heart be also." Where should the heart of the disciple of the Lord Jesus
be, but in heaven? Our calling is a heavenly calling, our inheritance is
a heavenly inheritance, and reserved for us in heaven; our citizenship
is in heaven; but if we believers in the Lord Jesus lay up treasures on
earth, the necessary result of it is, that our hearts will be upon
earth; nay, the very fact of our doing so proves that they are there!
Nor will it be otherwise, till there be a ceasing to lay up treasures
upon earth. The believer who lays up treasures upon earth may, at first,
not live openly in sin, he in a measure may yet bring some honor to the
Lord in certain things; but the injurious tendencies of this habit will
show themselves more and more, whilst the habit of laying up treasures
in heaven would draw the heart more and more heavenward; would be
continually strengthening his new, his divine nature, his spiritual
faculties, because it would call his spiritual faculties into use, and
thus they would be strengthened; and he would more and more, whilst yet
in the body, have his heart in heaven, and set upon heavenly things; and
thus the laying up treasures in heaven would bring along with it, even
in this life, precious spiritual blessings as a reward of obedience to
the commandment of our Lord.

II. The next passage, on which I desire to make a few remarks, is Matt.
vi. 33: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and
all these things shall be added unto you." After our Lord, in the
previous verses, had been pointing his disciples "to the fowls of the
air," and "the lilies of the field," in order that they should be
without carefulness about the necessaries of life, he adds: "Therefore
take no thought (literally, be not anxious), saying, What shall we eat?
or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for after
all these things do the Gentiles seek;) for your heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of all these things." Observe here particularly that
we, the children of God, should be different from the nations of the
earth, from those who have no Father in heaven, and who therefore make
it their great business, their first anxious concern, what they shall
eat, and what they shall drink, and wherewithal they shall be clothed.
We, the children of God, should, as in every other respect, so in this
particular also, be different from the world, and prove to the world
that we believe that we have