private Prayer

Matthew 6:6

I. It would be impossible to say what our Lord exactly meant by closet prayer. We generally understand it to mean our bedroom. It means, literally, the place from which things are given out or dispensed. We may take it to be the spot in the background of life, that spot wherever it be which is the holiest and calmest, and where the chief supplies of thought and being lie. Our Lord Himself made the mountain His closet and the garden It is not so much the place as the spirit of the place. The great idea is privacy, modesty, and intimacy.

Observe the personal words and the possessive thou. When thou prayest enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father. They are so endearing, they are so practical, and are so solemn, they bring it all so close together.

II. By its being said, Enter into thy closet, it implies of course that you are not there, but that you go there for the purpose of prayer. When you go to your closet to pray the first thing Matthew 6:6

Recollection, said Richard Cecil, is the life of true religion. It is to the soul, said another, what sleep is to the body; without it must come fever, collapse, and death. The soul that does not gather itself together and abide steadfast at the centre will soon be spent. A return to the well-head is the condition of renewed constant vigour and fertility. We live amidst unprecedented activity and growing discontent The outward agencies of the Church were never so demonstrative; they almost keep pace with the world; but no one is satisfied with their results. "Life hurries on, spreads itself far and wide, but the source of life dries up." Dispersed amid the multitude of things external, Christian people are forgetting that mental and spiritual progress consist in intensifying the inward life—that abiding and fruitful Christian work can only be accomplished by serious and refreshed souls.

I. Recollection is the fixed thought of the Redeeming God carried into all things. It is the calm, collected mood of those who set the Lord always before them, to whom every common vessel has been made a sacramental chalice, because all life has become a true communion with God in Christ It is not necessarily the repression of activity; it is its intensification. If it be true that the world is in a hard strait, and that the duty of Christian men Today is to turn aside from everything and to employ their whole force to set forward the perilous course of the mighty vessel freighted with the human race, recollection will not hinder this zeal. But the "sad heart tires in a mile". The world will not be overcome by what St. Bernard calls evisceratio mentis—the disembowelling of the soul. The trouble of all the Churches Today is the slackening of the central impetus, and the one cure is recollection—the possession of the soul—the return to the abandoned sanctuary.

II. Some general helps to recollection may be stated, however incompletely. Perfect simplicity of life and feeling can rarely be reached without sacrificing some part of our possessions and our work. There is no rule; every believer has to find how he may best live for himself the life of the true Christian. It is certain that the demands of society are a chief foe to recollection. The last Babylon is a place of merchandise, where the souls of men are sold. John Woolman says, "Universal love reconciles the mind to a life so plain that a little doth suffice to support it, a life of simplicity and sufficiency where the real comforts of life are not lessened". It is assuredly true that many do nothing because they try to do much. It is not the will of God that any should undertake all kinds of labour. It is not the will of God that men should elect forms of service for which they have no capacity. He does not take the pencil from the artist, the pen from the ready writer, and turn these men into preachers. He asks each to glorify Him where he stands, to take possession for God of the channels in which his strength is flowing.

III. For true recollection we must be occupied with the immediate duty. That is really all we have to do with. Yet Christian workers in our day are being crushed with the burden of the past and the future. With these we have no concern. The past may inspire us, but looking unto Jesus we have a present help. It does not trouble us; in the kingdom of priests we are loosed from our sins. It does not dishearten us; God is with His people still. The future is His, not ours. We have no concern with one day of it. When we sit with Christ in heavenly places we pass already into the nobler order; we see all things put under Him. But the times, the seasons, the circumstances—these things should not load us with the lightest burden.

It is hardly necessary to add that the life of recollection is supremely a life of prayer—a life of prayer with others, but chiefly a life of prayer in the closet. As Pascal says, it abides in its own room. Its first precept is "Shut to the door". There it seeks light, peace, strength in the most hidden recollection. So the soul discovers that it has power with God. It reveals to Him its own natural longings. But its will is subordinate to His—it is at last, as a great master of the spiritual life has not shrunk from saying, "steeped sevenfold in the blood of the Lamb".

—W. Robertson Nicoll, Ten Minute Sermons, p69.

Times of Private Prayer

Matthew 6:6

Whoever is persuaded to disuse his morning and evening prayers, is giving up the armour which is to secure him against the wiles of the Devil. If you have left off the observance of them, you may full any day; and you will fall without notice. For a time you will go on, seeming to yourselves to be the same as before; but the Israelites might as well hope to lay in a stock of manna as you of grace. You pray God for your daily bread, your bread day by day; and if you have not prayed for it this morning, it will profit you little that you prayed for it yesterday. You did then pray and you obtained, but not a supply for two days. When you have given over the practice of stated prayer, you gradually become weaker without knowing it. Samson did not know he had lost his strength till the Philistines came upon him; you will think yourselves the men you used to be, till suddenly your adversary will come furiously upon you, and you will as suddenly fall. You will be able to make little or no resistance. This is the path which leads to death.

—J. H. Newman.

Matthew 6:6

What indeed is prayer but love—love with a want?

—EugÉnie de GuÉrin.

