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. Is not
the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the
fowls of the air; 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? 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 how they grow: they toil not,
neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if
God 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? Therefore take no thought, 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. But seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these
things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the
morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself:
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

THE COLLECT.

O Lord, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and defend
thy Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without thy
succour, preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness; through
Jesus Christ our Lord. _Amen_.

THE EPISTLE. Ephes. iii. 13.

I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is
your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth
is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his
glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner
man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all
saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye
might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that
is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in
the Church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without
end. Amen.

THE