“Without Carefulness”

DELIVERED AT THE THURSDAY EVENING LECTURE,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"I would have you without carefulness." 1 Corinthians 7:32.

AT the time when Paul wrote these words he was giving judgment as to
whether it was expedient for Christians in those days to marry. The
question was whether they were likely to be better Christians married
or unmarried. This was a question of much delicacy and Paul answered it
with remarkable discretion and fidelity. And, in so doing, he laid down
a great general principle which is of much more value to the Church,
today, than Paul's private opinion about the matter of marriage or
non-marriage. Paul tells us that concerning virgins, he had no
commandment of the Lord, but gave his judgment as one that had obtained
mercy of the Lord to be faithful–he did not speak, in this case, as
under Divine Inspiration, but as an experienced and consecrated man
giving his judgment for the good of others–and for the benefit of the
great work so dear to him.

In that capacity, Paul's words are, by no means, to be despised. I had
far rather follow the uninspired advice of Paul than that of any other
man. In mental clearness none ever excelled that consecrated man. But
he spoke under Inspiration, beyond all question, when he gave this as
his reason for desiring that they would remain unmarried–"I would have
you without carefulness," or as the Revised Version reads it, "I would
have you to be free from cares." This is the mind of the Holy Spirit as
well as the mind of the Apostle Paul. This is a text, not for Paul's
time, alone, but for our time and for all time.

The general principle in our text I will endeavor to open up before
you. We who have believed are the servants of Christ and are no longer
at our own disposal. We are not our own, for we are bought with a
price. If you look back in the chapter, at the 23rd verse, you find a
statement to that effect. Hence our business in life is to serve Him
who has redeemed us. This one occupation should entirely absorb and
engross us. Everything, therefore, which helps us better serve the Lord
Jesus is a good thing–and everything which hampers and hinders us in
the main business of our life, though it may be good enough for others,
is bad for us. The chief work of the Christian is to glorify God and,
to this chief work everything must be subordinated. If a thing is
lawful to me, and yet, while lawful, it hinders me in the service of
God, it is not expedient and, therefore, I am to renounce it.

No man ever succeeds in anything who does not give himself wholly to
it–it matters not what it is–concentration is essential to perfection
in any pursuit. He who would be eminent in any one direction must
forego a great many other things which are perfectly allowable. These
he must renounce for the sake of his one objective. He will not succeed
unless he sacrifices all other things for the one chief thing. So must
it be with the Christian. The rule of his life is to be, "This I will
not do, this I will not enjoy, this I will not allow for myself because
I could not serve God as well with it, and my business is to keep
myself in the best possible form for doing my Master's work." We are to
labor as much as we can for our Lord and all other results of life must
be to us as chaff to the wheat.

It is with us, Paul tells us, as with a soldier. A soldier is a man who
must not open shop, or become a banker or a farmer. He must not think
of settling quietly in the town where, for a while, he is billeted. Why
not? The reason is clear–even if there is no war at the present time,
yet no man that wars, entangles himself with the things of this life if
he would please him who has called him to be a soldier. Soldiering
requires the man to be altogether a soldier and it cannot afford to let
him be a tradesman or a farmer–he must not hamper himself with that
which would hold him to the spot and prevent his hastening to the
field. The nation requires that its army be ready for any and every
emergency, so that when the trumpet blows, the regiment marches, the
troopship steams across the sea, and the foe is promptly confronted. It
is necessary that the soldier keep himself in marching condition and
the less luggage he has to carry, the better.

So it is with the Christian–he is to aim at a condition best adapted
for his holy warfare. He is not to be satisfied when he has said to
himself, "Is this right, or is this wrong?" He is to go further. I hope
that many of us have long passed beyond that stage, for we have a
judgment and discernment which tell us at once what is right and what
is wrong–we now ask a still higher question–"Will this help me to
glorify God, or will it not?" This is the enquiry of the higher life
and a godly man is careful in the answering of it. The best thing is
bad if it hinders our vocation. Though the garment were made of silk,
bespangled with jewels and made with golden thread, yet must we, as
racers, lay it aside if it would entangle us in our running.

