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.

How the world is estranged from the principles of righteousness! How it
holds light to be darkness and darkness to be light! Instead of
accounting that there is any reasonableness in such trust in God as is
shown in this lesson they would fain be selfishly taking upon themselves
the responsibility of maintaining their own existence, and thus every
one seek for his own gain. Thinking that they thus have an excuse for
not devoting their time to God's service and their spiritual welfare,
the things of the Lord are forgotten and neglected, and their souls
consequently are lost. When will individuals learn that they have a
spiritual as well as a physical existence, and that the spiritual is the
more important of the two? Seek first the kingdom.

But the fact that we wish to bring out most prominently is that many
Christian professors, who are supposed to be examples of the Christian