WE now pass to that section of the Manifesto which deals with the relation of man to God.

The King first lays down a fundamental principle, negative in form, but positive in intention and result. That principle is expressed in the words, "Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen of them." The Authorized Version reads, "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men." The Revised Versions, English and American, substitute the word "righteousness" for "alms." "Righteousness" includes alms, and prayer, and fasting, the three matters subsequently dealt with. When Jesus uttered that first word He said everything, and all that followed was illustrative of the application of this principle to life; three departments being selected which peculiarly reveal human relationship to God in the present and probationary condition.

The principle is first applied in the matter of the giving of alms; secondly in the matter of prayer; and, finally, in the matter of fasting; alms, prayer, and fasting, the three great means of grace; the first stated being the final one in the order of experience. Alms is the last thing; prayer precedes it; and fasting prepares for prayer. The statement moves backward from the external manifestation of Divine relationship, to the internal sources of power. The proof of human relationship to God in the world is the giving of alms. The power that creates the giving of alms is prayer. The condition that makes prayer powerful, is that of fasting. These are the three great means of grace. There are others, external and smaller ones, which are merely sacramental symbols of the larger. The means of grace-and let us begin where the King finished-are: first, fasting; secondly, prayer; thirdly, the giving of alms.

First, fasting-the denial of everything that interferes with intimate, direct fellowship between the life and God. We may have our symbol of fasting if we like, in a day in which we eat no food; but that is by no means essential. Fasting is a matter far deeper, far profounder. It is the life suffering the loss even of rights in order that it may come into more strenuous relationship with God. That is the deepest means of grace; and in proportion as we learn what fasting really means, we approach the infinite sources of power.

After that comes prayer; and to the fasting life this is delightful, natural, spontaneous. The highest outreaching of the life is only possible as it is free from sordidness, sensuality, and the dust of to-day; and thus can hold unhindered spiritual communion with God.

The result of such prayer will always be that we hurry from the secret place, to give; to pour out alms! The giving of alms is much more than the giving of money. We may have no money. We may honestly be unable to put anything in a collection plate; and yet we may be giving God the richest gifts, a service of sacrifice-our blood, our life to help our brother.

The first words are fundamental. Let us begin there. "Take heed!" That is a flaming sword, warning men off from holy ground. Do not let us play with fire, do not let us come to these statements imagining that we have found a soft and sentimental teaching. They constitute rather a fierce fire! "Take heed." That is the word of a King. It is the word of incarnate Light. It is the word of absolute Purity. "Take heed."

Let us pause upon the threshold. We have been listening to what He said about murder and adultery; about truth, justice, and love. We have listened to the words, "Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect;" and as we are filled with fear at that requirement, He warns us yet again, "Take heed!" We are bound to listen reverently when Jesus says, "Take heed."

A reason precedes every deed. It may be a very poor one, an utterly false one, but it exists. There was never a deed done, but that it was preceded by a dream; never a victory won, but that it was inspired by a vision. Therefore the King says: Get your right dream, your true vision; that is, see to it that your motive is pure. Motive is everything in the Kingdom. Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men. If we give alms that men may see us, we fail utterly in the ethic of this Kingdom. If we pray to be heard of men, or seen of men, our prayer is not prayer in this Kingdom. If we fast that men may be impressed with our religious devotion, we have our reward, but we are not in this Kingdom. Thus the King denounces as unworthy all religious acting which is inspired by the opinion of men.

How this scorches and burns! Dare any of us bring our lives to this test? We dare, we must, but it is a terrible ordeal. How much have we prayed before men? How much of our conduct is regulated by the opinion of men, and the thought of men? How much of our lower things, and even o our higher affairs, are under the impulse of what men will think? Probably the vast majority of people are more influenced by what men will say, than by what God Almighty thinks.

But listen again: "Do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them; else ye have no reward with your Father Who is in Heaven." God has no reward for the man who is living before men. Thus the negative statement of principle becomes positive, in that it teaches us that the one, all inclusive, all satisfactory motive of life is to be well pleasing to God. That is the ethic of the King.

He now proceeds to make application of the principle. First to alms, beginning in the external, with that which reveals to men, our relationship to God. "When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee." This is a picture of the popular method of the hour in which Jesus lived. It is an actual piece of portraiture. Some Pharisee, intending to distribute gifts, would come to a conspicuous place in the city, and blow a small silver trumpet, at which there would gather round him the maimed, the halt, the blind. Then, with a great show of generosity, he would scatter gifts upon them. We may say that has no interest for us in these days. But it has interest for all time; for here, as ever, if the Eastern and local colouring has faded from the picture, the great lines of truth stand out. Listen to the sarcasm of Jesus, "Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward;" they did it to be seen of men; they have been seen of men; that is all they need; they have what they sought. "But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth; that thine alms may be in secret." Nothing is in secret finally-"Thy Father Who seeth in secret shall recompense thee." Your Father has to do with that secret thing. Your Father has to do with the hidden things, the motives, the reasons that lie at the back of life; and He says that the secret alms, given from secret love, He will reward.

