The Last Sermon for the Year

The Last Sermon for the Year

(No. 2445)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, DECEMBER 29, 1895.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
DECEMBER 26, 1869.

"Give an account of your stewardship, for you may no longer be
steward." Luke 16:2.

THE first part of this text applies to us all. The second part will
apply to each one of us before long. "Give an account of your
stewardship," is a command that may be addressed to the ungodly. They
are accountable to God for all that they have, or have ever had, or
ever shall have. The Law of the Lord is not relaxed because they have
sinned–they still remain responsible to God even though they attempt
to cast off the yoke of the Almighty. As creatures formed by the Divine
hand and sustained by Divine power, they are bound to serve God. And if
they do not, and will not, His claims upon them do not cease–and to
each of them He says, "Give an account of your stewardship."

This text may also be applied to the children of God, to the godly–in
a different sense, however, and after another fashion. For, first of
all, the godly are God's children–they are accounted as standing in
Christ. They are no longer merely God's subjects, for what they owed to
God as sinners has all been discharged by Jesus Christ, their
Substitute and Savior. They have, therefore, been placed on a different
footing from other men. But having been saved by Grace and adopted into
God's family, they have had entrusted to them talents which they are to
use to His honor and Glory. Being the Lord's children and being saved,
they become His servants–and as His servants they are under
responsibility to God and they will all have to give to Him an account
of their stewardship.

Look at Eli. I have no doubt that he was a saved man, but God made him
a steward over his own family as well as a Prophet to Israel, and he
had to give an account of his stewardship. And because he had not been
faithful in it, although he was not eternally condemned, yet he was
made to suffer most miserably when he was told that the whole of his
house would be swept away–and also when he heard of the deaths of his
sons and, as the direst news of all, learned that the Ark of God was
taken by the Philistines. God visited him in his capacity of steward,
made him give his account, and awarded him in this life a heavy penalty
for his unfaithfulness! And I do not doubt that many a child of God who
has been saved at the last, yet, being found unfaithful as a steward,
has had to suffer much, has lost much of honor and much of fellowship
with God–and much of high advancement in the way of Grace which he
might otherwise have obtained.

David was another such steward. He was not a lost soul–I have no doubt
that he is among the saved and blessed saints in Heaven–but as a
steward he was not found faithful. You remember how grievously he
sinned and from that moment his family was full of rebellion, his
kingdom was full of trouble and he went with broken bones all the way
down to his grave! Hence I may say to you, children of God, who are not
under the Law–and I do not address you at all in a legal strain when I
so speak to you–you also have a stewardship. Give an account of it, or
else, perhaps, you may no longer be spared. Or, being spared, yet you
may still have tokens of your Lord's displeasure which you may carry
with you even to your tomb. Thank God you shall leave them there! But
it would be more for God's Glory and for your own comfort to not have
them at all.

I desire, on this last Sabbath evening of another year, not so much to
speak to you, as to get you to talk to yourselves. So, first, we will
think together upon the reasonable demand made in our text–"Give an
account of your stewardship." Next, we will examine some reasons why we
should at once give an account of our stewardship. And, lastly, we will
consider the weighty reason in the text which will come with force to
each of us sooner or later–"You may no longer be steward."

I. First, then, let us consider this REASONABLE DEMAND and let each one
of us try to comply with it–"Give an account of your stewardship." You
man of God, you Christless soul, you aged man, you young Sister, "Give
an account of your stewardship."

First, give an account of the stewardship of your time. How have you
spent it? Have not many hours been allowed to run to waste, or worse
than waste, in frivolity and sin? Have you lived as a dying man should
live? Have you employed your hours as remembering that they are very
few and more precious than the diamonds in an emperor's crown? What
about your time? Has there not been much of it spent in indolence, in
frothy talk, or that did not minister to edification? You need not
accuse yourself for time spent in lawful recreation that may sustain
your body and better fit it for the Lord's service. It is well that you
should have such recreation, but how much time is utterly wasted by
some people, neither used for the good of this world, nor of that which
is to come, but wholly frittered away in the service of sin, self and
Satan? Where, for instance, did some of you spend yesterday–how did
you employ its precious hours? I will but bring that one day to your
remembrance–was it a well-spent day? Is that hour well spent that is
passed in the company of drunks? Do you call that day well spent that
is given up to rioting, or that night that is defiled with wantonness?
I charge you to answer this question! For every moment that God has
lent to you, He will ask for an account of what you did with it. There
is not an hour since you began to understand right from wrong for which
you will not have to give an account to God! If there were nothing but
time entrusted to our stewardship, here is room, indeed, for
heart-searching and close reckoning!

