In A. our Lord asserts generally the impossibility of serving two masters; and, after justifying this assertion in B. and B., he repeats it in A. with respect to the particular case in hand. In B. he justifies the assertion on the ground that a servant cannot feel as he ought towards each of two masters, and in B. on the ground that he cannot act as he ought towards each of them. Here the important point is, that he would necessarily fail to serve one of them, either by not feeling (a.) or by not acting (a.) towards him as the relation requires; and this point is accordingly presented in the two extreme members of B. and B., this arrangement serving the same purpose as is served by the mention last in the preceding context of the effect that must follow if the eye be evil. -(Ver. 23.)

Hold to the one, and despise the other.—It is the manner of acting, or the practical procedure towards the one master and the other, that is described. He will "hold to the one," be faithful and devoted to him, while he "despises the other," or, rather, treats himself and his interests with neglect. Such neglect is the proper antithesis to devotedness; and, in 1 Tim. vi. 2, the verb here rendered despise expresses the contrast to "doing service."

In the original the article before the second one is omitted, probably to intimate that the master first referred to as "the

one is not the master now intended. The servant will either "hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one," namely, the one just referred to as likely to be loved by him, "and neglect the other."

Mammon.-Riches. Augustine states that "in the Carthaginian language gain is called mammon." It here denotes

riches or worldly possessions viewed as an idol, and personified. He who becomes the slave of worldly possessions exalts them to a place which a person only can reasonably and legitimately occupy. He makes them his god.

VER. 25-32.—In the preceding context it is shown that divided regards are impossible;-that we cannot lay up treasures for ourselves both in heaven and on earth;-that we cannot serve both God and mammon. On this fact our Lord founds the prohibition of our passage, "Therefore seeing it is so—“take no thought," &c.

Earthly things derive their claims upon us from our bodily wants. It is in solicitude for the supply of these that our attention to them originates. And, therefore, to preserve us from an idolatrous attention to them, our Lord requires that we "take no thought for our life, what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, or for our bodies, what we shall put on."-(See Part III., sect. iv., par. 3, 4.) And he enforces this requirement by various weighty considerations.—(See Part III., sect. iv., par. 5-8.)

Before we proceed to offer the few additional remarks on this passage that we deem necessary, we shall first unfold its

structure:

A. a. Therefore I say unto you,

A.

b. Take no thought for your life.

B. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than

raiment? &c. (ver. 25-30.)

b. Therefore take no thought, saying, &c. (ver. 31.)

a. | For after all these do the Gentiles seek.

B. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

The prohibition in A. is reiterated in A., and enforced in B. and B. In a. the prohibition is based upon the implied fact, that, while we cannot serve God and mammon, to pursue the course prohibited would be to serve mammon; and in a. it is supported by the corresponding consideration, that to pursue the course prohibited is a heathenish procedure.

In B. the enforcement is derived from God's exclusive ability to sustain us in life (ver. 27, comp. ver. 25), and from his proved disposition to feed and clothe us; and in B. from the additional consideration of his perfect and uninterrupted knowledge of our necessities. The encouragement to cast our cares upon him is complete, when he is presented to us not only as able and disposed to relieve us, but also as every moment observing our circumstances with a father's care and affection.

B., though forming but one member in the parallelism now exhibited, consists itself of four members. The prohibition consists of two parts, being directed against taking thought for our life, what we shall eat, &c., and against taking thought for our body, what we shall put on. And accordingly the enforcement of it in B. divides itself into two branches :

c. Is not the life more than meat,

d. And the body than raiment ?

c. Behold the fowls of the air, &c. (ver. 26, 27.)

d. And why take ye thought for raiment ? &c. (ver. 28–30.)

The prohibition of taking thought for our life is enforced in c. and c., and the prohibition of taking thought for our body in d. and d.

VER. 25.-Take no thought.-Distracting care or anxiety is meant. Forethought and providence are not forbidden here, and are elsewhere enjoined (Rom. xii. 17; 1 Tim. v.8.) The attitude we must assume and maintain, if we would effect our escape from distracting care, we have endeavoured to indicate in Part III., sect. iv., par. 4. The middle path of duty in this case is prescribed in Phil. iv. 6,—“ Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." The exercise of forethought suggests requests, and by making these known unto God we escape distracting care.

66

Life. That life is the correct rendering here is evident

from the direction which the prohibited anxiety would take "what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink."

"Is not the life more," &c., is an argument a majori. He has given you that which is greater, shall he not give you that which is less?

VER. 26.-Are ye not much better than they?-Here he reasons from the less to the greater. He feeds the fowls of the air, and shall he not feed you, who are much better than they, and who at the same time are his children ?—(See Part III., sect. iv., par. 5.)

VER. 27. See as above, par. 6.

VER. 28.-They toil not neither do they spin.-They labour neither to procure nor to produce raiment for themselves. VER. 30.-Grass of the field. By referring them to this class, he indicates how inconsiderable they are.

VER. 32. Your heavenly Father knoweth.—(See on ver. 8, p. 194.)

VER. 33, 34.-Having dissuaded us from setting our affection on things on earth (ver. 25-32), he here reiterates the direction of verses 19, 20, inverting, however, the order of the two branches of which it consists, for ver. 33 corresponds to ver. 20, and ver. 34 to ver. 19,—the arrangement thus adopted serving to indicate, that the leading object of this part of the sermon is, to recover or preserve from an undue regard things pertaining to the present life.

Seek first.—" Seek" as your treasure the full realization of "the kingdom of God," and of its blessings and privileges. Seek this "first," as being to you, as sentient creatures, the supreme object of desire and regard.

His righteousness.—We cannot understand here the righteousness spoken of in v. 6, 10, 20. That righteousness is not called "the righteousness of God." It is to the righteousness which God has provided, and "which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto and upon all them that believe," that this designation is applied.-(Rom. iii. 21, 22, i. 17,

x. 3; 2 Cor. v. 21; 2 Peter i. 1.) Righteousness as an attribute displayed in the divine procedure is intended in Rom. iii. 5, and probably also in iii. 25, 26. The meaning of the righteousness of God in James i. 20 is less obvious; but it does not there or elsewhere, and indeed cannot well, denote righteousness as realised in human character and conduct. The appended promise agrees well with the view which we take of the righteousness to be sought; for "the righteousness of God" received by faith forms a basis, and the only basis, for the bestowal of temporal things as covenant blessings.-(1 Cor. iii. 21-23; Rom. viii. 28-32.)

Shall be added unto you. This promise presupposes forethought, and, by encouraging trust in God, preserves forethought from degenerating into distracting care. If we were wholly regardless of the future, such a promise would be inapplicable to our state of mind.

"seek the

The import of the promise is, that when we kingdom of God and his righteousness," as the supreme and sole ultimate object of our desire and regard, all temporal things shall be superadded as may be best for us. Though they are not properly comprehended in the blessings of the kingdom, such a bestowal of them is comprehended in the process by which its blessings are applied.

VER. 34. Take therefore no thought.-All these things shall be added unto you, 66 therefore," &c. Distracting care is altogether inconsistent with the position of the righteous as having such a promise.

For the morrow.-To-day appears to us as the present, with which we are actually dealing, and thus "the morrow is the nearest future; yet even "for the morrow we are not to "take thought." And our taking thought would serve no purpose, "for the morrow will take thought for the things of itself," and will not be moulded and fashioned by our thought-taking. The morrow is thus personified, and described, according to the appearance which it will present, as