24 Mammon - Riches, money; any thing loved or sought, without
reference to God. Luke 16:13.
25 And if you serve God, you need be careful for nothing. Therefore
take not thought - That is, be not anxiously careful. Beware of worldly
cares; for these are as inconsistent with the true service of God as worldly
desires. Is not the life more than meat? - And if God give the greater
gift, will he deny the smaller? Luke 12:22.
27 And which of you - If you are ever so careful, can even add a moment
to your own life thereby? This seems to be far the most easy and natural
sense of the words.
29 Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these - Not
in garments of so pure a white. The eastern monarchs were often clothed
in white robes.
30 The grass of the field - is a general expression, including both
herbs and flowers. Into the still - This is the natural sense of the passage.
For it can hardly be supposed that grass or flowers should be thrown into
the oven the day after they were cut down. Neither is it the custom in
the hottest countries, where they dry fastest, to heat ovens with them.
If God so clothe - The word properly implies, the putting on a complete
dress, that surrounds the body on all sides; and beautifully expresses
that external membrane, which (like the skin in a human body) at once adorns
the tender fabric of the vegetable, and guards it from the injuries of
the weather. Every microscope in which a flower is viewed gives a lively
comment on this text.
31 Therefore take not thought - How kind are these precepts! The substance
of which is only this, Do thyself no harm! Let us not be so ungrateful
to him, nor so injurious to ourselves, as to harass and oppress our minds
with that burden of anxiety, which he has so graciously taken off. Every
verse speaks at once to the understanding, and to the heart. We will not
therefore indulge these unnecessary, these useless, these mischievous cares.
We will not borrow the anxieties and distresses of the morrow, to aggravate
those of the present day. Rather we will cheerfully repose ourselves on
that heavenly Father, who knows we have need of these things; who has given
us the life, which is more than meat, and the body, which is more than
raiment. And thus instructed in the philosophy of our heavenly Master,
we will learn a lesson of faith and cheer. fulness from every bird of the
air, and every flower of the field.
33 Seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness - Singly aim at this,
that God, reigning in your heart, may fill it with the righteousness above
described. And indeed whosoever seeks this first, will soon come to seek
this only.
34 The morrow shall take thought for itself - That is, he careful for
the morrow when it comes. The evil thereof - Speaking after the manner
of men. But all trouble is, upon the whole, a real good. It is good physic
which God dispenses daily to his children, according to the need and the
strength of each.
