, anxiety
is contrary to the very name by which we have learned to call God, and
to the pledge of pitying care and perfect knowledge of our frame which
lies in the words 'our Father.' Our Father is the name of God, and our
Father intensely cares for us, and lovingly does all things for us.

And then, still further, Christ points out here, not only what is
the real root of this solicitous care--something very like
worldly-mindedness, heathen worldly-mindedness; but He points out what
is the one counterpoise of it--'seek first the kingdom of God.' It is of
no use only to tell men that they ought to trust, that the birds of the
air might teach them to trust, that the flowers of the field might
preach resignation and confidence to them. It is of no use to attempt to
scold them into trust, by telling them that distrust is heathenish. You
must fill the heart with a supreme and transcendent desire after the
one supreme object, and then there will be no room or leisure left for
anxious care after the lesser. Have inwrought into your being, Christian
man, the opposite of that heathen over-regard for earthly things. 'Seek
first the kingdom of God.' Let all your spirit be stretching itself out
towards that divine and blessed reality, longing to be a subject of that
kingdom, and a possessor of that righteousness; and 'the cares that
infest the day' will steal away from out of the sacred pavilion of your
believing spirit. Fill your heart with desires after what is worthy of
desire; and the greater having entered in, all lesser objects will rank
themselves in the right place, and the 'glory that excelleth' will
outshine the seducing brightness of the paltry present. Oh! it is want
of love, it is want of earnest desire, it is want of firm conviction
that God, God only, God by Himself, is enough for me, that makes me
careful and troubled. And therefore, if I could only attain unto that
sublime and calm height of perfect conviction, that He is sufficient for
me, that He is with me for ever,--the satisfying object of my desires
and the glorious reward of my searchings,--let life and death come as
they may, let riches, poverty, health, sickness, all the antitheses of
human circumstances storm down upon me in quick alternation, yet in them
all I shall be content and peaceful. God is beside me, and His presence
brings in its train whatsoever things I need. You cannot cast out the
sin of foreboding thoughts by any power short of the entrance