References.—VI:6.—"Plain Sermons" by contributors to the Tracts for the Times, vol. i. pp71 , 79. W. Howell Evans, Sermons for the Church's Year, p136. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. Matthew I- VIII. p226. J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. i. p244. W. Binnie, Sermons, p140. W. M. Sinclair, The New Law, p38. C. J. Vaughan, Characteristics of Christ's Teaching, p137. E. Lyttelton, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, p232. G. G. Bradley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlv1894 , p168. E. Rees, ibid. vol. lxvii1905 , p219. G. Dawson, Sermons, p8. VI:6-15.—C. Holland, Gleanings from a Ministry of Fifty Years, p185. VI:7.—J. E. Rattenbury, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxii1907 , p371. VI:7 , 8.—J. G. Matthew 6:9

In1865 the late Charles Kingsley wrote to Maurice, "As to the Trinity, I do understand you. You first taught me that the doctrine was a live thing, and not a mere formula to be swallowed by the undigesting reason; and from the time that I learnt from you that a Father meant a real Father, a Son a real Malachi 1:6; Malachi 2:10; Isaiah 63:16). True ( Psalm 89:26) "He (David) shall cry unto Me "Thou art My Father, My God"." Yet David in his most intimate approaches to the throne does not call God "Father". The doctrine but dimly hinted at in the Old Testament is a New Testament truth. Christ says, "No man knoweth the Father, but the Son and Matthew 6:9-13

I. Has it ever struck you how representative this prayer is in respect to human want. To my mind its very originality lies in its power to include the old desires of the heart. These six petitions are each the voice of an ancient philosophy or faith; Christ has simply gathered them in. He has counted the scattered cries and made them one choir.

II. The Jew cried, "Hallowed be Thy name," he wanted a God whom men could reverence for His holiness—who charged His very angels with folly, who could not look upon sin but with abhorrence. Two empires have cried, "Thy kingdom come"—the Chinese and the Roman; they have seen heaven incarnated on a visible throne. The Brahman has cried, "Thy will be done"; he counts his own will delusion; he wants to lose himself in the Absolute Life. The polytheist of every clime cries, "Give us this day our daily bread"; his whole use of religion is for the needs of the hour. The Buddhist cries, "Forgive us our debts"; he trembles lest the consequences of sin may be to bring us back after death to lower forms of being. And the Stoic cries, "Lead us not into temptation"; his whole desire is to be free from the vain seductions of life—to ignore its jealousies, to scorn its passions, to laugh at its ambitions, to regard its gains and its losses with equal contempt.

III. These are the cries of the old world; and Christ has said, "Come unto Me and I will give you rest!" He has not sent one of them empty away. He has gathered them together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings; and there will not be one want neglected in His shower of blessings.

—G. Matheson, Messages of Hope, p212.

References.—VI:9.—E. Lyttelton, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, p238. J. B. Roberts, Studies in the Lord's Prayer, p15. Henry Wace, Some Central Points of Our Lord's Ministry, p231. J. B. Brinkworth, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlviii1895 , p312. C. S. Macfarland, ibid. vol. lxv1904 , p333. R. Flint, Sermons and Addresses, p94. B. Wilberforce, Sanctification by the Truth, pp189 , 202 , 213. C. Gore, Prayer and the Lord's Prayer, p30. C. E. Jefferson, The Character of Jesus, p311. A. Saphir, The Lord's Prayer, p37. B. W. Randolph, Church Times, vol. lii1904 , p197. G. E. Deacon, The Lord's Prayer, p1. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. Matthew 6:10

Many people make a great mistake about God's will; they think that to do God's will is hard, painful, and so they say "God's will be done" with a sigh or a groan. They think that if God's will be done it means taking away our dear ones—that sickness and trouble will come into our homes. God's will, in their minds, is always connected with ruin, dying friends, and newly made graves. Some people never think of writing those words except on tombstones.

I. God's Will is Love.—He loves us; He is our test friend, so to do His will must be for our happiness. We obey the will of a good earthly father because we know He is doing the best for us and our future. The angels are perfectly happy because they are doing God's will. People often say: "Oh, I have a will of my own, and I want to go in my own way". That is pretty certain to end in misery. The prodigal leaves his father's home and comes to misery; when the sheep leaves the fold he is lost.

II. How are we to do God's Will as it is Done in Heaven?—Do you say it is too high for you? That you are here on earth and that heaven is very far away? Many mistakes are made about heaven. Heaven means the state of life where God's people do His will, and that life begins here on earth. We must begin the heavenly life here, heaven must be in us now if we are to be in it hereafter. Heaven means doing God's will. If there is no heaven in this life, we shall be the same individuals after death as now. If a man has no love for God, no love for his neighbours, no love for holy and beautiful things, if he be without prayer or praise, what would he do in heaven? We are made to do God's will, and as long as we do it we shall be happy. It is not unpleasant, it is a pleasure. The child who loves you runs quickly to do your wishes; so if we love God our greatest joy is to serve Him. God must come to us before we go to Him. God must work on us before we can do His good pleasure. "I want to do God's will, I want to serve Him." In answer to this cry God always comes to us—comes into our hearts in answer to our prayer.

III. The Example of Jesus Christ.—What is God's will? What would He have us do? To get the right answer we must look at Jesus Christ. He did His Father's will as it is done in heaven. He made the world better. We are like emigrants sent from home into a far country. The good emigrant constructs roads and highways. He makes the rough wilderness to blossom like the rose. He puts the wild land into cultivation and produces useful crops and sweet flowers. He builds a good house and makes the place useful and beautiful. We are sent into the world for a like purpose that we may go down into the forest of ignorance and clear the way for truth. We are sent to get the highway of life open—to pick up the stones and clear away the rocks so that poor pilgrims may not stumble. We must help our neighbours along the path of life. That is doing God's will.

The Life of the Angels

Matthew 6:10

What we have to fix our gaze upon, as we use this prayer, Matthew 6:10

Our Lord Jesus Christ left no code of social legislation. He laid down no laws for Palestine in the first century, but He laid down principles for all countries, and for every century.

What does Christ say of accumulation, and what of expenditure?