Though the burden were a bag of pearls and every pearl were a king's
ransom, yet if we are to run–and none can win but those that run–we
must leave that bag of pearls in another's keeping, for our business is
with the crown before us! We must lay aside every weight and the
vesture of sin which does so easily entangle us, that we may run with
patience the race that is set before us. At this time the Apostle says
to us–"I would have you without carefulness as to earthly things," and
this because he would have us full of carefulness as to heavenly
things! He wants us to be free from cares, that all our thought,
anxiety, meditation, suggestiveness, inventiveness and burden-bearing
may go towards the service of our Divine Lord. We have only a certain
measure of mind and he wants all of it for the Lord Jesus, that we may
walk worthy of our high calling.

But towards other things, he says, "I would have you without
carefulness." How are we to be without carefulness? This must be the
work of the Holy Spirit, for He is the Comforter and the Helper of our
infirmities, But as far as we are to work with Him, the question needs
a careful reply. How are we to be without carefulness?

I. I answer–we may hopefully attempt this in the power of God, first,
BY AVOIDING THOSE STATES WHICH INVOLVE CAREFULNESS. Mark well, it is
not given to many to select their place in life. More or less it may be
committed to us to turn to the right or to the left on certain
occasions, but men and women are thrown into certain conditions in
which it may be their duty to abide in their calling, though it may
surround them with special difficulties. That calling may be one which,
ordinarily, involves a vast amount of care and anxious thought and yet
they cannot get out of it. They ought not to leap the hedge which the
Lord has placed along their way, for if they do, they may fall into a
ditch on the other side, muddy their garments, and so make matters
worse. By crying to God for help and trusting in His sure Word, they
will be able to bear the burden which God has put upon them and, it is
their wisdom to do so.

Yet there are points in which we are allowed a choice about the state
in which we would place ourselves and here our text comes in as a rule
of action. Paul, in the case before us, is talking about the marriage
of Christians and he bids Christians, in the first place, not to marry,
for, he says, "I would have you without carefulness. He that is
unmarried cares for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may
please the Lord. But he that is married cares for the things that are
of the world, how he may please his wife."

Now, observe the condition of affairs which led Paul to give this
advice. Times of great persecution were present. Christians were
continually being dragged into court or set before the lions in the
amphitheatre, or shut up in prison, or put to cruel deaths–in such
circumstances few would desire to have families about them. The
Christian man who had no wife or child could flee in a moment if it
were right to flee. Or, when he stood before the bar of Nero, he had
not to think within himself, "If I die, I leave a wife and fatherless
children." When the single man put on his hat, he housed all his
family, and thus he could move this way or that way to preach the
Gospel, or to escape from persecution–and his moving was no great
affair such as would be involved in transporting a family from land to
land.

Paul wished the Church to be like an army which is not encumbered with
baggage. The circumstances of the time demanded that they should be
unencumbered, like troops upon forced marches. Paul, himself, carried
all his property in a little bit of canvas–it consisted of half a
dozen needles and a reel of thread, with which he made tents wherever
he went. He was thus without carefulness. In those hard and desperate
times, it was the best possible thing that a man could do, or a woman,
to remain single–they were thus in the best condition for flight, or
suffering, or service, or death. It was not a time in which they could
settle down and engage in trade or agriculture and Paul, therefore,
gives, as a recommendation, that they had better not then be married.

If we get into such times, again, we will give the same advice, but we
are not certain that we should speak thus, today, as a general rule.
The circumstances are decidedly different and we are to follow the
great principle rather than the particular instance. I have known
Brothers who, I am sure, had a great deal more care before they were
married than ever

they had afterwards. Poor things that they were, they needed somebody
to look after them! I have known cases in which women have had great
care and burden in their single state, but have found rest in the house
of a husband and, it has been upon the whole, the best for them in the
truest sense. They served God better and were freer from carefulness in
the married state. That is the rule to judge by.

