Matthew 6:28

Matthew 6:28

I. Consider the lilies and identify little things with God's care. Can you make a lily? You cannot make a sun;can you make one drop of dew? God writes minutely as well as largely. He writes the great letters of the stars; He writes also the small letters of the violets and daisies.

II. Consider the lilies and see the superiority of the natural over the artificial. Let the glorious dress of the king represent the artificial. God makes the original; man makes the copy. For all originality mental and moral, as well as physical we must go to the Father.

III. Consider the lilies and look on things beneath, as well as on things above. Look for God when thou lookest at the dust. The dust is alive with the life of God.

IV. Consider the lilies and have faith in your Father. Think of God clothing the grass and forgetting the child! It is impossible.Let a lily detach itself from its root, and it must perish. So with man. Let him cut himself off from God, and he will become as a withered and driven leaf.

Parker, City Temple,vol. i., p. 366.

I. The first thought in the sermon of the lilies is a lesson of trust confidence in God, repose, rest in Him. "O man!" they seem to say, "think of us; our life is very brief, but what beauty is bestowed upon us, for we are, every one of us, a thought of God! We die so speedily, and yet God cares for us: ye are much better than we. Consider how many things had to meet together to make a lily beautiful, and the thing of joy it is for ever! Consider how we grow: we are not careworn as you are; wrinkles do not fret our fair leaves; our heavenly Father feeds us with earth from beneath and moisture from above.

II. Consider how they grow. Consider, (1) how miraculously they grow. Surely if anywhere we have the handwriting of God, it is here! This growth is no new life; it is only that daily change which is development. If any one professed himself unable to see a God I would point him to a flower; I would say, Consider the lilies. (2) Consider with what beauty and loveliness they grow. They show the obviousness of inner beauty; it is all very calm and sweet and quiet all from within; they attract to themselves essences and helps from the whole earth, but they must be in harmony with the proper spirit of the plant. (3) Consider by what improbable auxiliaries they grow; consider by what a hidden life they grow. Is it not strange that such purity should spring from the black earth strange that such whiteness should shoot up from the soiled ground? It is a mighty miracle, and it is ever going on. (4) Consider how yieldingly and complyingly they grow. (5) Consider to what Divine uses they grow. They have no use to the sense only to the heart.

E. Paxton Hood, Sermons,p. 33.

References: Matthew 6:28. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 278; A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit,vol. ix., p. 357; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 137, vol. xx., p. 14; Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 149; New Outlines of Sermons on the New Testament,p. 7; Todd, Lectures to Children,p. 183; A. J. Griffith, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxv., p. 182; H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty,vol. ii., p. 129; J. C. Hare, Sermons in Hurstmonceux Church,vol. ii., p. 443; J. Martineau, Endeavours after the Christian Life,p. 76.