I. First, how are we to understand "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on the earth"? Does He mean that we are not to save money at all? Observe that two reasons are given for this advice. First, the hoard is liable to be lost, spoilt, or stolen, before it is enjoyed; and secondly, "Where your treasure Matthew 6:10

Compare the closing words of Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici: "Bless me in this life with but the peace of my conscience, command of my affections, the love of Thyself and of my dearest friends, and I shall be happy enough to pity Csar! These are, O Lord, the humble desires of my most reasonable ambition, and all I dare call happiness on earth; wherein I set no rule or limit to Thy hand or providence; dispose of me according to the wisdom of Thy pleasure. Thy will be done, though in my own undoing."

In Past and Present (chap. xv.) Carlyle describes the true reverent man as one who "has a religion. Hourly and daily, for himself and the whole world, a faithful, unspoken, but not ineffectual prayer rises, "Thy will be done ". His whole work on earth is an emblematic spoken or acted prayer. Be the will of God done on earth—not the Devil's will, or any of the Devil's servants" wills! He has a religion, this man; an everlasting Loadstar that beams the brighter in the Heavens, the darker here on earth grows the night around him."

References.—VI:10.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx. No1778. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. Matthew I-VIII. pp244 , 253. B. Wilberforce, Sanctification by the Truth, p227. F. D. Maurice, The Prayer Book and the Lord's Prayer, p304. B. W. Maturin, Church Times, vol. xxxv1896 , p357. S. D. McConnell, A Year's Sermons, p139. C. Thirlwall, Missionary Duties, Difficulties, and Prospects, p5. G. E. Deacon, The Lord's Prayer, pp17 , 25. C. Gore, Prayer and the Lord's Prayer, pp39 , 46. J. Harries, Does God Break His Pledges? pp56 , 60. F. W. Farrar, The Lord's Prayer, pp57 , 73; see also Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlii1892 , pp45 ,77. T. Sims, ibid. vol. xli1892 , p182. C. A. Berry, ibid. vol. li1897 , p184. G. Mackenzie, ibid. vol. lii1897 , p118. J. H. Bernard, ibid. vol. lvi1899 , p274. W. H. Fremantle, ibid. vol. lvi1899 , p376. R. Rainy, ibid. vol. lix1901 , p41. G. Campbell Morgan, ibid. vol. lxi1902 , p37. F. W. Gunsaulus, ibid. vol. lxii1902 , p107. F. W. Macdonald, ibid. vol. lxv1903 , p244. G. Campbell Morgan, ibid. vol. lxviii1905 , p251. J. R. Harmer, ibid. vol. lxviii1905 , p243. F. H. Chase, ibid. vol. lxx1906 , p252. T. E. Matthew 6:11

It is remarkable that, out of the seven petitions which compose the Lord's Prayer, only one should concern the needs of the body, while the other six concern needs of eternity. One for the body, six for heaven. And have you noticed that, for present duties, God has fixed an inverse ratio? God has said, "Six days for work and one for worship," but He has restored the balance, as it were, in prayer, and He has said, "Six prayers for heaven, and one prayer for the earth". After all, when you come to look at it from a real and honest standpoint, you cannot fail to see that the things that concern us for our short day here on earth are of secondary importance to the things that concern the eternity beyond. I wish you to look a little more closely at the believers" way of seeking temporal things from God, and first to see the piety of the prayer, and then the faith, and then the moderation.

I. The Piety.—Look at the child kneeling at his father's knee, with the love of a son looking up to his father's face, reaching up a hand for the needs of a day—our daily bread. How reasonable it all is. Who made the body, and who made the bread? Did not God make the body and the bread; and is it not God, and only God, Who can suit the bread to the body? Is it not God Who gives you the food you eat, and gives you health to eat it? Therefore, is it not reasonable that day by day, and hour by hour, you should lift your eyes to Him Who giveth all, and say, "Give us this day our daily bread"? And besides being reasonable, is it not a joy, is it not a delight, that we should turn up loving eyes to the Father of all, and then ask Him for all our needs? "My Father, give me enough bread for my bodily needs, give me enough sustenance to keep me alive, while Thou wilt" Would it not be a joy and a pleasure if we could look up, with the eyes of sons and daughters, look up trustingly, lovingly to our Father, and say, "Give us this day our daily bread "? It is a beautiful thing, in the sight of God and His holy angels, to see a godly man get up in the morning, and, surrounded by his wife and children, put special emphasis upon the words of my text, "Give us this day our daily bread". He looks round and sees his family. He knows that the bread they eat depends more or less on his toil, and he puts an emphasis on the "us". He thanks God that He has made the "us" so large that it includes all that he holds dear, his wife, his children; yes, possibly many more, and he prays, "Give us this day our daily bread". What does it matter if the next meal does depend upon his labour? Things may change, health may fail, trials may draw near, but it is the Lord Who changeth not; and that poor man goes forth from his knees to his work, full of joy. "Give us this day our daily bread."

II. The Faith.—Look at the faith of the prayer. It is a strange thing, but there is absolutely no doubt about it, we have far more difficulty in trusting God with regard to temporal matters than with regard to spiritual matters. "Spiritual things," we say, "these are in God's province; for temporal things I have to depend upon myself." Is it so? God withdraws His hand. You lie, perhaps, upon the bed of sickness, you live by charity. Do you depend upon your own powers, upon your own ability? No, it is given you, given; and what a useful lesson it is! Every morning, yes, often during the day, you should pray, "Give us". Why? "Because I depend upon Thee, Great Lord, because the power of brain and body which Thou hast given me Thou canst take away, Therefore, give it me, keep it for me. Give me all that is included in the word "bread "."

