But Jesus did more than panegyrise poverty; he gave still more exact directions to his disciples as to how poverty should be attained.  Matt. vi. 25-34 is as mischievous a passage as has been penned by any moralist.  “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.”  It is said that “take no thought” means, “be not over anxious;” if this be so, why does Christ emphasise it by quoting birds and lilies as examples, things, which, literally, take no thought? the argument is:  birds do not store food in barns, yet God feeds them.  You are more valuable than the birds.  God will take equal care of you if you follow the birds’ example.  The lilies spin no raiment, yet God clothes them.  So shall he clothe you, if you follow their example.  The passage has no meaning, the illustrations no appositeness, unless Christ means that no thought is to be taken for the future.  He makes the argument still stronger:  “the Gentiles seek” meat, drink, and clothing.  But God, your Father, knows your need for all these things.  Therefore, “seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.  Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow:  for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.  Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”  If Christ only meant the common-place advice, “do not be over-anxious,” he then lays the most absurd stress on it, and speaks in the most exaggerated way.  Sensible Gentiles do not worry themselves by over-anxiety, after they have taken for the morrow’s needs all the care they can; but they do not act like birds or like lilies, for they know that many a bird starves in a hard winter because it is not capable of gathering and storing food into barns, and that many a garbless lily is shrivelled up by the cold east wind.  They notice that though men and women are “much better than” birds and lilies, yet God does not always feed and clothe them; that, on the contrary, many a poor creature dies of starvation and of winter’s bitter cold; when our daily papers record no inquests on those who die from want, because none but God takes thought for them, then it will be time enough for us to cease from preparing for the morrow, and to trust that “heavenly Father” who at present “knoweth that” we “have need of these things,” and, knowing, lets so many of his children starve for lack of them.

The true meaning of Christ is plainly shown by his injunctions to the twelve apostles and to the seventy when he sent them on a journey:  “Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, nor money; neither have two coats apiece” (Luke ix. 3); and:  “Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes ... in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give” (Ibid, x. 4, 7).  The same spirit breathes in his injunction to the young man:  “Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou