And how does the great Teacher speak to the careworn in these verses? Is it not unspiritual to take arguments for the comfort of our Christian life from lower things? Must we go to the irrational and inanimate creation for gospels of blessing for our spiritual need? Christ drew His arguments from the birds and the flowers; clearly showing that we should accustom ourselves to see God's hand, His love, His teaching, in all things. Let Him not be excluded from the least part of His creation. Every part of it may subserve the purposes of His grace. "_Consider_" the fowls of the air and the flowers of the fields; make them objects of study. To the thoughtful they often suggest "thoughts that lie too deep for tears;" to the Christian they may well suggest thoughts which shall inspire thanksgiving and prayer.
Note the condescension, the simplicity, and the power of our Lord's argument. His appeals are homely. He seeks no far-fetched reasonings or facts from antiquity. He points to birds and flowers; an argument for simple people, but equally effective for the learned and the refined. We have no need to go far for lessons of comfort.
We must not overlook the necessary limitations of our Lord's teaching in these verses. Those limitations are found in the nature of things. Observe, then,
I. Christ does not forbid all anticipations of the future. He cannot mean so much as this when He says, "Take no thought for the morrow." Man is an inhabitant of two worlds--one material, the other spiritual. This being so, two distinct sets or classes of wants press upon him--the wants of the body, and those of the soul. The wants of the soul point to a future state of existence, for which we must prepare. In relation to these, carelessness--the absence of forethought--would be fatal. According to the state of our souls, the thought of the future gives us terror or joy. To the Christian, the future is the scene of his perfected spiritual growth, and of his consummated happiness. Every aspiration of his soul bounds joyfully towards it, and he instinctively leaves the things that are behind to press forward. In the words before us, Christ does not touch such matters as these. It is not fore-_thought_ which is condemned, but fore-_boding_.