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God & MammonFifteenth Sunday after Trinity; Matthew 6:24-34A
Sermon by Martin Luther; taken from his Church Postil.
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[The
following sermon is taken from volume V:103-117 of The Sermons
of Martin Luther, published by Baker Book House (Grand Rapids,
MI, 1983). It was originally published in 1905 in English by
Lutherans in All Lands (Minneapolis, MN), as The Precious and
Sacred Writings of Martin Luther, vol. 14. The pagination from
the Baker edition has been maintained for referencing. This e-text
was scanned and edited by Richard P. Bucher, it is in the public
domain and it may be copied and distributed without restriction.] Page
103 --------------------------- 1.
In this Gospel we see how God distinguishes Christians from heathen.
For the Lord does not deliver these teachings to the heathen,
for they could not receive them, but to his Christians. However,
he does not consider those Christians, who only hear his Word,
so as to learn it and be able Page
104 --------------------------- to
repeat it, as the nuns do the Psalter. In this way satan also
hears the Gospel and the Word of God, yea, he knows it far better
than we do, and he could preach it as well as we, if he only
wanted to; but the Gospel is a doctrine that should become a
living power and be put into practice; it should strengthen and
comfort the people, and make them courageous and aggressive. 2.
Therefore they, who only thus hear the Gospel, so that they may
know it and be able to speak about the wisdom of God, are not
worthy to be classed among Christians; but they, who do as the
Gospel teaches, are true Christians. However, very few of these
are found; we see many hearers, but all are not doers of the
Gospel. We wish now to examine more closely what kind of doctrine
the Lord teaches in this Gospel. First, he begins with a plain,
natural example, so that we all must confess it is true; experience
also teaches the same to everybody. He says: "No
man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and
love the other: or else he will hold to one, and despise the
other." 3.
Now he, who tries to serve two masters, will do it in a way that
cannot be called serving at all; for it will certainly be as
the Lord here says. One can indeed compel a servant to do a certain
work against his will and he may grieve while doing it; but no
one can compel him to do it cheerfully, and mean it from the
bottom of his heart. He of course does the work as long as his
master is present, but when he is absent, he hurrys away from
his task, and does nothing well. Hence the Lord desires our service
to be done out of love and cheerfully, and where it is not done
thus, it is no service to him: for even people are not pleased
when one does anything for them unwillingly. This is natural,
and we experience daily that it is so. Now, if it be the case
among human beings that no one can serve two masters, how much
more is it true in the service of God, that our service cannot
be divided; but it must be done unto God alone, willingly and
from the heart; therefore the Lord adds: Page
105 --------------------------- "Ye
cannot serve God and mammon." 4.
God cannot allow us to have another Lord besides himself. He
is a jealous God, as he says, and cannot suffer us to serve him
and his enemy. Only mine, he says, or not at all. Behold now
how beautifully Christ here introduces the example: "No
man," he says, "can serve two masters; for either he
will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to
one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
As if to say: as it is here in man's relations to his fellows,
so it is also before God. 5.
We find very few, who do not sin against the Gospel. The Lord
passes a severe judgment and it is terrible to hear that he should
say this of us, and yet no one will confess, yea, no one will
suffer it to be said that we hate and despise God and that we
are his enemies. There is no one, when asked if he loves God
and cleaves to him? would not reply, yes, I love God. But see
how the text closes, that we all hate and despise God, and love
mammon and cleave to it. But God suffers us to do this until
his time; he watches the time and some day he will strike into
our midst with all violence, before we can turn around. It is
impossible for one, who loves gold and earthly possessions and
cleaves to them, not to hate God. For God here contrasts these
two as enemies to one another, and concludes, if you love and
cleave to one of these two, then you must hate and despise the
other. Therefore, however nicely and genteely one lives here
upon earth and cleaves to riches, it cannot be otherwise than
that he must hate God; and on the other hand, whoever does not
cleave to gold and worldly goods, loves God. This is certainly
true. 6.
But who are they that love God, and cleave not to gold and worldly
possessions? Take a good look at the whole world, also the Christians,
and see if they despise gold and riches. It requires an effort
to hear the Gospel and to live according to it. God be praised,
we have the Gospel; that no one can deny, but what do we do with
it? We are concerned only about learning and knowing it, and
nothing more; we think it is enough to know it, and do not care
Page
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we ever live according to it. However, on the other band, one
is very anxious when he leaves lying in the window or in the
room a dollar or two, yea, even a dime, then he worries and fears
lest the money be stolen; but the same person can do without
the Gospel through a whole year. And such characters still wish
to be considered as Evangelical. 7.
Here we see what and who we are, If we were Christians, we would
despise riches and be concerned about the Gospel that we some
day might live in it and prove it by our deeds. We see few such
Christians; therefore we must hear the judgment that we are despisers
of God and hate God for the sake of riches and worldly possessions.