"Give an account of your stewardship," next, as to your talents. We all
vary in our natural gifts and in our acquirements. One has the tongue
of eloquence, another has the pen of a ready writer and a third has the
artistic eye that discerns beauty. But, whichever of these gifts we may
have, they belong to God and ought to be used in His service. Some have
only such gifts as qualify them to earn their daily bread by manual
labor–they have but little mental power–yet, for that little they
must give an account and also for the physical strength with which God
has blessed them. There is no person here without a talent of some sort
or other. There is no one individual here without some form of power
either given by nature or acquired by education. We are all endowed, in
some degree or other, and we must, each one, give an account for that
talent. What an account must some give who have been endowed with 10
talents, but have wasted them all!

What must be the account rendered by a Napoleon? What must be the
reckoning given in by a Voltaire, with all the splendor of his
intellect laid at the feet of Satan and desecrated to the damnation of
mankind? Yet, while you think of these great ones of the earth, do not
forget yourselves! What has been your special gift? You can speak well
enough in some companies–have you ever spoken for Christ? You can
write well, you judge that you have no mean gift in that direction–has
your pen ever written a line that will bring your fellow men to the
service of the Savior? What? Having 10 talents, are they all wrapped up
in napkins, or all used for self, and none employed for God, for
holiness, for the Truth of God, for righteousness? How sternly does the
command come to you, "Give an account of your stewardship." Yet I am
afraid that we cannot, any of us, give an account of our talents
without fear and trembling!

Next, give an account of your substance. We vary greatly as to our
temporal circumstances, I suppose there are a few present to whom God
has entrusted great wealth, more to whom He has given considerable
substance and that to the most of us He has given somewhat more than is
absolutely necessary for our actual needs. But whether it is much or
little, we must give an account for it all! I do not know what some
rich professors will have to say concerning that which they give to the
cause of God. It is no tithe of their substance–it is, as it were, but
the cheese parings and the candle ends– and these they only give for
the sake of appearance because it would not look respectable if they
were altogether to withhold them! The Church's coffers would never be
as empty as they are if it were not that some of the stewards in the
Church are not faithful to their trust.

It is very sad to think of some of the great men in our own country who
have incomes which, in a single month, would furnish a competent
support for an entire family during their whole lives! I wonder what
sort of reckoning theirs will be when they have to give an account of
hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds? With some of them,
all that they can say will be, "So much lost on the racetrack, so much
spent upon a paramour, so much paid for diamonds, so much squandered in
this form of waste and so much in that." But for the poor and needy,
who are perishing in our streets, the multitudes who crave even
necessary bread–some of them have done nothing at all! There are grand
exceptions, names that shall live as long as philanthropy is prized
among mankind, but the exceptions are so terribly few that when the
rich men of England are indicted at the bar of God, as they certainly
will be, the account of their stewardship will be a truly terrible one!
Yet what are you, and what am I, to judge thus, if we cannot say that
we have been faithful with our little? I ask you if you have and I pray
you to make a reckoning in your mind, now, of your stewardship of the
gold, or the silver, or the copper with which God has entrusted you.

We must give an account, in the next place, of our influence. Everybody
has some kind of influence. The mother who never leaves the nursery has
a wondrous influence over those little children of hers, though no
neighbor feels the force of her influence and no one but her own little
ones are affected by her faithfulness. And who knows but that she is
pressing to her bosom, perhaps a Whitefield who will thunder out the
Gospel through the length and breadth of the land or perhaps, on the
other hand, an infidel, whose dreadful blasphemies shall ruin
multitudes? There is an influence that the mother has for which she
must give an account to God! And the father's influence–oh, Fathers,
you cannot shake off your obligations to your children by sending them
to school, whether to a Sunday school or a boarding school! They are
your children and you must give an account of your stewardship
concerning your own offspring!