Amos, in scathing sarcasm and denunciation of the people of his own age, said, You "proclaim freewill offerings, and publish them." And this age is a continuation of the age of Amos. The King declares that this is not righteousness before God.

If I left this here, where Jesus did not leave it, it would present a very difficult ideal. Yet it is simple, if motives are right; and therefore we go beyond this externality, this giving to others; to that deeper thing that ought to underlie such giving-the preparation of prayer. The order of statement is, first, Divine relationship in its outward expression toward men alms; and secondly, Divine relationship in its secret expression toward God-prayer.

Here again we have first an application of the principle to the communion of man with God. It is to be between the man and God. The popular method, to be seen of men, again meets with the sarcasm of Christ." "They have received their reward."

Then follow instructions for prayer. First, privacy-go to your inner chamber, shut the door. That is the true place of prayer. We call the church building the house of prayer. In a secondary sense it is so, but the true place of prayer, for the man who is in the Kingdom, is in the inner chamber with the door shut. How much do we know of the inner chamber and the shut door? When a man announces that he is always, at such a time, in the inner chamber, with the door shut, that is a denial of secrecy. The principle is that we go there when no one else knows; that we escape from human observation to loneliness with God. That is the first principle of prayer.

The next matter is directness. When you find your way into that inner chamber and the door is shut, "pray to thy Father." Directness of application and directness of statement are included in this simple phrase. There is a story which strikingly illustrates this principle of directness in prayer. In a Yorkshire chapel a prayer meeting was being held, and a few people were there who knew what prayer meant. There wandered into that meeting a man from the city, who had very little understanding of the force and fire and fervour of true prayer meetings. He had that most terrible habit of making prayers; and he made a prayer in that prayer meeting which consisted of beautiful sentences, in which he gave God all kinds of information which He had long before this man was born. For well nigh twenty minutes he prayed. At last he said, "And now, Lord, what more shall we say unto Thee?" One old man, who knew his way into the Secret Place, and knew what prayer was, and who was weary and tired of this exhibition, cried out, "Call Him Feyther, mon, and ax for summat." That is the whole philosophy of prayer. "Pray to thy Father."

And then simplicity, "not vain repetitions." Of course this again is local colouring, for these Orientals would take one sentence, and repeat it again and again, imagining that the exhaustion that such repetition produced was a sign of power. Privacy, directness, simplicity, are the notes of true prayer.

He then gave them a pattern. In the opening sentence we have a great doctrine of God "Our Father Who art in the heavens." The word here is plural, though our translators have not shown it; "Our Father Who art in the heavens." The New Testament speaks at least of three heavens. "The birds of the heaven," where the reference is to the atmosphere encircling the earth. "Wonders in the heaven," where the stellar spaces are intended. "Caught up even to the third heaven," that is, beyond the stellar spaces, to the place of the supreme manifestation of the presence of God.

"Our Father Who art in the heavens"-all of them. That is a doctrine of the transcendence of God; He is far away beyond all that of which we can be conscious. It is also a doctrine of the immanence of God; He is in the very air we breathe, as well as far away, infinitely out beyond the possibility of the mind's comprehension; in all infinite spaces, and in all near details, everywhere. That doctrine of God is the doctrine which enables a man to pray.

Again He is Father. If we understand that, we shall not stay arguing as to the possibility of prayer. We shall pray.

This pattern of prayer also reveals the true order of prayer. It falls naturally into two halves; the first has to do with God's Kingdom; the second with our need. "Our Father Who art in the heavens Hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth." That is the first concern in prayer. Prayer is not first of all a means by which we get something for ourselves; it is rather a method of helping God to get something for Himself. Thus, as in life, so also in prayer, the same law obtains "Seek ye first His Kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Apply this pattern of prayer to much of our praying, and we are ashamed! We pray about our need, and our family, and our neighbours, and our Church, and our country; and if we have a few minutes at the end, we pray for the missionaries. Jesus says that this is all wrong, for first must come God's Kingdom, and then our need. There is nothing omitted from that prayer. Our daily sustenance-physical, mental, spiritual-it is all there in "daily bread." Our inter-relationship amongst men "Forgive us, as we forgive." We cannot expect forgiveness while there is malice in our heart. It is the only petition of which Jesus gives us an exposition. It will not do to say: We will forgive our debtors. We must get our paying done, before we begin our praying. And finally, prayer concerning the conflict with evil. "Bring us not into temptation"-that is the sense of fearfulness; "But deliver us from the evil" that is the determination that whether through temptation or without it, the supreme matter is that of deliverance from evil.

