Every saintly life on earth, is a sweet fragrance unto God, and every sinful life is a stench in his nostrils. As the rose scents the evening air, so a pure life scatters a sweet Christian influence and a knowledge of God throughout the world. The literal translation of 2 Cor. 2:14 reads thus: "But thanks be to God, who leads me on from place to place in the train of his triumph, to celebrate his victory over the enemies of Christ, and by me sends forth the knowledge of him, a stream of fragrant incense, throughout the world." A saintly life diffuses a sweet, heavenly fragrance throughout the world, and brings a knowledge of God and the nature of his salvation to the minds of men. Let me exhort you, therefore, to a pure life, a life full of devotion and reverence to God. You can make your life, by God's grace, a constant, flowing stream of fragrant incense, whose sweetness will linger long on the air after you have passed to higher realms. So may it be. SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Mat. 6:33. An injunction of much importance is here given. Verses 24 to 34 of this chapter show how beautifully it is in the plan of God to care for his own. We are taught to have our trust in God for what we eat, for what we drink, for what we wear--for all the necessities of this life. We are referred to the fowls of the air and the lilies of the field, which take no thought for their life, but live in their happy, independent way, without care or trouble. These God cares for and says we are of more value than they. What a valuable lesson we are to learn from this! But is it really true that we are to have the same degree of freedom from care or anxiety that the fowls or the lilies have? We shall also ask, Is it really possible? This lesson surely teaches that we are to have such a trust in our Maker, and therefore it must be possible. The apostle Paul instructs us in Phil. 4:6, "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." And in another place, "I would have you without carefulness." Our lives are to be free from worry or anxiety about anything and everything. This feature alone of the divine life, or this principle alone in the economy of God's gracious plan, ought to represent salvation as a thing greatly to be desired. But in the face of this people fail to see anything desirable in it, because by their unbelief they hold such a life to be impracticable. By this kind of unbelief the enemy of souls deprives many of their privileges in Christ and hinders the world from seeing the real nature of the salvation experience.