Yes, and even the nurse girl, though she seems of small note in the
commonwealth, yet she, also, has an influence over her little charge
which she must use for Christ. Not only he who thrills a senate with
his oratory, but he who speaks a word from the carpenter's bench–each
has his influence and each must use it–and give an account of it. Not
merely the man who, by refusing to lend his millions, could prevent the
horrors of war, but the man who with a smile might help to laugh at
sin, or with a word of rebuke might show that he abhorred it. There is
no one of you without influence and I ask you, now, how you have used
it? Has it always been on the side of the Lord? "Give an account of
your stewardship," for that influence will not always last.

We might pass on to consider all the other things that God has
entrusted to us, but time would fail us. So I will remind you, my dear
Friends, with much affection, that the account which you will have to
render and which I ask you to render now, is not an account concerning
other people. Oh, how nice it would be if we had to do that! Would it
not? With what gusto some would undertake the task if they had to give
a report upon other people's characters! How easily each of us can play
the detective upon our fellows! How ready we are to say of this man,
"Oh, yes, he gives away a good deal of money, but it is only out of
ostentation." Or of that woman, "Yes, she appears to be a Christian,
but you do not know her private life." Or of that minister of the
Gospel, "Yes, he is very zealous, but be makes a good thing out of his
ministry." We like thus to reckon up our fellow creatures and our
arithmetic is wonderfully accurate, at least, so we think!

But when other people cast us up according to the same rule, the
arithmetic seems terribly out of order and we cannot believe it to be
right! Ah, but at the Great Judgment we shall not be asked to give an
account for others, neither will I ask any of you, now, to be thinking
about the conduct of others. What if others are worse than you are,
does that make you the better, or the less guilty? What if others are
not all they seem to be, perhaps neither are you! At any rate, their
hypocrisy shall not make your pretense to be true! Judge yourselves,
that you be not judged! Let each man thrust the lancet into his own
wound and see to the affairs of his own soul–for each one must give
account of himself to God.

Remember, too, that you are not called upon to give an account to
others. Alas, there are many people who seem to live only that they may
win the esteem of their fellows! There is somebody to whom we look up
to–if we do but have that somebody's smile, we think all is well.
Perhaps some here are broken-hearted because that smile has vanished
and they have been misjudged and unjustly condemned. It is a small
matter to be judged of man's judgement–and who is he that judges
another man's servant? To his own master, the servant shall stand or
fall, and not to this interloping judge! My dear Friends, when the
opinion of one leans this way, and of another the other way–when we
see public opinion to be as restless and changing as the vane upon the
Church steeple swinging round with every wind that blows–we may well
bid defiance to it all and thank God that the last bar is not swayed by
the follies of the times, and that the Great Judge will not give His
verdict according to the whimsies of an hour, but according to the rule
of absolute equity!

Yet remember that if it is hard to be judged of man, it will be still
sterner to be judged of God! If, weighed even in the balances of men,
some of us are found wanting, how shall we bear to be put into the
unerring scales adjusted by the Divine hand, to be judged by Him who
cannot err–and to have our destiny fixed for all eternity–either in
Heaven or in Hell? Remember this, my dear Hearer, and be ready to give
an account of your stewardship–not to your fellow crea-ture–but to
the great Creator and Judge of all!

Remember also, dear Friends, that the account to be rendered will be
from every man, from every man, personally, concerning himself. And
whatever another man's account may be, it will not affect him. Some men
will not have been any better than others of you have been. Yet if you
perish as they perish, a numerous company will not make Hell any the
cooler! If some men shall have been worse than others of you have been,
it certainly will not diminish your punishment if you know that their
doom is heavier than your own! Forget, for a while, that there are any
other men in the world, and stand individually and separately before
those awful eyes which are searching you through and through–for God
will judge each of you as if there were no other men to judge–and read
your inmost heart as if He had not another object to look upon! Give an
account, then, of your stewardship. God grant us Grace to give, on each
of these separate items that I have mentioned, an honest statement not
only to our own conscience, but to Him who is the Judge of all!

