We read of "care-encumbered men;" and truly we see more than we could wish of them. As we look into the faces of those we meet daily, we are saddened with the thought that a great weight of care rests on our race as a heavy burden. And when we see, as we do, a few faces that wear the look of a sweet serenity born of holy trust in God, we ask - Is it necessary that such an oppressive burden should be borne by the children of men? Jesus Christ answers this question in the negative. He says that anxiety is quite needless to the children of God; he says, "Trust and rest; believe in God, and be at peace; recognize the power and the love of your heavenly Father, and do not be 'greatly moved' by temporal necessities." And he reasons with us on the subject; he desires to prove to us the needlessness of anxiety in the presence of such a God and Father as is he whom we worship. He argues this-

1. FROM GOD'S GREATER KINDNESS TO OURSELVES. (Ver. 23.) Any one of our friends who would do us a very great kindness would certainly be prepared to render us a very small favor. To one who has done us a valuable service we should look with perfect confidence to do some slight office for us. The love which is equal to the one will be more than equal to the other. Now, God has given us life, and has been sustaining us in being by his constant visitation; he has given us our wonderfully constituted body, and he has been preserving it in health and strength for years. Will he who has conferred these great boons upon us withhold from us blessings so simple and so slight as food and raiment? "Is not the life more than meat [food], and the body than raiment?" Will he who grants the greater refuse the less?

II. FROM GOD'S CARE OF THINGS THAT ARE OF LESS ACCOUNT THAN WE ARE. (Vers. 24, 27, 28.) "Consider the ravens" - birds of the air, creatures that are interesting in their degree, but unintelligent, unaccountable, perishable: God feeds them. "Consider the lilies, how they grow;" they do nothing for their clothing; and not only are they unintelligent and irresponsible like the birds, but they are unconscious, insentient things; yet they are exquisitely fair: God clothes them. If he takes thought for such creatures and for such things as these; if he concerns himself with that which is so much lower in the scale than are we, his own beloved children, created in his image and formed to share his own immortality, how certain it is that he will provide for us! The Divine wisdom that expends so much upon the lower will not neglect the higher.

III. THE COMPLETENESS OF OUR DEPENDENCE ON GOD. (Ver. 25.) So completely are we in the hands of our Creator that we cannot, by any amount of thinking, "add one cubit to our stature." Do what we may, try what we can, we are still absolutely dependent on God. It rests with him to decide what shall be the length of our days, what shadow or sunshine shall fall on our path, whether our cup shall be sweet or bitter. We are in his Divine hands; let us be his servants; let us ask his guidance and blessing; and then let us trust ourselves to his power and his love. And this the more that we should remember -

IV. THE UNWORTHINESS OF GREAT CONCERN FOR SUCH TEMPORALITIES. To be greatly troubled about what we shall eat, or what we shall wear, or in what house we shall live, - this is pagan, but it is not Christian; leave that to "the nations of the world" (ver. 30).

V. THE RELATION IN WHICH GOD STANDS TO US. (Ver. 30.) This is that of an all-wise Father. "Our Father knows." We are in the power of One who is perfectly acquainted with our circumstances and with ourselves; he will not deny us anything are need because he is ignorant of our necessity.; he will not give us anything that would be hurtful, for his fatherly love will constrain him to withhold it. We are immeasurably safer in his hands than we should be in those of the kindest of our human friends, or than we should be if it rested with our own will to shape our path, to fill our cup. - C.