Yet look at the prayer again. It is the inspirer of work. "Hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done." If we are praying that way we must live that way, we must work that way; not merely for ourselves, but for our city, our nation, and the world, that everywhere God's name may be hallowed, God's Kingdom come, God's will be done. We shall work along that line if we pray in that way.

Then, again, it is the prayer of trust. We need sustenance; we tell our Father about it. We need restoration; we go to our Father. We need discipline; we talk to Him about it as we stand upon the threshold of it.

Then observe the socialism, the communism of the prayer. We must use a strong word because it is a strong prayer. Notice the pronouns of the prayer, the pronouns in the first person; "Our-us-our-us-our-we-our-us-us." There is not a pronoun in the first person singular. They are all plural. We cannot pray that prayer alone. There is no room for selfishness there. We are bound to bring somebody else in with us. It is interesting moreover to look at the cases here. There are four possessives, four objectives, and only one nominative. The nominative case is the popular one. We always like to be the subject of the sentence, and use the capital We. There is only one nominative here, and it occurs when we say, "as we also have forgiven our debtors." The only right we have to be the subject of the sentence is the right to forgive the man who has wronged us. That is prayer according to Jesus. It is a great social prayer. We cannot pray it alone, and yet we should go alone and pray it. He says, "Enter into thine inner chamber, and . . . shut thy door," and when nobody is there but yourself, begin to pray as though the whole world were with you. That is Christ's socialism. It is based upon strong individualism;-individually, a man alone with God; socially the world on the heart, as the prayer is offered. If we learn to pray this way, a great deal of praying will cease, and a great deal of praying will begin.

And now the final matter. "When ye fast." The popular method is a sad countenance, a disfigured face, "that they may be seen of men to fast." What is Christ's instruction? "Anoint thy head, and wash thy face; that thou be not seen of men to fast, but of thy Father Who is in secret; and thy Father, Who seeth in secret, shall recompense thee." That is the true method of restraint and of self-denial.

We are perpetually insisting upon the necessity for self-denial, and we do well to insist upon it. It is at the very heart and centre of Christian life. That is the process by which the life is made strenuous. The athlete denies himself a great many things, in themselves harmless and proper, in order to win. There must be self-denial, there must be restraint, there must be fasting. But the mistake is that we fast in order that men may think how good we are. We get our reward, and there is nothing beyond. But if fasting is for the purpose of finding the stronger, the truer, the nobler; in order to create larger room for the coming and going and sweep of the Spirit then it is true. But what are to be the outward signs of fasting? The sad countenance and the disfigured face? Rather the washed face and the anointed head. Is it not time that we in the Christian Church talked a little less about self denial, and lived it more? Have we not by over emphasizing in our conventions on the one hand, and on the other, in the new ascetic ideal manifesting itself in scourging, been false to this word of Jesus, "Anoint thy head and wash thy face"? Oh, my life, thou shouldest keep perpetual Lent within the secret chamber of thy being, and everlasting Easter on thy face! The inner life must always be a denial of self, but we must come to the world with a smile and a song, and the anointed head, and the washed face. This is religion, this is life.

These are three great subjects, and they mark the revelation of man to God-alms, and prayer, and fasting. Deny the Divine existence, wholly or in part, and wholly or in part all these will cease. As a man loses his hold upon God, or as a man comes to deny God altogether, these things cease in the inverted order. First, fasting ceases. Then prayer ceases, for a man cannot pray unless he fasts-that inner fasting of the life; if that cease, prayer will cease. And then alms will cease. A man gives less now than when he had less to give, because he has been so very busy getting, that he forgot to pray. He forgot that not in making, but in fasting, is the real strength of life, and there is always degradation and deterioration, when that is forgotten.

These words and these deeds and these activities must be undertaken in actual relationship with Him. Alms must be given in the consciousness of His observation. Prayer must be offered in the place of loneliness with Him. Fasting must be solely a means of helping communion with Him.

THE King having declared the laws of human inter-relationship, and having dealt with the principles of Divine relationship, proceeded to the discussion of the attitude of His subjects towards earthly things. The subjects of the Kingdom still have necessary relationships with the earth. They are spiritually minded, but they have to touch material things. However much the inner life may be, and ought to be, in communion with that which is essentially spiritual, we can only continue to live at all as we touch and handle things which are seen and temporal.

The Manifesto of the King proceeds, therefore, to make clear what our relationship ought to be to the material things by which we are surrounded, and with which we have to deal.