Alas! That is fine praise! We should be ashamed of ourselves
in our inmost souls; there is no hope for us! What a fine condition
we are in now! That means, I think, our names are blotted out.
What spoiled children we are! 8.
Now the world cannot conceal its unbelief in its coarse, outward
sins, for I see it loves a dollar more than Christ; more than
all the Apostles, even if they themselves were present and preached
to it. I can hear the Gospel daily, but it does not profit me
every day; it may indeed happen, if I have heard it a whole year,
the Holy Spirit may have been given to me only one hour. Now
when I enjoyed this hour I obtained not only five hundred dollars,
but also the riches of the whole world; for what have I not,
when I have the Gospel? I received God, who made the silver and
the gold, and all that is upon the earth; for I acquired the
Spirit by which I know that I will be kept by him forever; that
is much more than if I had the church full of money. Examine
now and see, if our heart is not a rogue, full of wickedness
and unbelief. If I were a true Christian, I would say: The hour
the Gospel is received, there comes to me a hundred thousand
dollars, and much more. For if I possess this treasure, I have
all that is in heaven and upon earth. But one must serve this
treasure only, for no man can serve God and mammon. Either you
must love God and hate money; Page
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you must hate God and love money; this and nothing more. 9.
The master uses here the Hebrew, which we do not. "Mammon"
means goods or riches, and such goods as one does not need, but
holds as a treasure, and it is gold and possessions that one
deposits as stock and storage provisions. This Christians do
not do, they gather no treasures; but they ask God for their
daily bread. However, others are not satisfied with this, they
gather a great store upon which they may depend, in case our
God should die today or tomorrow, they might then know a way
out. Therefore St. Paul says, in Eph. 5, 5 and Col. 3, 5, riches
and covetousness are the god of this world and are idolatry,
with this Christ here agrees and calls it serving mammon. 10.
Now, how does it come that the Gospel and St. Paul call especially
covetousness and not other sins idolatry; since uncleanness,
fornication, lust, base desires, unchastity and other vices are
more opposed to God? It is done to our great shame, because gold
is our god, that we serve, in that we trust and rely upon it,
and it can neither sustain nor save us, yea, it can neither stand
nor walk, it neither hears nor sees, it has no strength nor power,
with it there is neither comfort nor help. For if one had the
riches of the whole world, he would not be secure for one moment
before death. 11.
Of what help are his great treasures and riches to the Emperor
when the hour of death arrives and he is called to die? They
are a shameful, loathsome, powerless god, that cannot cure a
sore, yea, it cannot keep and take care of itself, there it lies
in the chest, and lets it's devotees wait, yea, one must watch
it as a helpless, powerless, weak thing. The lord who has this
god must watch day and night lest thieves steal it; this helpless
god can aid no one. You should have contempt for this lifeless
god that cannot help in the least, and is yet so scrupulous and
precious; it lets its devotees wait in the grandest style and
protects itself with strong chests and castles, its lord must
wait and be in anxiety every hour, lest it perishes by fire or
otherwise experiences Page
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misfortune. Does this treasure or god consist in clothing, then
one must be careful and on his guard against the smallest little
insects, against the moth, lest they ruin or devour it. 12.
The walls of our rooms should spit upon us in contempt that we
trust more in the god the moth eat and the rust corrupt, than
in the God, who creates and gives all things, yea, who holds
in his hand heaven and earth, and all that in them is. Is it
not a foolish thing on the part of the world to turn from the
true God and trust in base and low mammon, in the poor, miserable
god, who cannot protect himself against rust. Oh, what a disgraceful
thing this is on the part of the world! God visits gold and worldly
possessions with many kinds of enemies, to bring us to see and
confess our unbelief and godless character, that we thus trust
in a powerless and frail god, we who could at once so easily
approach and cleave to the true, powerful and strong God, who
gives us everything, money, goods, fruit and all we need; yet
we are so foolish and make gods out of his gifts. Shame on thee,
thou cursed unbelief. 13.
Other sins give us a little pleasure, we receive some enjoyment
from them, as in the case of eating and drinking; in unchastity
one has pleasure for a little while; likewise anger satisfies
its desire, and other vices more so. Only in this vice one must
incessantly be in slavery, hounded and martyred, and in it no
one has any pleasure or joy whatever. There the money lies on
a pile and commands you to serve it; in spite of it letting any
one draw from it a thimble full of wine there comes rust and
devours it, and yet he dares not attack it, lest he angers his
god. And when his servants have protected their god a long time
they have no more than any poor beggar. I have nothing, yet I
eat and drink as heartily as any one who has a large supply of
mammon. When he dies he takes just as much along with him as
I do. And it is certainly the case that these people never live
as well nor as richly as the poor people often do. Who arranges
this thus? God, the Lord, does it. Here some have a certain affliction
of the body that they have no appetite; there Page
109 --------------------------- others
are internally unsound and never relish what they eat; here their
stomach is out of order; there their lungs and liver are diseased;
here is this, and there is that sickness; here they are weak
and afflicted at one point, there at another, and they never
have an enjoyable hour to relish what they eat or drink. 14.
