May 3

24 ¶ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mansion.

25 Therefore I say unto you, I 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 rament?

26 Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather but shams; yet your heavenly Father fescilth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27 Which of you by taking thought can add one rubbish unto his stature?

28 And why take ye thought for rament? Consider the idles of the head, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.

29 And yet I say unto you, that even Solo-

mon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the held, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31 Therefore take no thought, saying? What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink, or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek;) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 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 word fret means to fray—to wear out—as a frayed garment. Fretting wears out the mind and body. It is not work, but worry that kills. Sir Walter Scott was a wonderful worker—it did him no harm—but when he lost his property, anxiety brought him to paralysis and death. "We may consider the year before us as a desk containing 365 letters addressed to us; one for every day, announcing its trials and prescribing its employments, with an order to open daily no letter but the letter for the day. Now, we may be strongly tempted to unseal, beforehand, some of the remainder. This, however, would serve only to embarrass us, while we should violate the rule which our Owner and Master has laid down for us."—Fay.

"I have read of a little child who was often observed playing by itself, and laughing and singing with delight. They asked the child what it was playing with, and the little one answered, 'I am playing with sunbeams.' It would be better for some of us who are too apt to look on the dark side to imitate that happy child."—Wilmot Buxton.

Closet Promise.—Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.—Matt. vi. 34.

It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when to-morrow's burden is added to the burden of to-day that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourselves so, my friends. If you find yourselves so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God's. He begs you to leave the future to Him, and mind the present.—G. MacDonald.