But numbers of you never judge at all in this way! Many men and women
rush into marriage when they know that it must involve them in all
sorts of care and trouble–and deprive them of the possibility of doing
anything in the Master's service. It is not for me to offer advice, for
it is useless. I am often asked for advice, but I generally find that
people have made up their minds long before they come to their
minister! They only want him to sanction what they have already settled
and, therefore, I very seldom give any advice. Still, I shall lay down
the general principle which every Christian man and woman must
accept–"I would have you to be free from cares," You are to put this
to the front, that you are not your own, you are bought with a price.

And about this matter of marriage, as well as everything else, you are
to consult the will of your Lord and Master, and you are to put this as
the question, "Shall I glorify God better married or unmarried? May I
hope that I shall not so greatly increase my carefulness as to distract
myself from serving my Lord? There is something to be said on each
side, but may I hope that the balance may be struck so that I shall
really be the better servant of Christ in the marriage state? If so, I
may enter upon it, but if not, I am not to gratify myself at my
Savior's expense. I may not marry if I should, then, cease to be as
good a servant of Christ as I am now." None of you are too good
servants of Christ–I have never met with any that were! We cannot
afford to lose anything which we already have, for we are not even,
now, all that we ought to be. No, we must give ourselves
whole-heartedly to Christ and remember the admonition of the text, "I
would have you without carefulness."

We have got over that somewhat difficult part of our road which is
concerned with marriage. We come to another which is very plain, but
needs to be spoken of, namely, the matter of increased worldly
business. Some forget this advice of the Apostle altogether. Regarding
it as a check upon enterprise, such persons take up a number of
businesses and, consequently, increase their cares indefinitely! Now,
if you can serve God better by having a dozen shops, have a dozen. But
I have known persons whom God blessed in one shop and they lost the
blessing when they felt they needed to open two or three. In a moderate
business, they obtained a livelihood and all that they could need–and
they were able to get out to the House of God and to have spare hours
for the service of God in the Sunday school, in preaching, or other
forms of Christian service. Thus they were in an enviable position for
usefulness and ought to have been pillars in the house of the Lord.

But they were not content with so favored a state! Nothing would do for
them but they must have shop number two, three, four and then, of
course, they were too busy to go out on week evenings, to lectures,
classes, or Prayer Meetings. When invited to take their part in the
Lord's work, they replied–"You see, I cannot get out. You must excuse
me, I am so tired." Just so. Of course you must look after business,
now that you are so immersed in it, but how did you come to get into
such a state of bondage that you cannot get out to the worship or
service of God? Is not your excessive toil your own fault? If you have
brought yourself into such a condition that you cannot give to God His
due, is it an excuse for your not being able to do it? The disability
is entirely of your own creation–how can it excuse you?

If this were the time, I could mention persons who were members of this
Church whose departure from the way of righteousness was owing to a
grasping spirit–and that grasping spirit has, in certain cases, led to
a foolish rush after riches which has ended in poverty and discredit!
They had as much as they could have managed, but they wanted more, and
more, and more–and to get more they ventured upon ways and methods
which were questionable. By-and-by, the means of Grace were neglected
because they must attend to business. Very soon, for the same reason,
they could not get up on Sunday morning, they were so tired–they did
not get the shop shut till twelve–and then there was clearing up till
half-past one, so they could not get out on a Sunday morning.

Worse than that, after a while they just looked over the ledger a
little on Sunday afternoon. Soon the very vitals of godliness were gone
and, not long after that, the name to live went, also–for the power of
godliness had entirely departed from them. "I would have you without
carefulness" and, therefore, to the most enterprising Brother, I would
say–Brother, do not fill your pocket at the expense of your soul! Do
what is best for the best part of yourself and that best part of
yourself is the soul which deals with God and eternity! God can prosper
you and make you exceedingly happy

with a more manageable business and He can make you miserable if you
willfully increase your cares. The Lord Jesus said, "A man's life
consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses."