Thus it is with those who serve this god, mammon. The true God
is still of some use, he serves the people, but mammon does not,
it lies quiet and lets others serve it. And for this reason the
New Testament calls covetousness idolatry, since it thus desires
to be served. However, to love and not to enjoy may well vex
the devil. This all now experience who love the god, mammon,
and serve him. Whoever has now no sense of shame and does not
turn red, has a brazen face. 15.
Thus now it is with the word, "serve." For it is not
forbidden to have money and possessions, as we cannot get along
without them. Abraham, Lot, David, Solomon and others had great
possessions and much gold, and at the present day there are many
wealthy persons who are pious, in spite of their riches. But
it is one thing to have possessions and another to serve them;
to have mammon, and to make a god out of it. Job also was wealthy,
he had great possessions and was more powerful than all who lived
in the East, as we read in the first part of the book of Job:
yet he says, in Job 31, 24-25: "If I have made gold my hope,
and said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; have I rejoiced
because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much?" 16.
The sum of all is, it is God's will that we serve not gold and
riches, and that we be not overanxious for our life; but that
we labor and commend our anxiety to him. Whoever possesses riches
is lord of the riches. Whoever serves them, is their slave and
does not possess them, but they possess him; for he dare not
make use of them when he desires, and cannot serve others with
them; yea, he is not bold enough to dare to touch it. However,
is he lord over his riches, then they serve him, and he does
not serve them; then he Page
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use them, as Abraham, David, Job and other rich persons, and
he casts his care only upon God, as St. Paul teaches in 1 Cor.
7, 32. Hence he aids the poor with his wealth and gives to those
who have nothing. When he sees a person without a coat, he says
to his money: Go out, Messrs. Dollars, there is a poor, naked
man, who has no coat, you must be of service to him! There lies
one sick, who has no medicine. Go forth, Squires Anneberger and
Joachinesthaler, you must hasten and help him! Those, who act
thus with their riches, are their lords; and all true Christians
surely do this. But those who save piles of money, and ever scheme
to make their heap larger instead of smaller, are servants and
slaves of mammon. 17.
He is a lord of mammon who lays hold of and uses it for the sake
of those who need it and lets God rule, who says in Luke 6, 38:
Give, and it shall be given unto you; have you nothing more,
you surely have me still, and I have still enough, yea, I have
more than I have given away and more than can ever be given away.
We see here and there many pious poor people only for the purpose
that the wealthy may help and serve them with their riches. If
you do it not, you have the sure proof that you hate God. He,
whom the sentence does not terrify, that he will hear on the
day of judgment, can be moved by nothing. For he will hear then
from God: Behold, thou hast hated me and loved that which could
not protect itself against rust and moth. Ay, how firmly you
will then stand! 18.
Hence the sense is, we must own some possessions, but are not
to cleave to them with our hearts; as Ps. 62, 10 says: "If
riches increase, set not your heart thereon." We are to
labor; but we are not to be anxious about our existence. This
the Master says here in our Gospel in plain and clear words,
when he thus concludes: "Be
not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall
drink: nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on." 19.
And he now uses a reasonable and natural form of speech, by which
to close, that they are not to be anxious for the nourishment
of their lives; for reason must conclude Page
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yield that it is as Christ says, when he gives the ground and
reason of his discourse by asking: "Is
not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?" 20.
As if he would say: You turn it just around, the food should
serve your life and not your life the food. The same is true
in respect to raiment; the clothing should serve the body, thus
the body serves the clothing. The world is so blind that it cannot
see this. 21.
Now we must here have a high esteem for the words of the Lord.
He says, "Be not anxious;" he does not say, Labor not.
Anxiety is forbidden, but not labor; yea, it is commanded and
made obligatory upon us to labor until the sweat rolls down our
faces. It is not God's pleasure for man to tramp around idly;
therefore he says to Adam in Gen. 3, 19: "In the sweat of
thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground;
for out of it wast thou taken." And as Ps. 104, 22-23 says:
"The sun ariseth, man goeth forth unto his work and to his
labor until the evening." We are not to be anxious, this
is forbidden; for we have a rich God who promises us food and
clothing; for he knows what we lack, before we are concerned
and begin to pray. 22.
Why then does he not give us what we need without our labor?