Our Lord here crushes a whole world of meaning into a single word, which, as we study it, resolves itself into a bright, impressive picture or parable. The phrase really comes to this: "Do not toss about in the windy offing, when you may ride safely in the sheltered haven." And if we take it in connection with what goes before and what comes after, we find that the complete parable runs thus: "Do not toss about on the wide dangerous sea of Care, on which so many make shipwreck, but rather take shelter in the safe and tranquil harbour of Trust in God." Had our Lord paused to expand the parable, and had He thrown it into the form which most of His parables assume, He might have used some such words as these: " The Kingdom of God is like unto a large and tranquil harbour, into which all who sail across the stormy sea of life may enter and be at rest." Now the calm and simple ideal of life which Christ here holds up before us is one that has a special claim on us, and a special charm, in days such as these when most men are seeking outward good — seeking wealth and worldly advancement — with a passionate and feverish eagerness. Who does not long, at least at times, to escape

The heavy trouble, the bewildering care

That weighs us down who live and earn our bread?

Who is not weary of the strain, the waste, the ungenerous rivalry, the intense and protracted drudgery which what men call " success in life" demands? Who does not see that the pursuit of what we call "comfort" is well-nigh taking all comfort out of our days? Who does not admit, in any moment of cool reflection, that the general homage to wealth is becoming a degrading and unmanly idolatry, inducing false estimates of character, and leading men to value the means of living above the true ends of life? What we should admire in our neighbours, what we should chiefly aim at for ourselves, is not a gay and wealthy outside of circumstance, but noble character — virtue, wisdom, piety, inward worth. And this is the aim, the ideal, which the Lord Jesus sets before us. He bids us seek first the Kingdom of God; and the Kingdom of God is within us, not without. He would have us cultivate those graces of spiritual character which fit us both to meet any circumstances and changes of circumstances in this life, and to enter with the joy of a foreseen triumph on the dark and narrow avenue which leads to the life to come. If we take His counsel, He promises us an absolute freedom from care. He assures us that we shall ride safely in a sheltered port instead of tossing on the heaving storm-swept' sea. Not that He prohibits care and thought. A man must take thought, must study and plan and contrive, if he is to be a wise man. We may make the voyages which the necessities of life demand, and bring home much store of merchandise; but then, we are to have a home, "a city of the soul" to which we may repair; and when we reach it, we are not to cast anchor in the windy offing, but to take refuge in the tranquil haven. That is to say, we are to attend to the duties and labours of life, attend to them with diligence, give our best thought and care to them; but, when these duties and labours are discharged, we are not to vex our souls with an incessant anxiety as to the issue of our toils; we are to leave that with God, and not to be careful because He cares for us. So, again, forethought is no more forbidden than thought. A wise man, a man with "discourse of reason," i.e., a man in whom reason is not dumb and inert, must "look before and after." There would be no unity in his life, no continuous development and activity, no linking on of month to month and year to year, if he did not look forward and scheme for the future as well as for the present. What Christ forbids is so looking onward to to-morrow as to cloud to-day, so anticipating the future as to darken the present. And this is the very point at which we commonly fail. To-day may be well enough, we admit; or, at the worst, we could get through its tasks and endure its trials. But what of to-morrow? What of the future? How shall we meet the toils and losses and troubles we foresee? Now it is from this pernicious habit of "borrowing trouble from the future," as though we had not enough of it in the present, that Christ would save us. "Trust in God for the future," He says; "Do your duty to-day, and leave to-morrow with Him. And let this trust be your tranquil haven, your harbour of refuge, whenever the waves of Care run high." Rest and refit in the harbour to-night; and if, when the morning breaks, you have to sail out into a stormy sea, you will at least be in a better condition to meet it.

(S. Cox, D. D.)