Here, as on all former occasions, there is a remarkable absence of rules, but there is the clearest revelation of principle. Not by legal enactments, formulated, tabulated, and learned by heart; but rather by the creation of an atmosphere, and the indication of art attitude, does the King correct and condition our relationship to the things of the present life. Broadly, He teaches that, in all contact of His subjects with earthly things, they must be dominated by a super-earthly consciousness. Men must deal with the wealth of the world, but if their consciousness is conditioned merely within that material wealth, they fail. If all their dealing with wealth is motived by, and conditioned within a spiritual conception, then they will have found the deepest secret of life, and fulfilled the highest purpose of their Master. Men must have food to eat, must have clothes to wear; but if they spend all their days thinking about what they shall eat, or what they shall wear, they are not understanding or realizing the ethic of Jesus. If, on the other hand, they recognize their Father's recognition of their need, and trust it; and then seek the Kingdom, in matters of food and in clothing, they are living in the realm of the true morality.

This section consists of two parts, each characterized by warning and instruction. The first is a revelation of the attitude of the subjects of the Kingdom toward wealth-they are to be without covetousness. In the second section, which we shall take for our next study, the attitude of the same subjects toward necessary things is indicated they are to be without care.

This is the whole of His will for His people. This is not irrational; He proves it to be reasonable. This is not an appeal to credulity; it is a call for faith. This is not fatalism; it is the essence of fidelity, fidelity to the principles afore enunciated, to the purposes perpetually revealed, and to the great Lord and Master to Whom allegiance is owned.

In this first section, in which our Lord deals with the true attitude of His subjects toward wealth, let us first notice His distinct commands: "Lay not up," . . . "Lay up." Here is a negative and a positive-"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth." "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."

Then let us notice the comparison of values. On the one hand are treasures laid up on earth which moth and rust consume, and thieves break through and steal. On the other are treasures laid up in heaven, to which neither moth, rust, nor thieves have access.

Next we will notice Christ's reason for this injunction, and revelation of attitudes. "Where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also."

Still further we will look at Christ's exposition of the urgency of His commandments. The single eye necessary to the true illumination of the life.

Finally, we will consider Christ's last word, "No man can serve two masters."

First as to Christ's distinct command, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth." The same word occurs twice; in the one case as verb, and in the other as substantive. We come nearer to an appreciation of what He said when we read, "Treasure not tip treasures upon the earth, but treasure for yourselves treasure in heaven." The simple idea of the word treasure is that of placing something somewhere; but it is in striking contrast to other words which also mean to place something somewhere. There is a peculiar quality in the Greek word which is not suggested by our word "treasure." Very literally the idea is to place something horizontally. There are other Greek words which mean to place something perpendicularly. Here we have an instance of the figurative element in language.

What was meant by placing horizontally? To place in a passive condition, as the word which indicates to place something perpendicularly means putting it in an active relationship. This word means to lay something aside horizontally-that is, to store something up, to keep it; not to place something perpendicularly, ready for activity and work, but to hoard it. It is the laying of things up, one thing upon another, piece upon piece, horizontally, that we may possess them, take care of them, and accumulate them. Every boy remembers that he has often been told, that the miser says coins are flat that they may rest; and the spendthrift says they are round that they may roll.

Now the King does not say that it is wrong to lay up, for while He says "treasure not up," He also says "treasure up." We need to recognize the positive as well as the negative part of the command. The common capacity to which He is here appealing is that of the passion for possession. There is not a single capacity of human life wrong inherently. The abuse of it, the misuse of it, is wrong. Whenever we see a man passionately desirous of possession we may say: That is all right. It may be made all wrong by his method and motive; by the way in which he attempts to possess, and the purpose for which he desires to possess. It is always the purpose at the back of things which matters. The King does not begin with externalities; He gets back to the deepest thing in a man's life, and deals with that. It is as though He said: You have a passion to possess wealth, you want to be able to place things horizontally; and it is quite right that you should do so-God made you so. Being, having, doing; that is the story of human life. There is no Beatitude on possessing, but possession may be sanctified.

We want to make our fortunes. We have desires as passionate as those of any man to possess. And the nearer we come to our Lord, and the more we know of the indwelling Spirit, the more powerfully is the passion to possess burning in our heart and life. But the question of importance is as to the principle upon which we seek possession. Passion without principle burns out the life. Principle without passion sterilizes it, and makes it hard and cold and stony.

That is a great word in the book of Ezekiel, spoken to the Prince of Tyre: "I have destroyed thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire." What a strange bringing together of contradiction! "Stones of fire." A stone is the last embodiment of principle-hard and cold. Fire is of the essence of passion-warm and energizing. Put the two together, and we have stones-principle; fire-passion; principle shot through with passion, passion held by principle. Men have the passion to possess, to treasure up. What principle is going to govern us? That is the matter with which the Master is dealing.