III. The Moderation.—Let us see the moderation of the prayer. We see that in time, manner, and degree. Enough for the day is the evil thereof, and enough for the day is this one prayer, "Give us this day". One thinks of the miser hoarding his money, hoarding penny after penny. He gloats over it. It is his worship, it is his god. He does not pray, "Give us this day". Do not for a moment imagine that I do not want you to make provision for tomorrow; I do. But I do not want you to make anxious provision. That is all the difference in the world. That is the difference between what is good and what is evil. God will provide. "Give us this day our daily bread." You know that in the East this word "bread" is made to stand for all the necessaries of life. God knows what is necessary. We leave it a blank in God's hand. We say, give us this day all that we need for our bodily sustenance. Is not that enough of a prayer? I wonder how many of us pray that prayer as it ought to be prayed?

References.—VI:11.—Henry Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. ii. p163. J. Martineau, Hours of Thought, vol. ii. p60. G. E. Deacon, The Lord's Prayer, p33. C. W. Stubbs, The Social Teaching of the Lord's Prayer, p54. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. Matthew I-VIII. p260. C. Gore, Prayer and the Lord's Prayer, p56. F. W. Farrar, The Lord's Prayer, p91; see also Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlii1892 , p100. S. M. Taylor, ibid. vol. lxx1906 , p294. T. Sadler, Sermons for Children, p128. J. Harries, Does God Break His Pledges? p62. B. W. Maturin, Church Times, vol. xxxv1896 , p389. H. T. Knight, Rational Religion, p155. VI:11-13.—J. E. Roberts, Studies in the Lord's Prayer, p36.

Forgive Us Our Debts

Matthew 6:12

In that last hour of that last day, when the silent morning light has glimmered through the window for the very last time before our failing eyes, and we feel the burden of our many sins pressing heavily upon us, there will be nothing that can give the trembling mind of the strongest man of us any comfort, unless he can say with truth, "And now, Lord, what is my hope? Truly my hope is even in Thee." Nothing, unless he can receive back through the familiar voice of the Spirit of God, speaking by a pure conscience, the message which our Lord gave to the sick of the palsy: " Matthew 6:13

What are the sources of temptation? We should do wrong to narrow down our idea of temptation to incitement to evil, coming from an evil quarter. There are more sources than one, and the first we are apt to overlook; it is:—

I. God Almighty Himself.—In more than one place God reveals Himself as tempting man. God tempted Abraham by the order to slay his only son; God tempted David to number Israel by permitting the devil to suggest it. It is a common phenomenon of daily life, in which God may be seen tempting men, in His goodness, to goodness, for their good. Joseph and Daniel are tried respectively with the same temptations which tried David and St. Peter, but they emerge through degradation and the fear of death to a greater eminence than they enjoyed before. But temptations which come from God are no easy things which any one can bear; all that is ordinarily said about temptation applies to them (see 2 Corinthians 7:7-9). See men and women around us snapping under the sharp discipline of God. Yet, could they have but seen it, with the trial, coming out of it, there was the way of escape, there was the special grace enabling them to bear it, the special virtue to be developed out of it. It has been so all through the history of human experience. The sorrows of the world's sin have brought out the Church; the sufferings of the human frame have developed the healing art. Trouble has brought the unexpected store of sympathy; the depth of despair has brought close the vision of God. But the most characteristic source of temptation is:—

II. The Devil.—Now it belongs to the jugglery of the accusing angel to try and confuse in our minds attack and defeat, temptation and sin. Before any sin can be set up, three processes must be gone through. First, there is the suggestion of evil (here, per se, there is no sin); then there comes the delight, the acquiescence in the suggestion (here the sinfulness is commencing); until at last the will consents, and sin is formed, according to the strong statement of St. Matthew 6:13

The Christian says to God: Deliver us from evil. The Buddhist adds: And to that end deliver us from finite existence, give us back to nothingness! The first believes that when he is enfranchised from the body, he will enter upon eternal happiness; the second believes that individuality is the obstacle to repose, and he longs for the dissolution of the soul itself. The dread of the first is the Paradise of the second.

—Amiel.

References.—VI:13.—B. Wilberforce, Sanctification by the Truth, pp266 , 277. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The School of Christ, pp51 , 58 , 64. C. Gore, Prayer and the Lord's Prayer, pp72 , 78. Bishop Creighton, The Mind of St. Peter, p33. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. Matthew I-VIII. pp277 , 282 , 289. H. T. Knight, Rational Religion, p169. Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, p161. J. E. Cumming, The Blessed Life, p133. F. W. Farrar, The Lord's Prayer, pp149 , 181 , 199 , 213; see also Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlii1892 , p301 , and vol. xliii1893 , pp17 , 33 , 49 , 65. W. M. Sinclair, ibid. vol. xlvi1894 , p75. E. S. Talbot, ibid. vol. lxx1906 , p324. D. M. T. Willis, ibid. vol. lxxii1907 , p300. J. Stalker, The Four Men, p31. J. Forgan, British Weekly Pulpit, vol. ii. p328. J. Harries, Does God Break His Pledges? pp72 , 76 , 80. G. E. Deacon, The Lord's Prayer, pp56 , 63. F. D. Maurice, The Prayer Book and the Lord's Prayer, pp363 , 387. Harvey Goodwin, The Anglican Pulpit of Today, p114. Bishop J. Percival, Sermons at Rugby, p148. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix. No509 , vol. xxiv. No1402. VI:14.—F. W. Farrar, The Lord's Prayer, pp229 , 245 , 257. VI:14 , 15.—D. M. T. Willis, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxii1907 , p300. VI:16.—E. Lyttelton, ibid. vol. Ixxi1907 , p168. "Plain Sermons" by contributors to the Tracts for the Times, vol. x. p73. VI:16-18.—E. Lyttelton, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, p264. J. Oswald Dykes, The Manifesto of the King, p417. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. Matthew I-VIII. p298.