Perhaps I am speaking to some child of poverty. I remember a beautiful story applicable to you. The late Lady Huntingdon, passing by a low, mean-looking cottage one day, heard a faint, soft sound inside, and drew up to the door, when she heard a voice uttering these words, "O my God, I thank Thee that I have all this — the Lord Jesus now and heaven at last." Thought the listener, what can this mean? Curiosity is strong; and giving the door a little touch, she saw an aged one — a poor woman, eighty years of age — with a pitcher of water and a crust, and her hands raised in the attitude of thanksgiving, and her words were, "O Lord, I thank Thee that I have all this, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and heaven at last." Rest in His word. "My God shall supply all your need." Oh, sweet the scant supply where there is a confiding, joyous heart! Birds of song sing as merrily just before their breakfast, though they don't know where it is to come from, as they do when they have got it. And the God who watches over the bird will not neglect you. "Lacked ye anything?" said the Lord to the seventy, who had been sent out without any worldly emoluments; and they answered, "No, Lord." Many a saint at the close of his pilgrimage can say the same; can say, "Notwithstanding all the vicissitudes and changes and losses that I have endured, God has given me food and raiment, and I have, not wanting much, wanted for nothing."

(J. Denham Smith.)

"Never did man die of hunger who served God faithfully," Cuthbert would say, when nightfall found them supperless in the waste. "Look at that eagle overhead! God can feed us through him if He will" — and once, at least, he owed his meal to a fish that the scared bird let fall. A snowstorm drove his boat on the coast of Fife. "The snow closes the road along the shore," moaned his comrades; "the storm bars our way over sea." "There is still the way of heaven that lies open," said Cuthbert.

(J. R. Green, "Short History. ")

Jesus, Peter, SolomonRoad to JerusalemEagerly, Knoweth, Nations, Pursue, Runs, Search, Seek, Though1. Jesus preaches to his apostles to avoid hypocrisy
13. and warns against covetousness, by the parable of the man who set up greater barns.
22. We must not worry about earthly things,
31. but seek the kingdom of God;
33. give alms;
35. be ready at a knock to open to our Lord whensoever he comes.
41. Jesus' disciples are to see to their charges,
49. and look for persecution.
54. The people must take this time of grace;
57. because it is a fearful thing to die without reconciliation.

Luke 12:30

     4027   world, fallen
     6209   pagans

Luke 12:15-31

     5967   thrift

Luke 12:16-31

     5503   rich, the

Luke 12:22-30

     5136   body
     7115   children of God

Luke 12:22-31

     1330   God, the provider
     5766   attitudes, to life

Luke 12:27-30

     8849   worry

Luke 12:27-31

     4460   grass
     5178   running

Luke 12:28-30

     8744   faithlessness, as disobedience

Luke 12:29-30

     1020   God, all-knowing
     5802   care
     8811   riches, attitudes to

Luke 12:29-31

     1330   God, the provider
     8160   seeking God

Luke 12:29-32

     1040   God, fatherhood

Luke 12:30-31

     2363   Christ, preaching and teaching

October 23 Morning
A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.--LUKE 12:15. A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.--Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith.--Godliness with contentment is great gain. Having food and raiment let us be therewith content. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

March 29 Morning
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.--MATT. 25:34. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.--Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?--Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

March 26 Morning
The kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods . . . to every man according to his several ability.--MATT. 25:14,15. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey? All these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.--As every man hath received the gift, …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

May 14. "But God" (Luke xii. 20).
"But God" (Luke xii. 20). What else do we really need? What else is He trying to make us understand? The religion of the Bible is wholly supernatural. The one resource of faith has always been the living God, and Him alone. The children of Israel were utterly dependent upon Jehovah as they marched through the wilderness, and the one reason their foes feared them and hastened to submit themselves was that they recognized among them the shout of a King, and the presence of One compared with whom all …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Stillness in Storm
'... Neither be ye of doubtful mind.'--LUKE xii. 29. I think that these words convey no very definite idea to most readers. The thing forbidden is not very sharply defined by the expression which our translators have employed, but the original term is very picturesque and precise. The word originally means 'to be elevated, to be raised as a meteor,' and comes by degrees to mean to be raised in one special way--namely, as a boat is tossed by a tough sea. So there is a picture in this prohibition which …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

The Servant-Lord
Verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth, and serve them.--LUKE xii. 37. No one would have dared to say that except Jesus Christ. For surely, manifold and wonderful as are the glimpses that we get in the New Testament of the relation of perfect souls in heaven to Him, none of them pierces deeper, rises higher, and speaks more boundless blessing, than such words as these. Well might Christ think it necessary to preface them with the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

