. . . “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
“Therefore I say unto you, 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.” . . .
EVERY one who has thoughtfully read that description of the Samaritans in
the second book of Kings—“they feared the LORD and served their own
gods”—must have been struck with the mockery, the blasphemy, the
absurdity of such a fear. Fear Him, who claims to be the only GOD, and
yet regard many others as equally and independently gods! Worship Him,
all whose service is pure, and innocent, and self-emptying, and righteous
and yet worship Ashtaroth, the goddess of licentious pleasure—Moloch, the
god of cruelty—Chemosh, and his abominations—Belial, and his worldliness!
This, my brethren, we all see is not simply a _forbidden_ but an
_impossible_ service. The commands, the sanctions, the promises, the
service of Jehovah, and of any one of these others, are so thoroughly
opposite, so condemnatory of each other, that the man who attempts to
observe them both, is far more impious and more foolish than the
benighted heathen who carves an idol out of a block of wood or piece of
stone and bows down to it alone in homage, and looks up only to it for
blessings. If, then, mammon means a false god—either a deified human
being, or a personified vice or virtue, or an actual dumb, senseless
idol,—we feel that Christ has rightly said, not ye “_shall_ not,” but ye
“cannot” serve it and GOD. There is no room for the question whether GOD
will wink at a divided homage; whether, provided He is _one_ of the
objects of worship, He will not be over-severe with you for having other
objects. The attempt to serve both is an attempt at what is impossible;
not at what may not be, on account of certain commands and restrictions,
but at what cannot be from the very nature of things. GOD altogether—or
mammon altogether, if you will; but “ye cannot serve GOD and mammon.”
You see this, you approve Christ’s teaching, you are ready to condemn,
you do now condemn—the impiety, the folly of attempting to serve GOD and
mammon.
But, my brethren, consider. Do you know what and whom you condemn? Are
you quite sure that you do not yourselves attempt to serve mammon as well
as GOD? Oh, yes! you are quite sure! Mammon, a false god—a name without
a being like Jove and Mars, like fairies and genii—or a substance without
life—like Bel of the Chaldeans, or Juggernaut of the Hindoos—you are not
so senseless as to serve this!
Or, again, if mammon be, as some commentators tell us, only a
personification of riches, and his service therefore be the immoderate
pursuit of wealth and worldly aggrandisement, still you are free. You
may sometimes make great efforts to be rich, you may often desire and
covet wealth; but you are not sordid misers; you are not engrossed in the
pursuit of wealth; you do not treat it as a god, and give to it the
thought and homage due to Jehovah.
Dear brethren, it is not so certain that you could quite clear yourselves
of the sin and folly of serving mammon, even if this were all that is
meant. But it is not. Look to the text, “Ye cannot serve GOD and
mammon.” What then? Why give up mammon! And what is mammon? The next
verse tells you, “Therefore I say unto you, 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.” So, then, taking thought for these things is
serving mammon.
Who is free from idolatry now?
“But,” some are ready to exclaim, “taking thought for these things is a
very law and necessity of my being. I came into this world needing food
and clothing. Others had to take thought to feed and clothe me. They
early impressed upon me as one of the clearest duties of my responsible
life that I should take this thought for myself, and now I can only get
these things for myself and my family by taking thought for them.” Ay,
and the very Word of GOD enjoins the duty: “Go to the ant, thou sluggard,
consider her ways and be wise”—learn, that is, from her forethought and
provision; look about thee, be industrious, store up for future wants.
Our LORD Himself set the example of such forethought, when He committed
the care of a bag to one of His disciples, that food, and money to buy
food, might be carried about with them; and the Apostle Paul plainly
taught—“If any will not work, neither shall he eat.” “If any man provide
not for his own, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.”
My brethren, the law of nature has imposed, and the Word of GOD therefore
approves, that we should look about and provide for our necessities.