The principle revealed is not that it is wrong to lay up treasures for ourselves, for when the Master comes to the positive statement, He distinctly says, "Lay up for yourselves." We have not yet discovered the secret.

It is discovered in the phrases, "Treasures upon earth." "Treasures in heaven." Christ says to His subjests, You are to fulfill that passion for possession by making your fortune, not for the present, the perishing, the passing; but for the future, the lasting, and the eternal. You are to remember, with the passion burning within you, that you are not the child of to-day, you are not of the earth, you are more than dust; you are the child of tomorrow, you are of the eternities, you are the offspring of Deity. The measurements of your lives cannot be circumscribed by the point where blue sky kisses green earth. All the fact of your life cannot be encompassed in the one small sphere upon which you live. You belong to the infinite. If you make your fortune on the earth,-poor, sorry, silly soul,-you have made a fortune, and stored it, in a place where you cannot hold it. Make your fortune, but store it where it will greet you in the dawning of the new morning, when old earth passes from you. Make your fortune there. Possess not the things of the now; but the things of the now and the forever.

In dealing with Christ's comparison of values, we must allow for the Eastern colouring. Wealth consisted in those days very largely of fabrics, purple and fine twined linen: and the King says, I will tell you the story of them-moths! That is a fine touch of tender sarcasm. There is no anger in it. There is no thunder in it. It is a fine play of the summer lightning. Moths! Your immortal life cannot be hurt by a moth; do not try to enrich it with stuff which moths eat.

Or, if you will take some other currency, such as metal, store it up, lay it horizontally, pile it up, make it your treasure. The King says, Rust! What is rust? Fire. Present in all things is this eremacausis, this slowly burning fire, which eats into, disintegrates your most solid metal, melting it into azure air. The subjects of the King are not to try and make themselves rich with things which the frail moth can ruin, and the silent rust destroy.

And once again, "Where thieves dig through and steal." We need not dwell upon that. That is so modern that it needs no exposition.

What does Jesus say about the storing of the heavenly, about the laying up of treasure in heaven? Nothing. positive; it is all negative, but thank God for the negatives of the spiritual world. No moth, no rust, no thief. If we can only store the true riches, as we work and toil, we shall know that no moth can ever eat the garment, or destroying fire touch the fine gold, or marauding thief rob us of that which is our own.

But next, why this urgency? "For where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also." There is a passion for possession. We must satisfy it. The thing which matters is not so much the possession of the treasure, as the effect the possession of the treasure will have upon us. Here we hear our Lord's deepest heart speaking, and it is as though He said: My child, I know that passion for possession; it is quite right; God made thee so. It must be met and satisfied; but I am seeking, even more than the satisfaction of any desire of thy life, proper as it may be, to teach thee that everything depends upon where thy treasure is as to where thy heart will be; and everything depends upon where thy heart is, as to what thou wilt be, for as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.

If we take our treasures and place them here, our heart will be here, and we shall be here, and we shall become of the earth earthly, sensualized, materialized, degraded, because we have put our treasure here. But if we put our treasure out yonder in the infinite, if we somehow learn the secret of laying up treasure beyond, our heart will be beyond, and our life will be lifted, and all the light of the infinite spaces will be within us, and all the love of the Infinite Heart will dominate us, and all the undying life of the infinite God will be ours, surging, beating, thrilling, throbbing through us. And then, as though the Lord turned from these things to give an exposition of the meaning and urgency of it all, He says, "The lamp of the body is the eye." The eye is the lamp, not the light. The light is outside it, beating all round about it, but it is the lamp which catches the light, and enables us to see and to realize. "The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness."

The word "evil" here does not mean wicked, but out of order. Evil is a larger word than sin. Evil includes sorrow, and affliction, and calamity, and fault, as well as definite and positive and willful sin. "If thine eye be evil"-out of order-"thy whole body shall be full of darkness." Here Jesus seems to say, the thing of utmost importance is that you should have a right view of these things in satisfying the passion for possession. You must have a true view, and that is what He has been attempting to give. The single eye. The evil eye. These are the contrasts. The single eye is the eye that is unified or simple. The evil eye is the eye that is not simple. An oculist will tell you that there is such a thing as astigmatism-a malformation of the lenses, of such a nature that rays of light proceeding from one centre do not converge in one point. The single eye is the eye without astigmatism. It is the eye with the lenses properly adjusted, of such a nature that rays of light proceeding from one centre do converge at one point. Jesus was not using the word here carelessly when He said "single." It is the eye which has no obliquity, which sees everything true, and in proper proportion. If the eye be evil, then how great is the darkness, what misunderstanding of life, what dire and disastrous failure!

