y stand,
and in their organic connection with each other, the reasons which
Christ gives for the absence of anxious care from our minds.

I mass them all into three. If you notice, the whole section, to the end
of the chapter, is divided into three parts, by the threefold repetition
of the injunction, 'Take no thought.' '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.' The reason for the command as given in this first
section follows:--Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment?' The expansion of that thought runs on to the close of the
thirtieth verse. Then there follows another division or section of the
whole, marked by the repetition of the command, 'Take no
thought,'--saying, 'What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or,
Wherewithal shall we be clothed?' The reason given for the command in
this second section is--'(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 then follows a third
section, marked by the third repetition of the command, 'Take no
thought--for the morrow.' The reason given for the command in this third
section is--'for the morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself.'

Now if we try to generalise the lessons that lie in these three great
divisions of the section, we get, I think, first,--anxious thought is
contrary to all the lessons of nature, which show it to be unnecessary.
That is the first, the longest section. Then, secondly, anxious thought
is contrary to all the lessons of revelation or religion, which show it
to be heathenish. And lastly, anxious thought is contrary to the whole
scheme of Providence, which shows it to be futile. You do not _need_ to
be anxious. It is _wicked_ to be anxious. It is _of no use_ to be
anxious. These are the three points,--anxious care is contrary to the
lessons of Nature; contrary to the great principles of the Gospel; and
contrary to the scheme of Providence. Let us try now simply to follow
the course of thought in our Lord's illustration of these three
principles.

I. The first is the consideration of the teaching of Nature. '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?' And then comes the illustration of the fowls