II. Now, for a few minutes, let us examine SOME REASONS WHY WE SHOULD
AT ONCE GIVE AN ACCOUNT OF OUR STEWARDSHIP.

It was a maxim of Pythagoras that each of his disciples should, every
eventide, give a record of the actions of the day. I think it is well
to do so, for we cannot too often take a retrospect of the past. But
since, perhaps, some of you may have been lax in this duty, let me
remind you that we have come, as it were, to the eventide of the year
and it seems to be most suitable that before we cross into another year
of Grace, we should, in our heart and conscience, take stock and give
an account of our stewardship.

Sit down a while, Pilgrim! Sit down a while. Here is the milestone
marked with the end of another year–sit down upon it, put your hand to
you brow and think! And lay your hand upon your heart and search and
see what is there. This last Sabbath evening in the year is a most
fitting time for giving this account and I ask you to use it in making
up the account which you have to present before God. And if you feel
unwilling to do it, I shall the more earnestly press you to do it!
There are no persons who so dislike to look into their account books as
those who are insolvent. Those who keep no books, when they come before
the court, are understood to be rogues of the first water–and men who
keep no mental memoranda of the past and bring up no recollections with
regard to their sins, having tried to forget them all–may depend upon
it that they are deceiving themselves! If you dare not search your
hearts, I am afraid there is a reason for that fear and that, above all
others, you ought to be diligent in this search.

Permit me to remind you that if all should be wrong with you, it is
best for you to know it. It is only the most reckless seaman who would
rather not know whether there is a rock in the course that he is
sailing. O Sirs, are you like the ostrich that, having covered its head
in the sand, and shut its eyes to the hunter, thinks it is all secure?
I pray you, seek to know the worst of your case! It seems to me that
any honest and sane man would want to do this. There is nothing a wise
man hates more, when he is sick, than to have a doctor attending him
who will always, if he can, give a flattering report, but will never
speak the truth about his patient. Let not your heart flatter you any
longer, but say to it, "My Soul, make out an honest account! See what
and where you are and whether you are God's servant or not, doing as
God would have you do."

Believer in Christ, it will be well for you to make out this account
because you will find that it will help you to prize your Savior more.
I never look into my own heart without first feeling shame and,
afterwards, feeling greater love to Him who has eternally loved such a
sinner as I am! I am sure it will drive you to your knees if you
honestly search your own lives. There is enough in the history of a
single week to make you prize your Redeemer more than ever if you fully
realize the guilt of that one week and the greatness of His Grace in
pardoning it! O Christian, if you would be driven nearer to your Lord,
search and see, confess, repent and seek forgiveness. Go again to the
Cross because you have again felt the burden of the sin that nailed
your Savior there!

And, ungodly man, I press you, also, to give an account of your
stewardship because, perhaps, the same result may come to you. If you
find that you cannot give so good an account as you thought you could
when you were wrapped up in self-righteousness, perhaps you may be
alarmed and dismayed when you see the true state of the case–and it
may be that God the Holy Spirit will lead you to say, "I will go to
Jesus, for I am undone without Him. I will hasten to His Cross, for I
need the pardon that His blood has bought. I will now go with the
language of confession on my lips and beseech Him to accept me before
another year begins." It seems such a long time since I have talked to
some of you. Tossing to and fro upon my bed, suffering great pain, I
have thought that those of you to whom I have preached, now, these many
years, will have to give an account of every address that I have
delivered to you and of every exhortation with which I have plied you.
I beseech you, seek to make that account at once to your God in private
and ask Him to humble you, and to draw you sweetly to trust His dear
Son, that you may be saved!

I cannot bear the thought that any of you should be lost! I had hoped
that those who have supplied my place during my illness might, perhaps,
have been guided to shoot the arrow more directly than I can shoot it.
One thing I know, there was not among them all, whoever they might be,
one who more anxiously desired that you might find the Savior than I
do! And I pray at this moment, since I shall never preach to you again
on another Sabbath of this year, that this night may be the last one
you will spend in sin–and that tomorrow may be a spiritual birthday to
you, the first day in which you shall rejoice in a Savior! No, that
this very night you may be born again and become a new creature in
Christ Jesus!