In Modern Painters John Ruskin says: "Seeing falsely is worse than blindness. A man who is too dim-sighted to discern the road from the ditch may feel which is which; but if the ditch appears manifestly to be the road, and the road to be the ditch, what shall become of him? False seeing is unseeing, or the negative side of blindness."

That is the modern method of saying what Jesus said in far more remarkable language: If your eye is single your body is full of light. If it is evil, suffering from malformation, distorted in its view, then your conceptions will be false. The single eye is the eye that looks always toward the infinite, and answers the passion of the soul to possess, in the light of it. The evil eye is the eye that suffers from astigmatism, or obliquity, and has varying centers, and varying reasons, and no focussed light, and consequently produces a degraded conception of things.

Finally, the King sums up, saying, "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." Here is the deepest thing of all. We want to possess. What shall we do with this passion of our life? We must worship with it, as we must worship with every passion. With it we may worship Mammon. With it we may. worship God. We cannot do both. That is the great distinctive principle. No man can become the slave of his treasure and worship it, without thereby proving himself traitor to God. No man can be the bond-slave of God, worshipping and serving Him with all the heart, and all the mind, and all the strength, and be enslaved by Mammon.

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth." "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Does our Lord, then, mean that we are to have nothing to do with the wealth of the earth when He says, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven"? Does He simply mean we are to pray, and strive, and work for the salvation of men? All that we are to do, but that is not what the Lord means here. He is simply speaking of earthly treasure from beginning to end. He is referring to the same class of treasure when He says, "Lay not up treasures upon the earth," as when He says, "Lay up treasure in heaven." He does not mean by this second "Lay up treasure," your toil and prayer and work. He is speaking of the self-same material, earthly wealth. He teaches His people what is the right and wrong use of wealth. He tells them how to deal with a superabundance of wealth. You may say: There is not a man who has a super abundance. There is not a man who has not a super abundance! This is not an attempt to put any measure upon the quantity of it. Do you know what is necessary after all? What God has promised to supply us with in the matter of material things is that which is necessary for our life to-day-bread and water; that is all God has promised. "His bread shall be given him; his water shall be sure." Whatever additions you have had to bread and water, have been superabundance. Think it out in the light of all Christ's habit of teaching, and you will come to the recognition of the fact that we are living in an age which is being spoiled by its softness. We call very many things necessary to-day that our fathers called luxuries.

A man may say, What shall I do? I cannot lay purple up in heaven, ducats up in heaven 1 Oh, yes, you can! Christ hereby declares that every child of His love, and every subject of His Kingdom, is the steward of all he possesses, and that, beyond the necessities, with which we shall deal in our next study, all the superabundance is to be at the disposal of the King, in the interests of the Kingdom of heaven. On another occasion He said, "Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when it shall fail "mark the new rendering of the Revised "they" the friends that you have made by means of the mammon "may receive you into the eternal tabernacles." "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth." Do not take the mammon and pile it to possess it. So use it as to make friends by its means, that presently they, the friends, shall meet you, and greet you in the everlasting habitations. Let us make such a fortune that when at last we come home we shall be greeted by the friends that we have helped to reach home. Let us rather have our fortune on the other side than on this.

IN this section of our Lord's Manifesto; continuing His revelation of the principles which are to govern His people in their relation to the things of this life, He enjoins on them the necessity for a super-earthly consciousness in touching earthly things. Towards superabundance, as we have seen, they are to be without covetousness. We will now consider their attitude towards necessary things, which is, that they are to be without care.

In this connection one injunction is thrice repeated. "Be not anxious." "Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious" (ver. 25) [Mat 6:25]. "Be not therefore anxious" [Mat 6:31). "Be not therefore anxious" (ver. 34) [Mat 6:34]. This is the all-inclusive word. It is illustrated, emphasized, argued, with inimitable skill by the great Master and Teacher Himself. It accurately defines the whole attitude of mind which His disciples should maintain .toward necessary things. "Take no thought" was a most unhappy mistranslation, for, as we shall see before we have finished, that is exactly what the King did not mean. All His argument as to our attitude being characterized by freedom from anxiety, is based upon the fact of our ability to take thought. He does not hint for a single moment that we are to be careless or improvident. That against which He charged His disciples, and still charges us, is corking care, the care which means fretting, worry, restlessness, feverishness; or perhaps, better than all, in the simple terms of the Revision, "Anxiety;" "Be not anxious." There are things of this life which are necessary, which, so far as we know, have no place in the larger life toward which we go. Food, drink, raiment, are necessary things, but are not provided for us by God apart from our own thought, our own endeavour, our own activity. But none of these things is to produce anxiety in the hearts of the subjects of the King.