Fire on Earth
'I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled!'--LUKE xii. 49. We have here one of the rare glimpses which our Lord gives us into His inmost heart, His thought of His mission, and His feelings about it. If familiarity had not weakened the impression, and dulled the edge, of these words, how startling they would seem to us! 'I am come'--then, He was, before He came, and He came by His own voluntary act. A Jewish peasant says that He is going to set the world on fire-and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

The Rich Fool
'And one of the company said unto Him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. 14. And He said unto him, Man, who made Me a judge or a divider over you? 15. And He said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. 16. And He spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: 17. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

Anxious About Earth, or Earnest About the Kingdom
'And He said unto His disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. 24. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? 25. And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? 26. If ye then be not able to do that thing …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

The Equipment of the Servants
'Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; 36. And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.'--Luke xii. 35, 36. These words ought to stir us like the sound of a trumpet. But, by long familiarity, they drop upon dull ears, and scarcely produce any effect. The picture that they suggest, as an emblem of the Christian state, is a striking one. It is midnight, a great house is without its master, the lord of the palace is absent, but expected back, the servants are busy in …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

Servants and Stewards Here and Hereafter
'Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching: Verily I shall say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find so doing. 44. Of a truth I say unto you, that He will make him ruler over all that he hath. --LUKE xii. 37, 43, and 44. You will, of course, observe that these two passages are strictly parallel in form. Our Lord evidently intends …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

October the Nineteenth Ready!
"Let your loins be girded about." --LUKE xii. 35-40. Loose garments can be very troublesome. An Oriental robe, if left ungirdled, entangles the feet, or is caught by the wind and hinders one's goings. And therefore the wearer binds the loose attire together with a girdle, and makes it firm and compact about his body. And loose principles can be more dangerous than loose garments. Indefinite opinions, caught by the passing wind of popular caprice, are both a peril and a burden. Many people go through …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

True Harvest Joy.
TEXT: LUKE xii. 16-21. TO-DAY the harvest thanksgiving is celebrated through out the land, and it is most fitting that it should be with all of us a day of great and joyful giving of thanks. Although there are but few among the masses of people crowded together in this as in other great cities, who have any direct share in this great business of agriculture, yet we are all aware that it is the prime source of our common prosperity; indeed, I may say, the first condition of the development of our …
Friedrich Schleiermacher—Selected Sermons of Schleiermacher

On the Words of the Gospel, Luke xii. 15, "And He Said unto Them, Take Heed, and Keep Yourselves from all Covetousness. "
1. I doubt not but that ye who fear God, do hear His word with awe, and execute it with cheerfulness; that what He hath promised, ye may at present hope for, hereafter receive. We have just now heard the Lord Christ Jesus, the Son of God, giving us a precept. The Truth, who neither deceiveth, nor is deceived, hath given us a precept; let us hear, fear, beware. What is this precept then: "I say unto you, Beware of all covetousness"? [3392] What is, "of all covetousness"? What is, "of all"? Why did …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

On the Words of the Gospel, Luke xii. 35, "Let Your Loins be Girded About, and Your Lamps Burning; and be Ye Yourselves Like," Etc. And
1. Our Lord Jesus Christ both came to men, and went away from men, and is to come to men. And yet He was here when He came, nor did He depart when He went away, and He is to come to them to whom He said, "Lo, I am with you, even unto the end of the world." [3417] According to the "form of a servant" then, which He took for our sakes, was He born at a certain time, and was slain, and rose again, and now "dieth no more, neither shall death have any more dominion over Him;" [3418] but according to His …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