III. And now, lastly, let us consider THE REASON WHICH THE MASTER
GIVES–"Give an account of your stewardship, for you may no longer be
steward."

This may happen in various ways. It may be that some here may live for
years and yet no longer be stewards. A preacher may be laid aside, his
voice gone, his mental faculties weakened–he is "no longer steward."
One is thankful to have further opportunities of serving the Lord and
trying to bring sinners to the Savior. O my dear Brother, work for God
while you can! It is one of the bitterest regrets a man can know, to
lie on his bed, to be unable to speak and to think to himself, "I wish
I could preach that sermon over again. I did not drive that nail home
with all the force I ought to have used! I have not been earnest enough
in pleading with sinners! I have not wrestled, even to agony, over the
salvation of their souls." It may be possible, my dear Brother
Minister, that you and I may have 20 or 30 years of being laid aside
from active service. Then let us work while we can, before the night
comes when no man can work! Brother, let us seize the oar of the
lifeboat and row out over the stormy sea, seeking to snatch the
drowning ones from yonder wreck, for the time may come when our strong
right arm shall be palsied and when we can do no more!

Yes, and rich professors may have to give an account of their
stewardship and no longer be stewards. There were some of that kind
when the recent financial panic came–though they had much before the
crash, they had nothing left afterwards so they could no longer be
stewards of the wealth that had been taken from them! It must be a
cause of deep regret to men in that position if they cannot give a good
account of their stewardship because they have done but little good
with their wealth while they had it. And think, Sirs, you to whom God
has given great possessions, how soon He may take them from you, for
riches abide not forever. Behold, they take to themselves wings and fly
away! I know of no better way of clipping their wings than by giving
generously to the cause of God and using in His service all that you
can. It would be a subject for continual regret to you, I am sure, if
you came down to poverty, not so much that you had descended in the
social scale, for that you could bear if it came by mere misfortune
through the Providence of God–but if you felt, "I did not do what I
should have done when I had wealth"–that would be the arrow which
would pierce you to the heart! It may be so, dear Brothers and Sisters,
it may be so with some of you. At any rate, I feel that there are some
of you who are poor because God will not lend His money where He knows
that it will be locked up and not put out to good interest in His
cause. What little you have is all hidden away, so the Lord will not
trust you with more! He sees you are not fit to be one of His stewards.
There are some, on the other hand, whom God has entrusted with much
because He sees that they use it wisely in promoting the interests of
His Kingdom.

But, after all, to every man, whether he is rich, or whether he is in
the office of the ministry, there may be a close of his stewardship
before he dies. The mother has her little children swept away, one
after another. This is the message to her, "You may no longer be
steward." The teacher has his class scattered, or he is, himself,
unable to go to the school. The word to him, also, is, "You may no
longer be steward." The man who went to his work, who might have spoken
to his fellow workman, is removed, perhaps, to another land, or he is
placed in a position where his mouth is shut. Now he can no longer be
steward. Use all opportunities while you have them! Catch them on the
wing! Serve God, while you can, today! Today! Today! Today! Let each
golden moment have its pressing service rendered unto God, lest it
should be said to you, "You may no longer be steward."

But we shall soon no longer be stewards in another sense. The hour must
come for us to die. Out of our large congregation we have constant
reminders that those who have served us as a Church and have served God
faithfully in His Church, cannot abide with us forever. One or another,
whom we have loved and honored, gives his account and passes to his
rest. So will it be in turn with the pastor, with the deacons and with
the elders. Do not put away the thought of that day, my fellow workers,
as though you were immortal! It may come to us all of a sudden–no gray
hairs may cover our heads–but while we are yet in the full strength of
manly vigor, you or I may be called to give our account! What do you
think? What do you think? Could you gather up your feet in the bed and
look into eternity without feeling the cold sweat of fear stand upon
your brow?

What do you think? Could you face the great Judgment Seat and say, "I
know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep
that which I have committed unto Him against that day. I have fought a
good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith"? Oh, God
be praised if we are able to say that! What monuments of mercy will you
and I be if we are able to say this at the close of our service–and to
hear our Lord say, "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into
the joy of your Lord."

