they are in a good hand. Not about the comforts of this life; but leave it to God to make it bitter or
sweet as he pleases. Food and raiment God has promised, therefore we may expect them. Take no
thought for the morrow, for the time to come. Be not anxious for the future, how you shall live next
year, or when you are old, or what you shall leave behind you. As we must not boast of tomorrow,
so we must not care for to-morrow, or the events of it. God has given us life, and has given us the
body. And what can he not do for us, who did that? If we take care about our souls and for eternity,
which are more than the body and its life, we may leave it to God to provide for us food and raiment,
which are less. Improve this as an encouragement to trust in God. We must reconcile ourselves to
our worldly estate, as we do to our stature. We cannot alter the disposals of Providence, therefore
we must submit and resign ourselves to them. Thoughtfulness for our souls is the best cure of
thoughtfulness for the world. Seek first the kingdom of God, and make religion your business: say
not that this is the way to starve; no, it is the way to be well provided for, even in this world. The
conclusion of the whole matter is, that it is the will and command of the Lord Jesus, that by daily
prayers we may get strength to bear us up under our daily troubles, and to arm us against the
temptations that attend them, and then let none of these things move us. Happy are those who take
the Lord for their God, and make full proof of it by trusting themselves wholly to his wise disposal.
Let thy Spirit convince us of sin in the want of this disposition, and take away the worldliness of
our hearts.
Chapter 7
Chapter Outline
Christ reproves rash judgment. (1–6)
Encouragements to prayer. (7–11)
The broad and narrow way. (12–14)
Against false prophets. (15–20)
To be doers of the word, not hearers only. (21–29)Verses 1–6
We must judge ourselves, and judge of our own acts, but not make our word a law to everybody.
We must not judge rashly, nor pass judgment upon our brother without any ground. We must not
make the worst of people. Here is a just reproof to those who quarrel with their brethren for small
faults, while they allow themselves in greater ones. Some sins are as motes, while others are as
beams; some as a gnat, others as a camel. Not that there is any sin little; if it be a mote, or splinter,
it is in the eye; if a gnat, it is in the throat; both are painful and dangerous, and we cannot be easy
or well till they are got out. That which charity teaches us to call but a splinter in our brother's eye,
true repentance and godly sorrow will teach us to call a beam in our own. It is as strange that a man
can be in a sinful, miserable condition, and not be aware of it, as that a man should have a beam in