Anxious care rests upon a basis, too, of heathen misunderstanding of the character of God.  ’Your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.’  The heathen thought of God is that He is far removed from our perplexities, either ignorant of our struggles, or unsympathising with them.  The Christian has the double armour against anxiety—­the name of the Father, and the conviction that the Father’s knowledge is co-extensive with the Father’s love.  He who calls us His children thoroughly understands what His children want.  And so, anxiety is contrary to the very name by which we have learned to call God, and to the pledge of pitying care and perfect knowledge of our frame which lies in the words ‘our Father.’  Our Father is the name of God, and our Father intensely cares for us, and lovingly does all things for us.

And then, still further, Christ points out here, not only what is the real root of this solicitous care—­something very like worldly-mindedness, heathen worldly-mindedness; but He points out what is the one counterpoise of it—­’seek first the kingdom of God.’  It is of no use only to tell men that they ought to trust, that the birds of the air might teach them to trust, that the flowers of the field might preach resignation and confidence to them.  It is of no use to attempt to scold them into trust, by telling them that distrust is heathenish.  You must fill the heart with a supreme and transcendent desire after the one supreme object, and then there will be no room or leisure left for anxious care after the lesser.  Have inwrought into your being, Christian man, the opposite of that heathen over-regard for earthly things.  ’Seek first the kingdom of God.’  Let all your spirit be stretching itself out towards that divine and blessed reality, longing to be a subject of that kingdom, and a possessor of that righteousness; and ’the cares that infest the day’ will steal away from out of the sacred pavilion of your believing spirit.  Fill your heart with desires after what is worthy of desire; and the greater having entered in, all lesser objects will rank themselves in the right place, and the ‘glory that excelleth’ will outshine the seducing brightness of the paltry present.  Oh! it is want of love, it is want of earnest desire, it is want of firm conviction that God, God only, God by Himself, is enough for me, that makes me careful and troubled.  And therefore, if I could only attain unto that sublime and calm height of perfect conviction, that He is sufficient for me, that He is with me for ever,—­the satisfying object of my desires and the glorious reward of my searchings,—­let life and death come as they may, let riches, poverty, health, sickness, all the antitheses of human circumstances storm down upon me in quick alternation, yet in them all I shall be content and peaceful.  God is beside me, and His presence brings in its train whatsoever things I need.  You cannot cast out the sin of foreboding thoughts by any power short of the entrance of Christ and His love.  The blessings of faith and felt communion leave no room nor leisure for anxiety.