Matthew 6:17

Fasting? Why, for a man who is trying to do his work in the best way, life is a perpetual fast.—Edward Thring.

References.—VI:17.—J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. i. p141. J. S. Maver, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv1898 , p174. VI:17 , 18.—F. E. Paget, Sermons on Duties of Daily Life, p289. VI:19.—S. Rigby, Sketches of Sermons, p1. E. Lyttelton, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, p275. W. B. Selbie, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxvi1904 , p212. VI:19 , 20.—A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. Matthew I-VIII. p299. VI:19-21.—Stopford A. Brooke, The Fight of Faith, p307. D. Fraser, Metaphors in the Gospels, p28. R. J. Campbell, A Faith for Today, p331. George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons, p118. J. Denney, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv1898 , p344. R. J. Campbell, ibid. vol. lxii1900 , p68. VI:19-22.—H. Ward Beecher, Sermons, vol. ii. p1. VI:19-24.—J. Oswald Dykes, The Manifesto of the King, p449. VI:19-34.—W. Boyd Carpenter, The Great Charter of Christ, p233. VI:20.—T. L. Cuyler, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xli1892 , p367. S. Rigby, Sketches of Sermons, p13. VI:20 , 21.—A. G. Mortimer, One Hundred Miniature Sermons, vol. i. p155.

Matthew 6:21

Where the pursuit of truth has been the habitual study of any man's life, the love of truth will be his ruling passion. "Where the treasure Matthew 6:22-23

I. If we would see aright, we must cultivate the imagination.

II. Have faith in conscience as a trustworthy witness.

III. Educate them both in the things of God. If one of us was asked to judge a piece of music to see if it were Handel"s, we should be sure to judge wrongly, if we did not know Handel's style; we must study our composer; we must read into his thoughts and note his expressions, and then we shall know if the piece has a true ring or not. So it is with the things of God: something comes before you purporting to be from God: are you in a position to judge? Not if you have never studied God's ways, not if you know nothing of His love, not if you never pray, not if you are drifting on, careless of your faith, not if you only care for your intellect and leave conscience and imagination to dwindle and to die: then you will decide against the revelation of God; for the light that is in you will be darkness, and if the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness! But if, on the other hand, with humble patience and modest fearlessness you turn yourself towards the opening heaven; if with fresh untarnished powers you compare that external revelation with the light already gathered by those powers within; if, to sum it all up, in the words of the text, your eye is single, then the opening revelation shall flood your soul with light; nay! your whole body shall be full of light; you shall breathe light, speak light, act light; and you shall inherit the blessing pronounced on those who have "not seen and yet have believed".

—Bishop Winnington Ingram, Oxford University Sermons, p1.

References.—VI:22.—W. G. Rutherford, The Key of Knowledge, p182. J. J. Tayler, Christian Aspects of Faith and Duty, p267. R. C. Moberly, Church Times, vol. xlviii1902 , p76. VI:22 , 23.—J. G. Matthew 6:23

He put things in such a way that his hearer was led to take each rule or fact of conduct by its inward side, its effect on the heart and character; then the reason of the thing, the meaning of what had been mere matter of blind rule, flashed upon him. The hearer could distinguish between what was only ceremony and what was conduct; and the hardest rules of conduct came to appear to him infinitely reasonable and natural, and therefore infinitely prepossessing.

—M. Arnold.

Human life at the best is enveloped in darkness; we know not what we are or whither we are bound. Religion is the light by which we are to see our way along the moral pathways without straying into the brake or the morass. We are not to look at religion itself, but at surrounding things with the help of religion. If we fasten our attention upon the light itself, analysing it into its component rays, speculating on the union and composition of the substances of which it is composed, not only will it no longer serve us for a guide, but our dazzled senses lose their natural powers; we should grope our way more safely in conscious blindness. "When the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" In the place of the old material idolatry we erect a new idolatry of words and phrases.

—Froude on Calvinism.

Reference.—VI:23.—Hugh Price Hughes, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi1899 , p161.

Matthew 6:24

It would almost appear as if one half of mankind started on their career in life for the purpose of proving that this saying of our Lord's was not true.

—Mozley.

Mammon, cries the generous heart out of all ages and countries, is the basis of known gods, even of known devils. In him what glory is there that ye should worship him? No glory discernible; not even terror: at best, detestability, ill-matched with despicability!

—Carlyle, French Revolution (towards close).

Our deity being no longer Mammon—O Heavens, each man will then say to himself: "Why such deadly haste to make money? I shall not go to Hell, even if I do not make money! There is another Hell, I am told!"

—Carlyle, Past and Present, Iv.

Nature gives herself to those who are determined to possess her, but she will be exclusively loved.

—Millet, "Notes on Art".

Go and argue with the flies of summer that there is a power Divine yet greater than the sun in the heavens, but never dare hope to convince the people of the South that there is any other God than Gold.

—Kinglake in Eothen, chap. vii.

This is the meaning of St. Francis's renouncing his inheritance; and it is the beginning of Giotto's gospel of works. Unless this hardest of deeds be done first;—this inheritance of mammon and the world cast away—all other deeds are useless. You cannot serve, cannot obey, God and mammon. No charities, no obediences, no self-denials, are of any use, while you are still at heart in conformity with the world. You go to Church, because the world goes. You keep Sunday, because your neighbours keep it. But you dress ridiculously, because your neighbours ask it; and you dare not do a rough piece of work, because your neighbours despise it. You must renounce your neighbour, in his riches and pride, and remember him in his distress.

—Ruskin.

