What the Lord bids us guard against, then, is conjectural brooding over the possible necessities of the future, and our possible lack of the resources required for their supply. "Taking thought" means giving way to anxiety--the constant occupation and worry of the heart in looking forward, gazing into, and dreading the possibilities of the days and years yet to come. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Be warned against forebodings of evil to-morrow. The lesson is, "Do the day's work as it is appointed by God; accept the day's mercy, bear the day's evil; and be not anxious about the evil which to-morrow may bring." How common a weakness--nay, rather let us say, how common a sin--this taking anxious thought for the morrow is! We see the lines of care in thousands of faces every day. Anxiety has marked its furrows round lips which every morning say, "Give us this day our daily bread." It is a calamity as well as a sin. It disturbs the heart, so that there can be no enjoyment of present mercies. It adds to the present the weight of an unknown but dreaded future. It paralyses religious feeling, and checks religious activity. It defeats its end by shortening the life it would fain prolong. Now Christ shows that this kind of anxiety reckons falsely, because it is founded on a false estimate of life; and He further shows that to gauge our position aright we must reckon according to the Divine thought respecting it. The whole of the teaching before us on this subject is perfectly plain, consisting of a few simple and obvious points. We cannot hope, indeed, to bring it within the understanding of the mere worldling. The man who has no filial confidence in God has no antidote for care. Anxiety can only be subdued in the heart of him who can look upward, and say, "Father, I trust in Thee!" What, then, is the first point? It is this, that God--the Author of our life, the Creator of our bodies--will surely give that which, however necessary, is yet less important and less valuable. In bringing us into existence, He has done more than He can do in giving to us any secular blessing which we can need. "Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" We have our life from Him; our bodies are His handiwork. Why should we suspect that He will be indisposed to give us whatever may be needful for the existence thus created? Will He, by neglect, frustrate His own purpose? The greater gift can only be sustained and made valid by the lesser ones. Without food and raiment the body must decay, and its life must perish. God does not give imperfectly.