Therefore, as I would have you without carefulness, look well, my dear
Friend, before you launch out into that new business, or take that
off-hand farm, or enter upon that speculative operation. Do not wade
into risks so deep that you will be drowned in anxiety! Remember how
Napoleon tried to do too much, and did it, and did for himself. Men of
large capacity may rule an empire and yet serve the Lord admirably, but
the most of us had better be satisfied with a smaller sphere. At any
rate, let us not heap up such a load of our own that we shall not be
able to bear the burden which our Master would have us carry for His
love's sake.

Do not look so cross, good Friend, or I shall think that my advice is
more necessary to you than it is pleasing! The day may come when this
warning will be better understood by you than at this moment. Some
Christian men need to have a touch on the elbow about public
engagements. For my part, I believe that everything which concerns a
man concerns a Christian, and that God never wished His servants to
leave the government of this realm to all the place-hunters and
unprincipled self-seekers who look for a seat in Parliament. Christian
men ought to see to it that right is promoted and justice done. To
abandon Law-making to the worst of men would be infamous! So with
everything which concerns the public welfare, I believe that we are to
turn the scale for truth and righteousness, and are not to let the
devil have his way and give robbery and oppression the run of all the
parishes in England.

But there is a limit to a man's acceptance of public office and let
that limit be watched carefully by all the Lord's children. Let the
rule be–first our God and then our fellow men. What if I am a patriot,
yet first of all the New Jerusalem is the place of my citizenship! I am
a pilgrim and a stranger–and even though I seek the good of these
aliens among whom I dwell, I must still keep my eye upon my own native
country, towards which I am speeding. A man must not be doing 20 things
in public life and neglecting the calls of the Lord Christ. If he does
this, he will have care upon care, and will weary and trouble himself
with things of no profit–and he will not care for the things of God as
he should. Brothers and Sisters, "I would have you without
carefulness"–you are the servants of God–do not make yourselves the
slaves of men!

Here I wish to say another word to some whose occupations prevent their
attendance at the House of God. I am not going to censure or judge any,
but I will say this–whenever I hear of a young man who has an
occupation with a moderate salary, who is able to get out to worship
and has the whole Lord's-Day to himself, so that he can help in the
Sunday school and, perhaps, in some week-evening engagements–if I hear
that he is offered twice as much money in a place where he must be shut
out from worship and service, I hope he will look long before he makes
the bargain. If part of the Sabbath must go and all week-night
privileges must go, I would, in most cases, say, "My Brother, forego
the temporal advantage for the sake of the spiritual." There may be
exceptions to rules and I lay down nothing as a hard-and-fast rule, but
still, let this be the general guide in such matters–"I would have you
without carefulness."

If it is so that he who has less, has less care, let me have less! He
who has a moderate income, with small responsibility, is a richer man
than he who has twice as much, with twice as much responsibility–and
only half as much opportunity of serving his God. For you, Christians,
the best place you can have is where you can do most for Jesus–and the
worst place you can have is where you are denied Christian privileges.
No amount of salary can make up to you the disadvantage of being kept
from the assemblies of the saints, or can make up to your soul the loss
sustained by excessive labor in the house of bondage. "I would have you
without carefulness."

This bears very hard upon all those forms of speculation of which some
men are so fond. A man says, "I believe that I can get rich in a hurry
by a certain venture." Do not touch it! You will have no end of care
and it may bring absolute poverty upon you. You have heard of the man
who hurried to be rich and was not innocent. I am afraid that few are
long innocent who hasten to be rich! They clutch at everything on a
sudden and they are apt to include in that clutch a few things which do
not belong to them! What devouring care must prey upon those whose
trade is as risky as a throw of the dice? When business is mere
gambling, it ceases to be legitimate! Let speculators take heed of
those dangers which necessarily attend all games of chance. I believe
that every form of gambling, though it may take a business shape, tends
more, or less, to harden the heart.