It is impossible to read those impassioned words in which Jesus Christ upbraids the pusillanimity and; sensuality of mankind, without being strangely reminded of the more connected and systematic enthusiasm of Rousseau. "No Matthew 6:25

The verses in Today's Gospel are about "taking no thought". What does that mean? Our Lord mentions it five times (vv25 , 27 , 28 , 31 , 34), so it must be important. Is it that we are not to think at all about life, raiment, food, etc.? No; God has given us reason, judgment, prudence, eta, to use for His glory; but it is that we are not to think too much, so as to be full of care, and anxiety, as though God were not caring for His children's wants ( Philippians 4:6). Now, our Lord says we may take a lesson in this—

I. From the Birds (v26). We see them flying about in the air—hopping here and pecking there. "They sow not," that they may have a good crop; "they reap not," that they may have a good provision in store. But do they ever want? You never see them in need of anything. Why? Because God provides them with all, and watches over them ( Job 38:41). He knows them ( Psalm 50:11). He is acquainted with their ways ( Jeremiah 17:11). He provides their dwelling ( Psalm 104:16-17). He hears their cry ( Psalm 147:9). He gives man a law concerning them ( Deuteronomy 22:6-7). The sparrow lying dead upon the housetop does not escape the eye of God ( Matthew 10:29).

II. From the Flowers (v28).—" Consider the lilies, how they grow." A bulb is put into the ground. It appears lost in winter, but rises in spring ( Song of Solomon 2:11-12; John 12:24; 1 Corinthians 15:36-38). They are "of the field," ready therefore to perish ( Psalm 103:15-16). "They toil not," etc. There is no labour on their part. Yet how beautiful the lilies are! The glory of Solomon was great ( Song of Solomon 2:1-2)?

III. And all this is for our Learning.

a. Our heavenly Father knows exactly what we need (v32). If He provides for the birds and lilies which "take no thought," surely He will provide for me, His own child ( Psalm 23:1; Luke 11:13).

b. We are not, however, to be idle, and fancy God will do all. That is tempting, not trusting. Be diligent with what God gives, and leave the rest to Him ( Proverbs 13:4; Matthew 25:24).

c. One thing we are to "take thought" about—that Philippians 2:12; 2 Peter 1:10; 2 Peter 3:14).

References.—VI:25.—F. W. Farrar, Sin and Its Conquerors, p94. Lyman Abbott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix1896 , p245. A. B. Bruce, ibid1896 , p179. A. G. Mortimer, One Hundred Miniature Sermons, vol. ii. p95. VI:25-34.—J. Oswald Dykes, The Manifesto of the King, p483. E. Lyttelton, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, p288. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p26. A. J. Griffith, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv. p140. J. M. Neale, Sermons to Children, p204. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Waterside Mission Sermons, vol. i. No16. C. Kingsley, Discipline and Other Sermons, p168. VI:26.—R. W. Hiley, A Year's Sermons, vol. ii. p140. E. White, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxix1891 , p385. A. H. Bradford, ibid. vol. lviii1900 , p151. VI:26-30.—G. Elmslie Troup, ibid. vol. xl1891 , p197. VI:27.—H. Ward Beecher, Sermons (2Seriess), p220.

Human Lilies

Matthew 6:28

I. Probably the lily of Galilee was our Lord's favourite flower. I am not aware that He mentioned any other. And if we were capable of considering the lily, not by chemical analysis, but by the laws of philosophic thought, and knowing how it grew, we should discover that the whole history of created (or, rather, derived) life was bound up in the nature of that flower. If we could trace it back to its very first beginning we should have solved the riddle of life, and discovered—as Tennyson said of the flower in the crannied wall—the secret of God and man.

II. A lily, our Lord implies, is the analogy of a man; but it is an analogy with a difference. So far as we can Matthew 6:28

I like at this season of the year to speak sometimes on the ministry of nature, and to discover what that meant for Jesus.

I. In this matter there is one thing which strikes me, and that is the contrast between Christ and Paul. You never feel that Paul is at home in the country. You always feel that Paul is at home in the city. When he would illustrate the things of grace, he does not turn to the vine or the lily. He turns to the soldier polishing his armour; to the gladiator fighting before ten thousand eyes; to the free-born citizen whose civic charter had been won in the senate of imperial Rome. Not in the city did Jesus find His parables, save when He saw the children in the market-place. He found them in the lily of the field, with which even Solomon could not compare.

II. Again, if Christ is different from Paul in this matter, He is equally distinguished from His Jewish ancestry. Remember He was a Jew after the flesh. Yet when we read His teaching about nature, we feel we have moved away from the Old Testament. And I want to try to show you whereon that difference of interpretation rests, and what is the fact that underlies it.

1. Open your Old Testament, and tell me the aspect of nature which you most often find there. It is not the world of sunshine and of flower. It is the world of vast and mighty things. In things that were greater and grander than all others, in hurricane and storm, in wild and unmastered forces—it was in these preeminently that the Jew awoke to the presence and the power of God. Now turn to the teaching of the man of Nazareth—"Consider the lilies of the field". It is no longer the things that tower aloft; it; is no longer the things that shock or startle—it is not these that to the man of Nazareth are richest in Divine significancy. It is the vineyard on the sunny hill; it is the lily waving in the field. It is things common and usual and silent which no one had had eyes to see before. Never is love richer in revelation than when it consecrates all that is quiet and lowly.

2. One thing more, which helps to illuminate the mind of Christ. It is how often, when He speaks of nature, He deliberately brings man upon the scene. He could not look at the lilies of the field but He saw Solomon in all his glory. And it all means that while the love of nature was one of the deepest passions in Christ's heart, it was not a love that led to isolation, but found its crowning in the love of man. There is a way of loving nature that chills a little the feeling for mankind. There is a passion for beauty that may be a snare, for it weakens the ties that bind us to humanity. But when a man loves nature as Jesus Christ loved nature, it will deepen and purify the springs of brotherhood, and issue in service that is not less loyal because the music of hill and dale is in it.

