service was then, and what it is now, we shall perceive the impression become even stronger in those days the servant was the property of his master, he paid him a constrained, not a voluntary obedience; with us, according to the conditions of the agreement, the servant is free to come or go; with them the servantonce engaged to his master became his for life. If, then, it were difficult according to our present mode of living, for a servant. to attend faithfully on two masters, how much more difficult, from the complicated nature of his duties, must it have been at that time? "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon:" the preceding passage stated a general principle, the present gives a particular application, "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." The real duties we owe to our Maker, and the pretended duties we would pay to the world, admit no more of an equal division than the labours of a man's life; the balance cannot be preserved; one will inevitably give way to the other. Therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on.' Some pious and well meaning Chris tians, understanding the words "take no thought" in too literal a sense, have, been led into many apparent extrava gances; it is, however, generally ac knowledged, that the expression "take no thought," does not convey the meaning of the original quite so precisely as is to be desired; the original, as you will, I dare say, find in the marginal notes of most of the larger bibles, signifies, be not over anxious about such and such a thing, do not give yourselves entirely up to it; do not think of it so much as to exclude other things from your thoughts of even greater moment.' The term here is applied to the commonest occasions of life, food and raiment. We are told we ought not to let these comparatively trivial matters dwell unnecessarily on our minds, for "is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? behold the fowls of the air;"-in this we have an instance of that aptness of illustration for which our Saviour's discourses are so remarkable. You will recollect the speaker is addressing his hearers in the open air; the admonition had been given, but something was wanting to fix it deeper in the recollection; that something instantly occurred to the preacher. Go into the open air, turn your eyes what direction you will, you can scarcely fail to notice birds in their flight: just so was it then; numbers of birds of different kinds were flying at this very moment over the heads of our Saviour and his disciples; the preacher desires those whom he addresses to observe them; "behold the fowls of the air" in look! these you see around you, behold them, "for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them: are ye not much better than they?" It may be remarked, in justification of the expression, inadequately translated "take no thought," that the inhabitants of the air, though they do not exhibit that overanxiousness we are reproved for giving way to, still are by no means neglectful of the natural wants of which a wise Providence has supplied them with the consciousness, they go about from place to place in quest of food, they build nests to protect their young, they migrate at certain seasons of the year to warmer climates-in all this holding forth for our imitation just the necessary degree of attention and no more. "Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature?" "And why take ye thought for raiment? consider the lilies of the field:" here, for the second time within a few sentences, we meet with an argument drawn from objects immediately before them: many of my hearers will, probably, have observed, in the spring or summer months, the ground covered with a profusion of wild flowers, which overgrowing the artificial produce of the land, I mean the grain the farmer sows, →by the brightness of their colours make a sensible impression on the eye: the direction to consider the lilies of the field, has a reference precisely similar. Our Saviour stood on an eminence, beneath him were the corn fields, in which, amongst a number of other weeds the lily was predominant: our Saviour points the attention of his disciples to these"Consider the lilies of the field;" observe these flowers that are growing at your feet; consider them, "how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say say unto you, that even |