man is hard pressed to give way to it; but still the command of GOD stands out—“Take no thought.” Do not say you must—you _must not_. “My wants,” says one, “must be relieved; my family must be fed and clothed; my work must be done; my interests must be looked after; my health must be preserved.” No, brethren, there is no _must_ in any one of these. GOD must be served; all the others may be, if they can be included in His service, not otherwise. And would you really come to want, if you were more religious? Would your family be left unprovided for? Would your health suffer? You do not seriously think it would. But what if it did? Welcome want, welcome sickness, welcome death—anything rather than worldly prosperity, if it can only be obtained by renunciation of GOD’S enjoined service and idolatrous devotion to mammon. The world will laugh at such preaching, brethren, and call it foolishness; but the world is nothing to us. It is doomed to pass away with all the things in it which lure us to take thought; but you and I must live on to eternity, and how we are to live shall be decided by the master we serve—GOD or mammon. A second reason why we are not to take thought is—that doing so will not insure what we want. “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature;” or, rather, such is the real meaning, can increase, even by a little measure, the length of his life. And, on the other hand, avoiding taking thought (from religious motives) _will_ insure what we want. “Seek ye first the kingdom of GOD and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you;” _i.e._, you shall not want (no more is promised here) food and raiment. At first thought, doubtless some of you fancy that your experience contradicts both these divine statements. You know many men who by taking thought have secured ample provision, have apparently even added to their lives, and you think you know some who have trusted in GOD’S promise and fulfilled its conditions and yet suffered grievous want. That some—yea, that many—by taking thought have secured what they wanted, is notorious; but that others, who have taken equal thought, have failed, is also notorious. Can you count the disappointed ambitious? the thwarted seekers of pleasure? the distressed hard-working? the bankrupts who have devoted every thought and effort, soul and body, to business? No! Well then taking thought does not insure what we want.