—G. H. Morrison, The Wings of the Morning, p164.

References.—VI:28.—W. P. Balfern, Glimpses of Jesus, p85. George Tyrrell, Oil and Wine, p286. T. Sadler, Sermons for Children, p135. E. C. Paget, Silence, p123. J. Martineau, Endeavours After the Christian Life, p39. J. Coats Shanks, God Within Us, p126. J. Service, Sermons, p136. W. H. Shawcross, A Sermon Preached at a Flower Service. C. Silvester Home, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii1893 , p308. C. Clay, ibid. vol11896 , p103. G. A. Chadwick, The Intellect and the Heart, p83. VI:28 , 29.—E. White, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xl1891 , p3. A. G. Mortimer, One Hundred Miniature Sermons, vol. ii. p296. S. Martin, Rain Upon the Mown Grass, p28. J. B. Mozley, Sermons Parochial and Occasional, p151. VI:29.—F. Stanley Van Eps, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxviii1905 , p189. VI:28 , 29 , 30.—H. Scott Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi1894 , p145.

Christ and Nature

Matthew 6:30

I. "If God so clothe the grass." There is a little faint tone of depreciation in that remark. Perhaps we have not detected it before, but the depreciation is contrastive. We must place the emphasis not on "the grass," but on the contrast which the grass is cited to vivify and exemplify. "If God so clothe the grass of the field "—so small and insignificant a thing as the grass that grows under your feet—what will He do for you, His sons, His daughters, His children redeemed and in process of final anointment and sanctification? The argument is progressive, and is an instance of a fortiori reasoning. If in the little, how much in the great: a favourite teacher in the ministry of Jesus Christ. If ye being evil know how to give bread and comfort to your children, how much more——That is the ascending argument. It outlines itself like a temple dome.

I wish we could believe this argument drawn from the grass. There is no want of beauty in the grass meadows. The landscape would be poor without the homely field where the cattle are, the cows and the sheep and other living things connected with home and farm life. Jesus did not despise the grass; He was only contrasting it with something other.

II. There is a religious mystery in all growing things. I do not know that there is much mystery, though there is a little, in a stone wall. A stone wall is a kind of proposition in geometry, but there is no ghostly margin, none of the stones seem to quake under a weight greater than their own, all the stones seem to be fastened in their places by a pressure more than fifteen pounds to the square inch; there is no religious mystery of a very perplexing or elevating kind about a stone wall, but there is about a nettle, that wasp of the vegetable world. "If God so clothe the grass of the field, which Today Matthew 6:33

With an endless choice of things before us which we can do if we please, we want some great rule to help us how to choose, and to make a plain pathway for us when everything seems so tangled and crooked. The text gives us Christ's rule. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness."

I. We are bidden to seek God's kingdom, and the first and easiest way of seeking it is by prayer; and that prayer Christ Himself puts into our mouths, "Thy kingdom come".

What then is God's kingdom? We may see our way a little toward answering that question by considering our own kingdom, that kingdom for which we beseech God every time we offer up the prayer for the High Court of Parliament. It is our laws and government stretching themselves among us in ways which we too often forget, that keep our lives and goods in safety, and allow us to pursue our several callings in peace. But God's kingdom is over men's minds and spirits as well as their bodies: not one secret chamber of their hearts can they call wholly their own. His kingdom also is a kingdom of laws, and His Almighty power can never be put forth against His own laws; and the laws of the Gracious and Holy One must needs be gracious and holy too. All good human laws are faint and partial copies of His. And just as human laws bind members of one people to each other, and compel each man to respect the rights of his fellows, so the laws of God's kingdom bind men to each other by ties of the spirit, not of the body, by love and mutual trust and self-denial and devotion. Each of us obeys the laws of God's kingdom just so far as he performs the task in life which God has set him.

II. Christ sent His Apostles to preach the good news of the kingdom, and they rejoiced to declare that it was already come. But though it is among us, there is rebellion enough against it. God has given to men the power of choosing between good and evil. Any one who has thought or care for the welfare of the world must needs pray with all his heart that God's kingdom may come more and more, and that its blessed laws may be daily better known and better obeyed. And thus having begun with seeking God's kingdom by prayer he will go on to seek it in all his daily life.

III. But we are bidden to seek not only God's kingdom, but also His righteousness. For God's righteousness is itself the very spirit of His own kingdom. Christ does not here tell us merely to seek righteousness, though elsewhere we are thus bidden; but to seek God's righteousness. Any righteousness which is of our own making, which we try to gain by standing aloof from Him, is worth nothing at all.

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," says Christ. So far as we can make that the aim of our lives, so far shall we find our way straight and plain before our face.

—F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons (2Series), p81.

Matthew 6:33

The kingdom of God, the grand object of Christianity, is mankind raised, as a whole, into harmony with the true and abiding law of man's being, living as we were meant to live.

—Matthew Arnold.

Matthew 6:33

Every man is worth just as much as the things are worth about which he is concerned.

—Marcus Aurelius.

Matthew 6:33

"Above all things," Professor Drummond once told the Harvard students, "do not touch Christianity unless you are willing to seek the kingdom of heaven first. I promise you a miserable existence if you seek it second.

We forget that there may be many duties, but that among them all there is a first and a last, and that we must not fulfil the last before fulfilling the first, just as one must not harrow without ploughing.

—Tolstoy.

The whole of duty is modified when we change the hierarchy of duty. How significant is the etymology of "prerogative," the section that was asked first for its opinion! There lies the whole force of our ideal. Which do you consult first? Everything else will be different.... That which gives life its keynote is not what men think good, but what they think best.