Wherever there is power to do this, the power must be exercised, or we
must run the risk of want. The lilies of the field are fed by GOD’S own
hand with nourishment, which they cannot seek. The unfledged bird has
but to open its mouth to receive the food, which divinely implanted
instinct has caused the parent to bring; but when it is grown it must
itself make provision—it must search the trees for berries and the earth
for worms, or it must die of starvation. GOD takes thought for sparrows,
yet He requires, if I may so speak, that they should think for
themselves; and thereby He teaches us, confirming this teaching by plain
words of revelation, that it is incumbent upon us to make provision for
our necessities, and so, of course, to _think_ about them. But
_thinking_ is not _taking thought_. When our Bible was translated, to
“take thought” meant (as the Greek word which it represents does) to be
anxious, troubled, perplexed about a thing, and so to be drawn off by its
consideration from other thoughts, and cares, and duties. The
consistent, devoted servant of GOD, while intent upon his due and loved
service, may and should use precaution and diligence to sustain in
appointed ways the lower life and wants of himself and his; but if he
takes thought about them, cares more or thinks more about temporal things
than spiritual; if he leaves undone religious duties, or transgresses
divine commands, or wears out his zeal, or consumes his time (of choice)
in securing or seeking worldly provision, then does he attempt to serve
mammon as well as GOD, and in so doing—attempting what cannot be—he
actually foregoes the service of GOD and becomes an idolater.
My dear brethren, let us go into this matter, and pick out its plain and
wholesome lessons, and ask GOD to engrave them deeply on our hearts. The
text is especially addressed to such as we are. It is not mainly for the
grossly covetous; for the would-be hoarders of great wealth; for the
epicure, intent upon dainty dishes and costly wines; for the giddy
votaries of fashion, ever meditating fresh extravagancies and greater
absurdities, betraying by their silly, unchristian finery the emptiness
of their minds and the callousness of their hearts, making themselves
gazing-stocks to the thoughtless and objects of pity to the thoughtful.
It is not, I say, _chiefly_ for these (though it is indeed _for_ them,
and it behoves them to regard it very seriously), but it is for those who
take thought for necessaries that our text was spoken and written; who
are in concern not for a superabundance, but for a sufficiency of the
things of this life. To them it says, Take no thought, be not anxious,
perplexed. Let not these things engross your hearts, or cause you in any
way to swerve from the pure and entire service of GOD, for—this is the
first reason—to do so is to sin, it is to give up GOD and choose mammon.
Ye who do it are idolaters. Make no plea of opposing difficulty or
necessity, count upon no indulgence. If you serve mammon, you do not
serve GOD. GOD will have no part of a divided heart, and will not be
served at all by those who do not serve Him altogether.
Dear brethren, try to embrace this truth. GOD’S commands are not to be
explained away, nor are excuses to be made for disregarding them. Obey
them at all hazards—do not pare them down by pleas of expediency.
Doubtless, the service is a very hard one. It is very difficult not to
take thought for immediate and pressing wants. It is a great temptation
to a very poor man to have an opportunity of making a few shillings by
working or keeping his shop open on the LORD’S Day. It is a great
temptation to one who is hard-worked during the week to have the power of
turning the day of holy rest into one of worldly pleasure. It would be
very convenient to the man of business to make up his ledger when he
should be reading his Bible; to be thinking of his projects and prospects
in this life rather than his coming eternity; to be pushing a bargain
which is very advantageous, though it is a little unjust; to get what he
_can_ for his goods, rather than what he _ought_; to tell little
untruths; to grind down his dependents; to withhold from charitable
purposes the money which can be made useful for self; in short, to be
ever taking thought for temporal things and not taking thought for
spiritual, and so to miss opportunities of meditating, and reading, and
praying, of worshipping, and communicating, and doing good, and preparing
for heaven. The comparatively well-to-do man doubtless finds this
worldly taking thought agreeable and in a sense advantageous; the poor
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.
And, on the other hand, though a Lazarus is _sometimes_ fed with crumbs
only, if you knew the inner life of the seeming waiters on GOD who are in
want, you would nearly always find that their necessity remains
unrelieved, because they have not thoroughly performed the prescribed
conditions; or that it was in some fit of independence, by some forbidden
taking thought that they overreached themselves and fell. In proportion
as any one has opportunity to investigate the causes of distress, he will
surely be more and more ready to confirm the testimony of a great
observer:—“I have been young and now am old, and yet saw I never the
righteous forsaken or his seed begging their bread.”