On the Words of the Gospel, Luke xii. 56, 58, "Ye Know How to Interpret the Face of the Earth and the Heaven," Etc. ; and Of
1. We have heard the Gospel, and in it the Lord reproving those who knew how to discern the face of the sky, and know not how to discover the time of faith, the kingdom of heaven which is at hand. Now this He said to the Jews; but His words reach even unto us. Now the Lord Jesus Christ Himself began the preaching of His Gospel in this way; "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." [3431] In like manner too John the Baptist and His forerunner began thus; "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

On Worldly Folly
"But God said unto him, Thou fool!" Luke 12:20. But one of these fools is commonly wiser in his own eyes "than seven men that can render a reason." If it were possible for a Christian, for one that has the mind which was in Christ, to despise any one, he would cordially despise those who suppose "they are the men, and wisdom shall die with them." You may see one of these, painted to the life, in the verses preceding the text. "The ground of a certain rich man," says our blessed Lord, "brought forth …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

On Divine Providence
"Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Luke 12:7. 1. The doctrine of divine providence has been received by wise men in all ages. It was believed by many of the eminent Heathens, not only philosophers, but orators and poets. Innumerable are the testimonies concerning it which are scattered up and down in their writings; agreeable to that well-knowing saying in Cicero, Deorum moderamine cuncta geri: "That all things, all events in this world, are under the management of God." We might …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

The Use of Fear in Religion.
PROVERBS ix. 10.--"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Luke xii. 4, 5.--"And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him." The place which the feeling of fear ought to hold in the religious experience of mankind is variously assigned. Theories of religion are continually passing …
William G.T. Shedd—Sermons to the Natural Man

Darkness Before the Dawn
"Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether."--SONG OF SOLOMON 2:17. THE SPOUSE SINGS, "Until the day break, and the shadows flee away," so that the beloved of the Lord may be in the dark. It may be night with her who has a place in the heart of the Well-beloved. A child of God, who is a child of light, may be for a while in darkness; first, darkness comparatively, as compared with the light he has some times …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 42: 1896

Hypocrisy
I am sure that every true child of God will stand at times in doubt of himself, and his fear will probably take the shape of a suspicion concerning his own state. He that never doubted of his state, He may--perhaps he may--too late. The Christian, however, does not belong to that class. He will at times begin to be terribly alarmed, lest, after all, his godliness should be but seeming, and his profession an empty vanity. He who is true will sometimes suspect himself of falsehood, while he who is …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859

Our Requests Made Known unto God
OUR REQUESTS MADE KNOWN UNTO GOD ". . . Let your requests be made known unto God." -- Phil. 4:6. Paul, the pattern saint, would have us see the value of revealing our needs to God in prayer. We must not presume that the things required to sustain life will be granted without making our requests known unto God. Our requirements on earth and God's resources in heaven are meant for each other. If we ask, we shall receive. When we fail to ask, we fail to receive. The Word declares, "Ye have not, because …
T. M. Anderson—Prayer Availeth Much

Lii. Concerning Hypocrisy, Worldly Anxiety, Watchfulness, and his Approaching Passion.
(Galilee.) ^C Luke XII. 1-59. ^c 1 In the meantime [that is, while these things were occurring in the Pharisee's house], when the many thousands of the multitude were gathered together, insomuch that they trod one upon another [in their eagerness to get near enough to Jesus to see and hear] , he began to say unto his disciples first of all [that is, as the first or most appropriate lesson], Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. [This admonition is the key to the understanding …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Christianity Misunderstood by Men of Science.
Attitude of Men of Science to Religions in General--What Religion is, and What is its Significance for the Life of Humanity-- Three Conceptions of Life--Christian Religion the Expression of the Divine Conception of Life--Misinterpretation of Christianity by Men of Science, who Study it in its External Manifestations Due to their Criticising it from Standpoint of Social Conception of Life--Opinion, Resulting from this Misinterpretation, that Christ's Moral Teaching is Exaggerated and Cannot be put …
Leo Tolstoy—The Kingdom of God is within you

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