As for the naked form of play which risks upon the roll of a ball, it
is murder to all the finer feelings of the heart! Nobody but gamblers
could have cast the dice, all blood bespattered, at the foot of the
Cross of our Redeemer! Gambling

brings men into a state of heart worse than almost any other form of
sin. When a man is willing to risk practically his all on the mere toss
of a halfpenny whether goods shall go up or down, he is usually a bad
man. And if he is not, he will be so before long, for that kind of
thing does serious mischief to the most tender tissues of the heart. If
any Christian man attempts it, what a state of mind will he soon know!
Can he pray? Can he meditate? Can he commune with the Lord Jesus? Can
he be without carefulness? Where can his trust be? Where his faith in
God? When he has practically committed his fortunes to the devil, how
can he confide in his God?

Gambling and prayer can never go together except in the case of the
reprobate–I suppose they are profane enough to unite the two–but
therein they blaspheme Heaven most detestably! Brothers and Sisters,
abstain from those things which inevitably create undue excitement,
anxiety and suspense. I speak as unto wise men–judge you what I say–I
would have you without carefulness and, therefore, I would have you
avoid those states which involve it.

I. Secondly, BY KEEPING AWAY FROM THOSE OBJECTS OF PURSUIT WHICH WOULD
NATURALLY FOSTER IT, I would have you without carefulness. When a man
makes the gaining of riches the first thing in life, he cannot be
without carefulness. Where his treasure is, there will his heart be,
also. There is the carefulness to get, the carefulness to hold, the
carefulness to place out at interest, the carefulness to collect dues
and so forth. Yes, and this may be the case, even, with poor people who
may be as full of greedy care as the millionaire! Thrift is
commendable, but covetous-ness is detestable. Men not only lay by for a
rainy day, which is well–but when they make saving the main object of
their lean and hungry lives–God's Glory and man's needs are, alike,
forgotten.

Now, if you live for anything but God–especially if you live to hoard
up with the determination that somehow or other you will be immensely
rich–you must be full of carefulness. It cannot be helped. Suppose
that you are of a nobler spirit and you live with the view of gaining
honor among men–you will, with equal certainty, be full of cares. I
hope you will not say, "I must be honored. I must have my neighbors
think well of me and I will make a slave, or a fool, or a hypocrite of
myself to please them." This resolve is detestable and if you go into
that line you will not be without carefulness, I can tell you–and with
all your carefulness you will never succeed. To please everybody is as
impossible as to make ice and bake bread at the same moment in one
oven. Give up the wretched attempt!

Be a man and be not a mere man-pleaser. How blessedly easy I feel in my
work for God! But I owe that ease to the fact that I have no one to
please but my Lord. When I preach, the last thing that ever occurs to
me is to ask myself whether any of you will like it or not. It is no
wish of mine to give offense, but it has never occurred to me to think
whether you will be offended or not. I do not think you would respect
me if I made my preaching an occasion for seeking to please you. If it
pleases God, it will please you, if you are right–and if you are wrong
and it does not please you– well, it never ought to please you!

This enables a preacher to give all his mind to his subject. The
opposite feeling would distract him and make him live the life of a
toad under a harrow. Go into life in just that kind of spirit–do
everything to please your fellow man if it will do him real good. Never
be ungenerous, nor unkind, nor uncourteous, but never live to please
the world. No slave is so slavish as the wretch who draws his breath
from other people's nostrils and can only live if he is approved by his
neighbors. Scorn such servitude! I would have you without carefulness
and you cannot be without carefulness if you only seek to please men.
Many persons are so ambitious to be respectable that they never will be
without carefulness–they have a pound coming in but they spend a
guinea to be respectable–and so they cannot be without carefulness. I
charge you do not care about being what is known in the world as
"respectable." Be Christians, whether people respect you or not!