"Be not anxious." The Lord argues for this injunction by three positions. "Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious;" the first proposition occupying verses 25-30 (Mat 6:25-30). "Be not therefore anxious;" the second proposition found in verses 31-33 (Mat 6:31-33). "Be not therefore anxious;" the third proposition of illustration and enforcement found in verse 34 (Mat 6:34). There are three movements and one message; three methods of emphasis and illustration and enforcement; and one matter of importance. Our Lord not only says, "Be not anxious;" but "Be not therefore anxious." Thus, in each new movement of emphasis and illustration He drives us back to something preceding. This is the word of the King.

Let us see how He enforces it. First, He declares anxiety to be unnecessary in the children of such a Father. In the second movement He declares anxiety to be unworthy in the subjects of such a Kingdom. In the third movement He declares anxiety to be unfruitful.

First, then, our Lord teaches us that anxiety is unnecessary. Look at the "therefore." "Therefore I say unto you." We are compelled to ask wherefore? On what is Jesus basing this appeal? You will remember two truths brought before us in the previous section. In showing what our attitude ought to be toward superabundance, He first made the truth about values perfectly clear. He insisted on the necessity for the single eye which sees things properly focussed; sharp, clear, true; in proportion and perspective. The point of view is everything. The evil eye is that which sees things obliquely; its vision is distorted, nothing is sharp, nothing is true, everything is out of proportion and perspective. Christ emphasized the necessity for the single eye, truly focussed; and He told His disciples in effect that they had that single eye when they lived for the glory of God, and that the true view-point of life is that of seeing things in their relation to the Infinite, to the Divine, to God Himself. The eye, single for God's glory, admits true light into the life. Further, we noticed how Jesus declared the unification of life in worship to be necessary. We cannot serve God and Mammon. Whomsoever we worship will demand the whole of our service. Life is unified by the principle of worship which governs it. He takes it for granted that these men have found the unifying principle in the service of God; that because they are serving God they cannot serve Mammon. Now, He says, "Therefore," upon the basis of the true vision of values, upon the basis of the fact that your life has become unified in the service of God; "Therefore be not anxious." Thus He defends the word; charging His own to be free from fret and friction and feverishness; upon the fact that, being in His Kingdom, they have found the true view-point, they have found the true principle, unifying and making life consistent.

From that He proceeds to work out in detail the truth of the love and the care of God. "I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?" Declaring the care of the Father for the birds, He asks, "Why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow." The lilies to which Jesus pointed were not, of course, our lilies of the valley, but the great huleh lilies of Palestine, the most gorgeous and beautiful of all the flowers growing there. They grow in cultivated districts, or amongst the rankest verdure.

Of this gorgeous flower the Master said, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow." Mark this again: "they toil not, neither do they spin; yet"-even though they do not toil or spin-"yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." The King comes where the children can accompany Him, and among the birds and flowers, in sweetest and tenderest of illustrations, He teaches the sublimest truths for the comfort of the heart of His people.

Let us ponder His teaching, first about the birds. He says in effect: These birds of the air neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, but your Father feedeth them; you can sow and reap and gather, therefore much more does your Father care for you. The Lord's argument here is not that we are to cease our sowing and reaping and gathering, but that if He takes care of those who cannot do such things, much more will He take care of those who can. These birds of the air are without rational forethought. By comparison with men there can be no toiling, no sowing, no reaping, no gathering. But Jesus says, God has given you the power of rational forethought, and much more will He take care of you. It is not that we are to neglect the use of reason, or forethought, or preparation. It is not that we are to take no thought-unhappy mistranslation-but that we are to take thought for the morrow without anxiety, knowing that, as God cares for the birds, He will more perfectly take care of us.

So also with the flowers. "They toil not, neither do they spin; yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Did you imagine that was figurative, an overstrained metaphor? Take that flower, that huleh lily, gorgeous and beautiful in its colouring, and put it by the side of Solomon in his magnificence, in his robes of gold and silver and jewels and splendour-the lily is more beautifully clothed than Solomon. Take the finest fabric that monarch ever wore, and submit it to microscopic examination, and it is sackcloth. Take the lily and submit its garment of delicate velvet to microscopic examination and investigation, and the more perfect your lens the more exquisite the weaving of the robe of the lily will be seen to be. Christ is not indulging in hyperbole. He is stating cold fact No garment loomed to the finest and softest texture is anything but rough sackcloth when placed by the side of the drapery with which He clothes the lily. Christ says: Open your eyes, My children, and look at the lilies lying scattered over the valleys and mountains, growing among thorns, and know that when God makes the lily, kings desire and cannot obtain such a robing. Looking at the flower, and seeing all its decking, know this:

There is not a flower and not a petal which, in exquisite finish and delicate perfection, would not put all the robes of a king to shame.

