SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 343, 19 March 1910, Page 10

SUNDAY READING.

THE ANTIDOTE TO CARE. .—.—oNOTES 01? A SEEMOX BY TIIK REV. F. P. KELLOW, Xew Plymouth. '■Jje careful for nothing: but in even-thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace 01 God which passeth all understanding shall keep yoiir hearts and mmds through Jesus Christ."— Phil. 4, 6 and 7.

What is care?- Painful apprehension of evil. What man is absolutely free from care? I think it falls more or less to the lot of every man. Youth and age have their burden of care. Poverty and wealth alike invV.ve us in anxiety and trouble. There are smiling faces to be met everywhere, but smiling iaees often connote care-worn minds and aching hearts. Care is so constant 'and so universal an ingredient in the draught of human experience that we think it one of life's "essentials." Perhaps it is not. The Son of God says to His children, "take no thought for tomorrow." We understand by this—take no thought, which is of the nature of wearing anxiety, oi haunt : ng fear, that is care. Why?

BECAUSE HE CARETH FOR YOU.

Our text calls us to a lev*l of experience in -which there seems to be little room for care. "Be careful for nothing." There is a glorious optimism in that rallying call. Let us look at it. This is a passage for one to take with him to the throne of grace. To the thoughtless and prayerless mind it can never exhale its sweetness; it can never, to such, appear even reasonable or true. But to the person who has learnt, or is learning, to cast his care upon the great burden-bearer, it should be iull of light and inspiration. When we come ,to look into this text there 13 one feature of it which is very striking and that is the startling contrasts in which "it abounds. You have here in contrast—<are and prayer; nothing and everything; human understanding and the peace of God. Perhaps it wiil be well to keep these contrasts in mind as we proceed with our subject. But what I 3rish now. to do is to take, in order, the three outstanding features of this passage and to speak upon each one. First, then, we notice here

A NEGATIVE COUNCIL. "Be careful ior nothing." Don't be weighed down with care on account of anything. Why, my children, should you distress yourselves with haunting fears and- dark forebodings? That is the question our Father asks in a hundred places and ways, and have we any good reason why we should be? But what a depth of trust in the (.rovidence and care of God this command calls ior! So exceeding broad is the command, and so far short of it do we usually fall, that we are constrained to pray—"Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law." Of course ryou have heard these expressions. '"Be not careful" and "Take no thought" explained and commented upon. So often that you weary a little of the cautious distinctions. You have heard it so often and learned it so well. But have we learned it? When we com-,' to apply our knowledge, when we come to work it into the everyday affairs of our life, then we see how sadly the right and the wrong get mixed together. "Be ■careful for nothing." When aTe we reasonably carrying out that command? When, ior instance, it comes to matters affecting our well-being or well-doing in temporal affairs, when are wc underdoing or over-doing in regard to this command, "Be careful for nothing"? I am afraid that most of us make but

• A VERY POOR APPROXIMATION towards carrying out this command. There is a familiar proverb which comes in here very well: "Never cross the bridge till you come to it." Ridiculous, yon say. Oh, no, that is just what care means. If you analyse care you will find that about nine-tenths of it is borrowed trouble. What shall we do then? "Let trouble tarrv till its

own time?" Yes, but we should do v more than that. We should seek in .God's. strength to carry out the second counsel which the inspired teacher here gives.

"IN EVERYTHING ■by prayer and supplication witij thanksgiving make your requests known unto God." This is the more excellent way in relation to the wearing anxieties and stern realities of life. I know the rationalist will say, "Reason i r , out and .work." But the God-taught man knows that only working and reasoning.cannot cover the whole meaning and purpose oi human life; he knows that praying and co-working is the Divine plan. Hence the counsel "by prayer and supplication," etc. Now prayer and supplication are not terms of contrast, but they mark a distinction. . Prayer is •the generic word, whose meaning covers our whole act of approach to God; supplication implies direct petition or asking for something we want. This the text tells us we may do —ought to da. It is at once our privilege and duty. And just notice how wide the privilege, how grand the opportunity. "In everything''; nothing is excluded,, nothing is too little, nothing is too secular. In every trouble, in every fear, in every duly, you are free, nay, commanded to go to God in' Christ with assurance that He listens to you, &nd that your supplication will not g/tjiftof "'nothing, hut that you and yours* I *® be thought upon by the trusted and obeyed. Now think upon these things, my brethren, and if there it anything in the wide world that would relieve us of wearing anxieties, naking us careiul for nothing, it must be the reverent and filial habit of casting our burdens upon the Aluiightiness Oi Him who says He careth for us. Now look at the result of our obedience to these commands. "The peace of God

.which passeth all understanding shall keep your heart* and thoughts in Jesus phrist." What does that mean? It means this: that prayer, not care, shall give us peace. In other words, it means tliat prayer,

SUPPLICATION WITH THANKS GIVING,

can do for us what care never did, and never can do. Care seeks peace, but can never find it; no, it inevitably drives it from us. It is only when the careworn soul ceases from its harassing and unquiet thoughts and betakes itself to confiding and grateiul prayer that it can know its true peace—the peace of God. It will be well to remember just at this point that in our supplications God does not always give us the specific thing we ask for. It would not be well for us, and you know the text does not promise it. God always remembers, in answering your prayers, that you are above all things a child of Eternity, and

his answers, ami gifts are ci-iniui< :u m by that fact. Our" potilion-, arc uminlv influenced by ih e kno\vli'ilj;i'" lluil we are on the earth ami the 'feeling that we are of the earth. So in thii mailer we find that His thoughts are mn our thoughts nor Hi s W ays our vavs. Let. us pet Hum llim, then', for things as we believe he prompts us, but lei "us ivn-l Ilim lor the answer, lie will so "direct our paths" as to conserve our highest, interests for this life and which ii to come. Uno thing we know He will give without measure—Peace, the peace" of God. What does that mean? The Yenpeace which abides in God himself. It fills, with benediction, the heart which has made God the redeemer, its confidant and friend.

IT PASSETH UNDERSTANDING. These words are generally taken to mean that this peace in its nature and measure is beyond all human understanding. Some writers, however, offer a different explanation. They understand the words to imply that the peace of God as a means of assuring and quietinothe restless human heart is above every device of man's understanding to compas's this end. But, anyhow, it is the greatest of all our needs. We think of the future and we see many things we have to provide against—old age, sickness, want of employment, impending troubles in business, or in the family life, or in your own personal life. There is a way through all this. The best way —the way which God opens up 1 , Work if you will, but, better still, co-work with Him. Reason if you will, but pray also, and pray principally. He will lead you in the way; He will take upon Himself your care; He will give you 'His peace. Let me close with a word about the picturesque way in the text speaks of this peace. It says: "It shall keep your hearts and thoughts', in tjesus Christ." Here is one of tho3e striking contrasts in which the text abounds.

Keep and peace are the contrasting terms. The term "keep" as here used is a military term in the Greek and would be understood by the Phillipians, to whom it was addressed. Peace is here represented as doing a, soldier's duty. The peace of God like a sentinel stands sentry over your hearts to challenge the approach of every cire. The sleepless peace of God keeps watch at the gate, allowing no alarm, 0- foreboding care, to disquiet the soul. This is God's way; what is yours? Let us be "/sareful for nothing," but in believing prayer -let us cast the burden of our life upon Him, for He cares for us.