That littleness which stamps out everything that is good or brave in
order to put a man into the fashion is to be the object of our supreme
contempt! Do right. Serve God. Live for Heaven. Care little about man's
esteem. Abhor the pride of life. Live above the world, or you will be
eaten up with carefulness–it cannot be helped. Some persons have a
favorite objective in life–not God, but an earthly thing–and these
cannot be without carefulness. Dear mother, love your children by all
manner of means, but if that little one has become an idol, I am sure
you cannot be without carefulness! I have known mothers kill their
children because they did not want them to die. That is to say, they
never let the wind blow on them–they kept them in a box, screened the
blessed air of Heaven from them–and so brought them up that they
became weak and sickly, thanks to their mothers' indulgent care. Lots
of children have suffered a martyrdom from too much nursing! Excessive
carefulness has created cause for care.

If it is not a child, if it is anything else that becomes the pet and
hobby of life, you will soon find that you have plenty of care about
it–a horse, a dog, a flower, a painting may entangle men and women in
nets of care. I have seen it and lamented it. The more objects you set
your heart upon, the more thorns there are to tear your peace of mind
into shreds. I know people who dread every puff of wind and every
shower of rain because a yacht might be tossed about, or a garden-party
spoiled–such trifles may sensible people be troubled about! "What are
we to do, then?" asks one. Why, live for God! Live wholly for God! Put
everything else into its true place. Children, business, every favorite
pursuit–leave them in the hands of God–for until you do this, you
will be cankered with carefulness of one kind or another and be
incapacitated for the joyful service of the Lord your God!

Thus have I given you two helpful rules–first, avoid the states which
involve carefulness. And secondly, avoid the pursuits which involve
carefulness. May the Spirit of God help you to carry them out.

III. But now, thirdly, and better still, I would have you without
carefulness BY EXERCISING A CHILD-LIKE FAITH IN THE EVER-BLESSED GOD.
He sends you troubles and trials, but be without carefulness, first, by
never trying to anticipate them. Never meet them half-way. "Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof." Oh, the strength it gives a man when
he learns to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread"! It would be a
poor prayer if a man should cry, "Lord, give me a guarantee of my bread
for six months." No, no! The Lord never taught us to ask for that! That
forestalling of the demands of the future finds no petition written for
it. Our Lord would have us cultivate the feeling that whatever the
necessity of the day, whatever the requirement of the day, whatever the
trial of the day, we shall take it to God as it comes and He will, then
and there, meet the case. Commit your way unto the Lord and then be
without carefulness.

I will now tell you something still better. If you can manage to live
by the five minutes, that is better than living by the day. I am not,
tonight, at 20 minutes past eight o'clock, allowed to fret myself about
what is likely to happen at ten! I have Grace at this time for the
present moment, but not for 10 o'clock. Why, therefore, should I hurry
towards a trouble for which I am not yet prepared? Leave 10 o'clock
worries till 10 o'clock comes! The hour that brings the trial will
bring the strength! The hour that tests you, will find God ready at
your hand to help you! Live by the day–yes, live by the hour.

The next thing is, if you would be without carefulness, be quite
content with the Lord's will. Suppose you do not prosper in business as
you would like? Be content not to do so. Do your best and leave your
prospering in the hands of God. Suppose that after consulting a
physician you find that your complaint is not removed? Duly follow all
right and wise prescriptions and directions–and then leave your health
with God. With regard to those you love, when you have prayed for their
restoration and they are not restored, then still say, "Not as I will,
but as You will." If you cannot suit your purse to your wishes, bring
your wishes to your purse! Higher still, if God does not give you all
your desires, do the other thing–submit all your desires to God! When
your desires and God's decrees agree, all will be well! Whether God
gives you your wish, or you give up your wish, will make no notable
difference. You will be equally happy so long as your will is God's
will and God's will is your will.