But all this is true not only of those flowers of Palestine. Consider the daisy of the English fields, the sweet and simplest flower which you tread beneath your feet; and a king in all his robes of state is not arrayed like one of these. "But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more Clothe you, O ye of little faith?"

The emphatic words are, "much more," and it is important that we grasp their true meaning. The lily cannot toil, it cannot spin. You can do both; and if God takes care of the flowers which He has not gifted with this power of reason to toil and work for self-preservation, how much more the creatures to whom He has given this super-abounding gift, and to whom He perpetually gives Himself in immediate and living presence.

Let us now look at the other two arguments briefly. He passes from this first statement, which shows how unnecessary care is if we are the children of such a Father, and He says "Therefore" once again. "Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." Do not be anxious about these lower things, but there is something you ought to be anxious about. Do not always be planning and scheming even to the point of anxiety about food and raiment; "but seek." No life is complete that does not feel upon it some great compulsion, driving it. We want to learn to be loving and patient with all sorts of people, but it is difficult to have patience with some men! Their eye never gleams, they have no passion, no power; they drift. A man that is a real man has something that drives, something that creates enthusiasm. Now, says the Master, I have told you not to be anxious about these things. But there is something you are to be anxious about, something to seek, something to consume you. There is something that ought to drive you, making every nerve tingle and throb, and every artery flow with force. What is it? The Kingdom of God. So the Master would save US from the anxiety of a lower level, which makes force impossible on a higher, in order that He may develop force on the higher. Do not be anxious about the lower things, "But seek ye first His Kingdom, and His righteousness." Seek it in essence. Let it be the underlying passion. Seek it in enterprise. Seek it everywhere.

But is there not an immediate application? Food, drink, raiment. Do not be anxious about them, but seek the Kingdom in them. Dress for the Kingdom of God. Eat for the Kingdom of God. Let the great underlying passion, which is the great principle of the life, find its throbbing way into the extremities of the life. Things about which you are not to be anxious in themselves, and for themselves; you are to be anxious about, in order that through them also the Kingdom of God may come. Seek that in essence, in enterprise, and in individual application. With a touch of fine and beautiful disdain, which is not contempt if we may make so fine a distinction the Lord says, "All these things shall be added unto you." "Added unto you." Mark the conception-food, drink, raiment, added. That is, the necessary luggage with which you travel, the added things which are nevertheless impedimenta. Some people are always worrying, when travelling, about their luggage, and that is just what a great many are doing about food and raiment. These things shall be added. Trust them to your Father. Trust them after your toil is over, after your planning is done. After you have sown and reaped and gathered, leave the rest. And if you do not think by your calculation that your doing, and reaping, and gathering is enough for all, then let there be no anxiety. Your Father knows, and here is your blank cheque for necessities-"These things shall be added unto you."

Once again, anxiety is always care about the future. To-morrow, that is it. It is always to-morrow, and so Jesus sums the whole thing up finally, and says: "Be not therefore anxious for the morrow; for the morrow will be anxious for itself," by which we do not understand the Lord to mean that it is a proper function of to-morrow to be anxious about to-morrow, but by which we do understand Him to mean, Do what you will, there will be something in to-morrow to be anxious about. You cannot kill to-morrow's anxiety by being anxious about it to-day. And so He says, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Evil does not mean sin. It means adversity. Every day that comes will have in it evil-adversity-things calculated to make us anxious. To-morrow will be anxious. The evil will come whatever you do. All of which may be stated thus: Live, oh child of thy Father, subject of thy King, live to-day.

There is no suspicion of asceticism in this section. Our Father knows that His people will be here in the world, and will have to do with earthly things. He does not even say it is wrong to lay up treasure. He only advises us as to how we shall make our investment of treasure. Do not lay it up on earth. Lay it up in heaven. There is nothing ascetic here. There is no warrant for improvidence here. The man who will go out and say, Very well, I will be like the sparrow, I will not sow, or reap, or gather-well, we know the issue, and neither we nor anyone else will pity him. If a man shall say, I will go and be as the flower of the field, I will not toil or spin-well, we see at once the unutterable folly of such an argument. Do not imagine that the King commands us not to think for the future. Do not say, that because God cares, you are not to provide for your wife, and your bairns, in the case of your dying. Let us have no nonsense talked about the evil of insurance. "If any provideth not for his own, and specially his own household, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever," says the apostle; and the whole teaching of Jesus is, not that we are not to reap, sow, gather, toil, spin; but that through our toil and planning we are not to be anxious; through reaping we are to trust; in our gathering we are to sing; as we toil we are to rejoice; as we spin we are to be quiet. It is a call to the life that is frictionless, because by the principle of faith man takes hold upon God, and, submitting, knows what it is to have His power operating through his work, and His life providing for his need.