—Julia Wedgwood.

References.—VI:33.—E. S. Talbot, Sermons at Southwark, p1; see also The Kingdom of God, vol. i. p17. J. Martineau, Hours of Thought on Sacred Things, pp17 , 31. "Plain Sermons" by contributors to the Tracts for the Times, vol. vi. p228. C. J. Vaughan, Characteristics of Christ's Teaching, p194. J. B. Mozley, Sermons Preached Before the University of Oxford, p275. H. C. Beeching, Inns of Court Sermons, p79. R. W. Dale, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li1897 , p230. G. A. Gordon, ibid. vol. liii1898 , p254. R. J. Campbell, ibid. vol. Matthew 6:33-34

Anxiety and Ennui are the Scylla and Charybdis on which the bark of human happiness is most commonly wrecked.

—W. E. H. Lecky.

References.—VI:33 , 34.—A. G. Mortimer, The Church's Lessons for the Christian Year, part i. p203; see also One Hundred Miniature Sermons, vol. ii. p302.

On Worry

Matthew 6:34

Our Lord in this sentence, "Be not over anxious about tomorrow," which is an excellent instance of His homely teaching, warns us against the commonest of all faults, worrying ourselves about troubles that may never happen.

I. It cannot be concealed that people who are sound and orthodox in all their beliefs, who have no doubts about the Incarnation, the Resurrection, and so on, are often in practice discontented self-tormentors. Their religious being seems divided into two distinct compartments; one contains the doctrines confessed every Sunday, the other contains the precepts ignored all through the week. Do not let your faith only assure you of the truth of the articles of the Creed. The faith that is required of you is not only an intellectual assent to certain propositions, it is a living belief in a Father which should keep you from fretfulness and over-anxiety in common life.

II. Cast all your care upon Him. But it is useless to tell us to cast our care on God unless we really and truly believe that He cares for us. No man can cast his care upon an It. If a man does not believe in God, when the pressure of care becomes too heavy for him to bear it alone one of two results will follow; either the creed will break down or the man will break down. Hence we have so often seen unbelievers commit suicide. Take God out of the world, and you will have no one on whom you can with any hope of satisfaction cast your care.

But though we may never have said what the fool says in his heart, though rarely with his lips, "There is no God," do we really believe that "God cares for me"? It is easier to believe that God cares for the universe as a whole than to believe that He cares for individuals. He is a Father, and He has room in His infinite heart for each one of us. It is a mistake to suppose that some cares are too insignificant to take to God in prayer.

And in so doing we shall often see our cares and worries in a different light and realize how unnecessary some of them are. For what is it, too often, that men worry about? Christ goes to the root of the matter. It is "tomorrow"; almost always "tomorrow".

III. But move the subject up into a higher plane. Is it possible that Christ forbade men to be anxious about their moral and spiritual future? Did He say, "Do not be over anxious about what awaits you after this life?" He guards Himself against any misconception in the same passage by saying: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," and so on. If we give the first place in our thoughts and anxieties to the kingdom of God and to true righteousness, we shall find the little worries of life fall into the background of their own accord.

—C. H. Butcher, The Sound of a Voice that is Still, p196.

Illustration.—I have read somewhere a very quaint proverb: "White ants pick a carcase quicker and cleaner than a lion". Do you see the force of the saying? It means that little cares may even more effectually destroy our peace than a single great trouble, if, in a mistaken reverence for God's greatness (which is really unbelief) we refuse to cast them upon Him.

—C. H. Butcher.

Against Worry

Matthew 6:34

I prefer the Revised Version for our text, "Be not anxious for the morrow"; but, even Matthew 6:34

What is content? The true answer to that is—A world of bliss and rest. It is not helpless submission to necessity. It is not the fulfilment of all roving desires. It is a sublime condition, the product of knowledge and faith and hope and love. One of its conditions is the perception of our proper place in the universe, and the belief that we have strictly a vocation. Another is that cheerful humility of spirit which honour upholds, and which makes no extravagant demands on the universe or on Providence. Another is the alchymic eye to see much in little—the spirit which made the old woman say to Bishop Burnet, as she held up her crust, "All this and Christ"!

—James Smetham.

John Rosedew went to his home—a home so loved and fleeting—and tried to comfort himself on the road with various elzevirs. Finding them fail, one after another, for his mind was not in cue for them, he pulled out his little Greek Testament, and read what a man may read every day, and never begin to be weary; because his heart still yearns the more towards the grand ideal, and feels a reminiscence such as Plato the divine, alone of heathens, won.

John Rosedew read once more the Sermon on the Mount, and wondered how his little griefs could vex him as they did. That sermon is grander in English, far grander, than in the Greek; for the genius of our language is large, and strong, and simple—the true spirit of the noblest words that ever on earth were spoken. Ours is the language to express; and ours the race to receive them.

What Matthew 6:34

My thoughts are always rambling over past or future scenes; I cannot enjoy the present happiness for anticipating the future, which is about as foolish as the dog who dropped the real bone for its shadow.

—Darwin.

References.—VI:34.—J. B. Mozley, Sermons Parochial and Occasional, p38. H. Montagu Butler, Harrow School Sermons, p108. T. DeWitt Talmage, Sermons, p96. H. Ward Beecher, ibid. (4th Series), p1. A. MacLeod, Days of Heaven Upon Earth, p119. A. M. Fairbairn, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li1897 , p257. R. C. Anderson, ibid. vol. lii1897 , p171. H. Scott Holland, ibid. vol. lvi1899 , p177; see also vol. lxi1902 , p173; see also Church Times, vol. xlii1899 , p319.