And I believe–and I speak experimentally–that when you are racked
with pain, if God teaches you to submit, (and it is often a hard
lesson), you can suffer in every limb and yet sing in your inmost soul!
This is the way to live without carefulness–first, not to meet trouble
before it comes and, next, when it does come–to be content, saying,
"It is the Lord: let Him do what seems good to Him." The next thing is
to be quite sure about the love of God. He cannot make a mistake and He
cannot fail His people. If the worst thing, as it seems to us, should
happen, it must be the right thing because God has sent it! Be sure,
also, that when our needs come, God's supplies will come, too. The Lord
is bound by His own promise to provide for all the real necessities of
those who trust in Him. Oh, that we did thoroughly know God and did
fully believe in Him! Then would our peace be as a river, and our joy
like that of birds when the sun is rising. Then should we sing–

"I have no cares,

blessed Lord,

For all my cares are Thine!

1 live in triumph, too, for You Have made Your triumphs mine!"

Another sweet thing would help us to be without care and that is to
believe fully in the power of prayer–and in the fact that God does
actually answer it. God will grant His children's desires and answer
their prayers! We constantly meet with instances in which God does most
manifestly come to the help of those that walk before Him aright. I
personally met this week with a notable case. A dear Sister is left a
widow, with three children. She wonders what she shall do for the
morning's bread. There is none in the house. She thinks to herself that
she formerly kept shop and that she has a few goods left, a little
stained and soiled, but still saleable at a price. She goes into her
room and prays God, in her agony of soul, to direct her to a customer.
To her delight a person asks her whether she kept shop, once, at
such-and-such a road.

Yes, she is the individual. Such goods as she used to buy at the shop,
this stranger cannot get anywhere else, and she much needs them. Could
she tell her where she could get the like? Yes, these are the very
goods that she had hoped to sell and, though a little soiled and
stained, the enquirer is glad to have them! The very person who wants
them has come to buy them before she has crossed the threshold to seek
a customer and she is amazed at the goodness of the Lord! This honest
woman is told that it was a mere coincidence–she says that she knows
nothing about coincidences, but she blesses the Lord that her needs
were supplied for the time–and she means to trust Him for the future!
I did not attempt to alter her resolution to rely, in the future, upon
God in time of trouble–on the contrary, I cheered her in it, for I
would have her without carefulness.

When my grandfather was a young man, before my days, he had a great
family and a small income. He had a cow that he kept for his children
and he went to fetch it up from the meadow. But when it was near the
house, it was taken with "the staggers," and died. My grandmother said,
"There, James, what shall we do, now, through the winter without the
cow?" He replied, "My dear, God has provided for us and He always will,
though I do not know how." And with a heavy heart he went to pray and
lay his trouble before the Lord. I have heard the dear old man tell how
that morning brought a post-letter, with nine pence to pay–and
Grandmother said, "Troubles never come alone. Here is nine pence to pay
for this letter. Shall we take it in?" But when she did take it in, it
brought 20 pounds from a society in London, to which the good man had
never applied! He could not make out how they knew of him at all! But
the Lord knew and led them to send the money on the day of
Grandfather's greatest need!

These stories are a few out of many that are in my wallet–instances
which I have gathered in my pilgrimage. I have seen enough, in my own
lifetime, to fill a volume concerning the goodness of the Lord in
answer to His children's prayers. When you are as sure that God answers
prayer as I am sure of it, then you will realize the meaning of the
text, "I would have you without carefulness." Some people of my
acquaintance are full of carefulness. I know a maiden lady who
possesses what many poor people would think to be wealth. She has a
fixed, regular and ample income, but she will not spend it because she
must first save a certain sum. At first her ambition was to have enough
in hand to bury her. Why, she has enough already to bury 20 of her, but
she keeps on nipping and scraping, still, and whenever you meet her she
talks of how little she eats, and how dear everything is!

