September 18 Daily Devotional

He hath set eternity in our hearts

(continued from July 4)

‘If God so clothe the grass of the field ... shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?’ If God does that for the flowers of the field, how much more for you?

... Here is the argument…. What a mighty argument [it] is. The grass of the field is transient and passing. In ancient times they used to cut it and use it as fuel. It was the old way of baking bread. You first of all cut the grass and dried it, and then put it in the oven and set it on fire, and it generated great heat. Then you raked it out and put in the bread which you had prepared for baking. That was a common practice, and it was so in our Lord’s day. So you see the powerful argument. The lilies and the grass are transient; they do not last very long. How well aware of this we are. We cannot make our flowers last; the moment we cut them they are beginning to die. They are here today with their exquisite beauty and all their perfection, but it is all gone by tomorrow. These beautiful things come and go, and that is the end of them. You, however, are immortal; you are not only a creature of time, you belong to eternity. It is not true to say that you are here today and gone tomorrow in a real sense. God hath ‘set eternity’ in the heart of man; man is not meant to die. ‘Dust thou art, to dust returnest, was not spoken of the soul.’ You go on, and on, and on. You not only have natural dignity and greatness, but you also have an eternal existence beyond death and the grave. When you realize that truth about yourself, can you believe that God who has made you and destined you for that, is going to neglect your body while you are in this life and world? Of course not. ‘If God so clothe the grass of the field ...?’

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, ii, p. 124