And what, then, are we to infer from all this? That besides GOD’S
general providence which rules over all, ordering, as from a distant
throne, the being and motions of the universe, He exercises a particular
providence, drawing nigh to individuals, stepping in between cause and
effect, saving, helping, prospering, hindering, confounding, destroying,
just in those very cases which natural laws would treat otherwise. Not
that this is always done in the case of all men. The wicked are often
and chiefly let alone; they are, it may be, in great prosperity for a
time; they come perhaps to no present misfortune; they do violence and
escape justice; their time of reward is not yet. Again, the righteous
are not exempt from trials, and troubles, and privations—their time of
reward is not yet (and if it were, their very trials, in the spiritual
effects they produce, may be part of their blessedness); but they are
never forsaken. The very hairs of their heads are all numbered. Nothing
befalls them but by GOD’S permission—a permission which is only given
when the event will work for their good. They may commit themselves unto
Him as unto a faithful Creator and most merciful Saviour; they may put
their trust in Him, assured that it will not miscarry; no evil shall
approach to hurt them lastingly—He will keep them as the apple of His
eye; none shall be able to pluck them out of His hand. In short, while
they desire the things which He promises, and love and do the things
which He commands, He will forward all their wise undertakings, and bless
them in all their circumstances; and when their own ignorance, or want of
forethought, or external so-called chances, or the machinations of evil
men or spirits expose them to danger, He will interfere and ward off the
consequences, save only when, like the trials of Job or Joseph, they can
be made productive of greater excellence and so of greater reward. If
this be so, then surely expediency approves what right demands, that we
should forego the taking thought which is so uncertainly successful, and
that we should repose in a care which never fails—“Casting all your care
upon Him for He careth for you.”
Oh! my brethren, try to believe heartily this great doctrine of a
particular Providence! Look not back to the creation of the world, and
to the working out of men’s redemption in Judea, or forward to the
Judgment Day, as though GOD were only working and manifesting Himself
there and then. GOD is everywhere and is active everywhere; He is here
now; He is marking how we conduct ourselves in this house; He is looking
into the very depths of our hearts and minds, and noting whatsoever lurks
there. This night He will be about our beds; to-morrow about our paths;
always spying out all our ways. Of every thought, of every word, of
every deed of ours, He will at once note the intent and the measure. Of
all that is done in His fear and service, He will record that it is
“righteous worship;” of all else that it is “idolatry,” the setting up of
some person or some thing as more worthy to be loved or feared than He
is. Every undertaking, every endurance, all safety and all danger, all
wisdom and all folly, will be watched and allowed or overruled according
as we deserve or deserve not to be dealt with in love by a present GOD.
Oh! if we felt this, how easy would it be to avoid taking thought for
temporal things! how full would be our minds of GOD! how should we
breathe as in His presence, and listen for His guidance, and trust in His
providence! And then how determined would be our service of Him! We
should not talk of expediency; we should not invent excuses; we should
not do evil that good may come, or avoid good that we may escape
unpleasant circumstances. No! GOD would be indeed GOD; religion would
be the one thing needful; we should hope for what it promised, and fear
what it threatened. The allurements of the world, the offers of
pleasure, riches, power, honour, would be scorned as childish toys idly
held out to sage and sober men. The scoffs, the sneers, the threats, the
persecutions of the world would be nothing cared for—they would be as the
impotent threats of chained madmen.
Serve God or mammon? Who would be in doubt which to do, who would shrink
from or fail in the service, if GOD were only thus palpably present?
Having thus set GOD before us, how zealously should we serve Him, how
confidently should we rest on Him!
And, lastly, what men of prayer we should become. If we felt that GOD is
indeed an interfering power in the world; that His superintendence is not
general only but special also; that He may at any time avert a threatened
danger, or confer an improbable blessing; that, in short, He may alter
the whole face of things, and their working upon us and ours on them at
any moment, and that our doings, our yearnings, our prayers may prompt
His interference; then would not prayer cease to be regarded as a mere
necessary religious exercise, to be gone through much as grace before and
after meat is; would it not become a vivid recital of our wants and
feelings, an earnest pleading, a very wrestling with GOD? Would not
every event, every shadow of weal or wo bring us to our knees? Should we
make any plans or enter upon any course, or indulge any thoughts, before
we had laid all before Him? In all our efforts, all our fears, all our
wishes, all our sufferings, should we not betake ourselves to Him not
only as the Wise Counsellor but the Effectual Doer? And in all our
blessings and averted dangers, as readily and as heartily should we offer
the tribute of thanksgiving; asking from Him what we desired, ascribing
to Him what we received throughout our life, and its every circumstance
realizing that the LORD GOD Omnipotent reigneth, and that we are the
subjects of His rule; in all our interests and all our duties resting and
acting upon the tremendous truth that GOD is a GOD at hand and not a GOD
afar off!
SERMON II.
RIGHT THOUGHTS OF CHRIST.