She might live in plenty and have something for the cause of God, but
instead of that, she has always an awful story about her expenses. I
believe that if she were made into the Empress of China, she would be
afraid that there would not be enough tea grown in China for her to
drink! She is of such a spirit that she is a burden to herself and a
plague to all who are about her! When you once give way to grumbling
and grasping, then you are careful, and careful, and careful till you
become good-for-nothing in the service of God. Do, I pray you, Brothers
and Sisters, try to get rid of this disease, for your fretful
carefulness will make you a misery to yourself and to your friends! It
will destroy your power to do good and it will cut off your communion
with God!

If you do not trust God, God will not walk with you. I do not care to
have a man of my acquaintance who does not believe in me. I cannot bear
him if he is always mistrusting me. And so it is with God–He will not
commune with you or smile upon you if you will not trust Him–but if
you will leave everything with Him and believe that your heavenly
Father knows best, you shall have many a kind word from His lips, and
you shall find what a good, gracious, loving Father He is. Why, you and
I ought to be as happy as the birds of the air and as merry as crickets
on the hearth! Just think what a God we have, who will take care of us
both in this life and in the life to come! All things are ours–the
gifts of God– the purchase of a Savior's love!

Even our troubles are the best troubles in the world! Our cross is a
heavy one, but it is the best cross for us. Each man has the cross
which best fits him. You could not carry mine and I could not carry
yours half as well as my own. Despite

your peculiar trials, you are a happy and a favored man, and God has
dealt infinitely better with you than you ever deserved or could have
expected! Praise Him, then, and bless His name! Get out of the fidgets,
Brother, if you can. Get out of the worries, my dear Sister. You are a
good, dear housewife, and your husband says if he could get a little of
the Mary into you, and a little of the Martha out of you, you would be
a perfect wife! Is not this a practical suggestion? Let us see whether
we cannot, each one, be improved by trying to be without carefulness.
Let us, each one, give all our thought and care to this one object–How
can I please God? How can I avoid sin? How can I be holy? How can I win
sinners to Christ? How can I comfort my fellow Christians? How, in a
word, can I live as Christ would have lived?

You never find Jesus worrying. If He weeps, it is for the souls of men.
If He suffers, it is to redeem men from going down to the Pit. And if
He dies of a broken heart, it is a broken heart about the sins of
others. As for Himself, what a delicious carelessness of holy
confidence there was about Him! He went on board ship and He knew that
a storm would come, a storm that would try the poor little boat, but He
lay down and slept! The disciples are all in a worry. They cry,
"Master, we perish!" And where was their Master? Asleep! You have often
thought of the sleep of the Savior and almost deemed Him negligent.
Now, think of the grand confidence of the Savior in being able to sleep
in a storm! If His disciples had been asleep, too, it would have been
the best thing they could have done, for they could not manage the
winds or the waves. If they had possessed the moral dignity which
ennobled their Lord and had been able to go down into the back part of
the boat and to go to sleep with Him, they would have woke up in the
morning in a calm.

The best thing you, my dear Brothers and Sisters, can do in a great
trouble may be to remember that text, "He gives His beloved sleep."
Pray over your difficulty and then go to sleep–and wake up and find it
all over–for the Lord has worked a great deliverance for you. I knew
one, well, who was always in trouble about how he should die. Dear good
man, he refused to be comforted, but was often troubled about the
horrors of the departing hour–until one night he went to bed, shut his
eyes on earth–and opened them in Glory! He never knew that he was away
from earth till he knew that he was in Heaven, for he died in his
sleep! And so it turned out that he had been worrying himself about
nothing! Leave everything with God. If I can trust my soul with Him, I
am sure I can trust my body with Him! If I can trust my eternal
condition with Him, can't I trust Him with a matter of a five-pound
note?

What? Rest on Christ for Glory, and not rest on Christ for bread! Come,
come! The Lord get you out of that low, unbelieving state! I am nearly
at the close and so I press upon you my text. Like Paul, "I would have
you without carefulness." May you be so, through the power of the
gracious God who taught the Apostle Peter to say in the Spirit,
"Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." Amen.
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That Horrible East Wind!