My fellow member, by the fact that God is continually removing from us
one and another, I ask you to remember that you, also, will soon
depart. Therefore, be making up your account. Rest in Christ more
confidently! Love God more earnestly! Serve your generation more
intensely! Live while you live–play not at living, but live in real
earnest–and let it never be said of you that you trod so lightly on
the sands of time that you left no footprints there! Make your mark
upon your age and fill your appointed place, as God shall help you,
that when you are gathered to your fathers, you may not be forgotten,
but the Church may remember you because in her midst there are children
born to God through your means!

As for the unconverted here, need I tell them that they must soon
depart and no longer be stewards? You must go from your business, O
Trader. You must go from your merchandise, O Merchant. You must go from
your bench, O Artisan. You must go from your machine, O Engineer. You
must each depart and go to that place from which no traveler returns.
Be ready! Be ready! I will ring the alarm for some of you–perhaps my
text is a prophecy meant for some man here–"Give an account of your
stewardship, for you may no longer be steward." You have had children
about you and you have taught them blasphemy and drunkenness! Or you
have had workmen in your employ and you have laughed at their religion,
or aided and abetted them in sin! You have had talent, but you have
used that talent in the service of the Evil One! You have had gold, but
you have lavished it upon wantonness!

Now give an account of it all! Ah, Sirs, you may not heed what I say,
but you will have to heed what will be said to you at another time! You
will see this matter in another light when the death angel shall put
his cold, freezing hand upon your shoulder and say to you, "Give an
account! Give an account! Give an account of your stewardship!"

O Savior, Son of God, put Your pierced hands on these blind souls and
give them light that they may be able to render up their account with
joy, and not with grief! Give them Grace to believe in Your name and
trust in Your atoning Sacrifice, for this is the way of salvation! O
poor Sinners, trust in Christ Jesus and Him Crucified! You cannot be
saved by your stewardship, any of you, but unfaithful stewardship will
ruin you! Christ Crucified is your only hope of salvation! Look unto
Him and live! Oh, look unto Him now! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE 12:13-44.

Verses 13, 14. And one of the company said unto Him, Master, speak to
my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And He said unto
him, Man, who made Me a judge or a divider over you? Our Lord was a
Judge and a Divider, but His sphere of action was spiritual–He did not
interfere in the personal disputes of those who gathered round Him.

15. And He said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a
man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he
possesses. Christ took advantage of this man's request and made it the
text for a sermon against covet-ousness.

16-19. And He spoke a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a
certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within
himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to
bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my
barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my
goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have much goods laid up for
many years, take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. Notice how fond
the rich man was of the little pronouns, "I," and, "my." He lived only
for himself and was an embodiment of that covetousness which our Lord
abhorred and denounced! What a vivid contrast there is between what the
man said to himself and the Lord's message to him!

20. But God said unto him, You fool, this night your soul shall be
required of you: then whose shall those things be, which you have
provided? This may also be said to any of you–where would you be if
the Lord said to you, "This night your soul shall be required of you"?

21-23. So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich
toward God. And He said unto His disciples, Therefore I say unto you,
Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat; neither for the
body, what you shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body
is more than raiment. Do not spend your care on the lower things–care
most for that which is most worth caring for–more for the body than
for raiment, more for life than for meat, and consequently, more for
the immortal spirit than for anything besides–and more for God, even,
than for your own soul! Let your cares be rated according to their
objectives–to set a caring, anxious care upon the lesser things will
be folly, indeed!

24. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither
have storehouses nor barns and God feeds them: how much more are you
better than the fowls? It seems, then, that those that are fed by God
are much better fed than those that are fed by men! The ravens know no
care, whatever, for God cares for them. And if we could ever bring our
hearts into such a condition that we felt that everything to do with us
was in God's hands, we should enter into a blessed, hallowed freedom
from care in which we should find a sweet repose of spirit–

"Beneath the spreading heavens, No creature but is fed. And He who
feeds the ravens,

Will give His children bread."

25, 26. And which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his
stature? If you, then, are not able to do that thing which is least,
why take you thought for the rest? It would be a very small matter to
you if you were a foot taller, or if you were a foot shorter. It is not
that the making of yourself a cubit taller or shorter would be a small
thing to do, but it is a small thing in its result–it is an
inconsiderable matter whether a man is tall or short. If you, then, are
not able, even, to reduce your stature, or to increase it, take no
anxious thought about other things!

27. Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not;
and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. So that God cares not only for things that have
necessities, as ravens have, but for things that have luxuries, as
lilies have! When God does anything, He does it well. He is a grand
Housekeeper! He does not measure out so many ounces of bread per diem,
as if we were in a workhouse, but, "they that seek the Lord shall not
want any good thing." "No good thing will he withhold from them that
walk uprightly." The lilies might do as well without their golden hues.
They might ripen their seed without the lengthened stems that lift them
where they can be observed, but God takes more care of them, even, than
Solomon did of himself, for, "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these."

Now, dear children of God, if you trust your Heavenly Father, He will
see that you have no cause for care. If you trust Him with your souls,
He will not give you a bare salvation, but a rich robe of righteousness
to cover all your nakedness! When He does any work, He does it after a
better fashion than the wisest of men could do it and, Nature herself,
working as she does for the lilies, is only God working in another way!
But when God, Himself, without the intervention of the laws of Nature,
works in the Kingdom of His Grace, He does it perfectly–He does it
gloriously!

28. If, then, God so clothes the grass, which is today in the field,
and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more will He clothe you, O
you of little faith? Your life is not like that of the grass, or the
flower of the field that fades on a summer's day. God will take care of
you and the everlasting things shall have from Him a care greater than
He gives to the temporal. Yet how much God really does for
flowers–flowers that only open their cups in the morning and shut them
in death at night! How much of skill and wisdom there is, even, about
them! Shall there not be greater skill and wisdom employed upon you
who, when you have once begun to bloom in the Light of God, shall go on
blooming, flowering and shedding your perfume throughout the endless
ages?

29. 30. And seek not you what you shall eat, or what you shall drink,
neither be you of doubtful mind. For all these things in the nations of
the world seek after and your Father knows that you have need of these
things. For you, the immortal, the twice-born, the very bodyguard of
Christ–to live for such things as the men of the world live for is to
degrade the peerage of Heaven–to bring those who are of the blood
royal of the skies down to a gross pursuit! No, let your whole thought,
heart and life be spent for something higher and better than these
things–and leave the lower cares with your Father!

31, 32. But rather seek you the Kingdom of God; and all these things
shall be added unto you. Fear not little flock; for it is your Father's
good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. When Abraham had many sons, he
gave to each one of them a portion and sent them away. But Isaac had
the family heritage. It is the same with you! The Lord may give to
others more than He bestows upon you in this life, but for you He
reserves the Kingdom! Are you not content with that, whatever else your
Father gives you or withholds from you?

33. Sell what you have and give alms. That is to say, do not merely
give a little which you can readily spare, but sometimes even pinch
yourselves to relieve the poor!

33, 34. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the
heavens that fails not, where no thief approaches, neither moth
corrupts. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be, also.
You are sure to live for that which is the choicest object of your
love. Whatever you think to be first, will be first–and what you love
in your heart, you will be sure to follow in your life.

35, 36. Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning; and you
yourselves like unto men that wait for their master, when he will
return from the wedding; that when he comes and knocks, they may open
unto him immediately. Many people are thinking just now of Christ's
First Advent–but this passage bids us watch for His glorious Second
Coming.

37. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, shall
find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and
make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. I
never read this verse without wondering at the marvelous condescension
of our Lord! Even in the day of His appearing in Glory, His thoughts
will be more about His people than about Himself–"He shall gird
himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and
serve them."

38. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third
watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. We cannot tell
when He will come, but, "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord,
when He comes, shall find watching."

39-44. And this know, that if the good man of the house had known what
hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered
his house to be broke into. Be you, therefore, ready also: for the Son
of Man comes at an hour when you think not. Then Peter said unto Him,
Lord, speak You this parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord
said, Who, then, is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master
shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat
in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his master, when he comes,
shall find so doing. Of a truth I say onto you, that he will make him
ruler over all that he has. Wonderful words! We cannot at present tell
all that they mean, but, by God's Grace, may they be fulfilled to us
when our Lord comes to take us to Himself!