Because it is thus pleasing to him; he tells us to labor and
then he gives it; not because of our work, but out of kindness
and grace. This we see before our eyes; for although we labor
every year in the field, yet God gives one year more than another.
Therefore, we are fools, yea, we act contrary to God's will,
when we are worried as to how to scrape together gold and riches,
since God gratuitously and richly promises that he will give
us all and will abundantly provide for our every want. 23.
However, one may say: Does not St. Paul tell us to be diligent,
as in Rom. 12, 8: "He that ruleth, with diligence,"
and there immediately follows verse 11, "In diligence, not
slothful?" In like manner to the Philippians 2, 20, he says
of Timothy: "For I have no man likeminded, Page
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will care truly for your state." And Paul himself in 2 Cor.
11, 28 boasts that anxiety for all the churches presses upon
him. Here you see how we are nevertheless to be anxious. Answer:
Our life and a Christian character consist of two parts, of faith
and of love. The first points us to God, the other to our neighbor.
The first, namely faith, is not visible, God alone sees that;
the other is visible, and is love, that we are to manifest to
our neighbor. Now the anxiety that springs from love is commanded,
but that which accompanies faith is forbidden. If I believe that
I have a God, then I cannot be anxious about my welfare; for
if I know that God cares for me as a father for his child, why
should I fear? Why need I to be anxious, I simply say: Art thou
my Father, then I know that no evil will befall me, as Ps.16,8
says: "I have set Jehovah always before me: because he is
at my right hand, I shall not be moved." Thus he has all
things in his hand; therefore I shall want nothing, he will care
for me. If I rush ahead and try to care for myself, that is always
contrary to faith; therefore God forbids this kind of anxiety.
But it is his pleasure to maintain the anxious care of love,
that we may help others, and share our possessions and gifts
with them. Am I a ruler, I am to care for my subjects; am I a
housefather, I must take care of the members of my family, and
so forth, according as each one has received his gifts from God.
God cares for all, and his is the care that pertains to faith.
We are also to be interested in one another and this is the care
of love, namely, when something is given to me, that I be diligent
so that others may also receive it. 24.
Here we must be guarded, lest we make a gloss, instead of understanding
simply the words as they read: Be not anxious for your life.
God says: Labor and if you accomplish nothing, I will give what
is needed; does he give then see that you rightly distribute
it. Do not be anxious to get, but see to it that your domestics
and others also receive of that which God has given to you, and
that your domestics labor and receive a Christian training. 25.
Am I a preacher, my anxiety should not be where to Page
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what I am to preach; for if I have nothing, I can give nothing.
Christ says in Luke 21,15: "I will give you a mouth and
wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to withstand
or to gainsay." But if I have that I ought to be anxious
for others to receive it from me, and that I endeavor to impart
it to them in the best form possible, to teach the ignorant,
to admonish and restrain those who know it, rightly to comfort
the oppressed consciences, to awaken the negligent and sleepy,
and put them on their guard, and the like, as St. Paul did (1
Tim. 4; 2 Tim. 3, Tit. 3) and commanded his disciples Timothy
and Titus to do. My anxiety should be how others are to receive
something from me; but I am to study and pray to God. Studying
is my labor, this is the work he desires me to do, and when it
is his pleasure he will give. It can indeed happen that I may
study a long time and he gives nothing, a year or more, and when
it is his pleasure, he gives as long as it is pleasing to him.
Then he gives copiously and to overflowing, suddenly in an hour. 26.
Thus a housefather also does, he attends only to that which is
commanded him, and lets our Lord God arrange as to how he will
give. When he gives, then man is concerned how to impart it to
his family, and he sees that they have no need as to the body
and the soul. This is what the Lord means, when he says we are
not to be anxious for our food and raiment; but he certainly
requires us to labor. For thou must be a long time behind the
oven until something is given to thee if thou dost not till the
soil and work. True it is, God can easily nourish thee without
thy work, he could easily have roasted and boiled corn and wine
grow on thy table; but he does not do it, it is his will that
thou shouldst labor and in doing so to use thy reason. 27.
In like manner it is with preaching and all our affairs. God
gives us the wool, that he grows on the sheep; but it is not
at once cloth, we must labor and make it into cloth; when it
is cloth, it does not at once become a coat, the tailor must
first work with the cloth before it is a coat; and so God does
with all things, he cares for us, but we must toil and Page
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We have plenty of examples of this before our eyes, and God relates
especially two here that should really make us blush with shame,
namely, those of the birds and the lilies in the field. Pointing
to the birds he says: "Behold
the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap,
nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them." 28.
As if the Lord would say: You have never yet seen a bird with
a sickle, with which it harvested and gathered into barns; yea,
the birds do not labor like we; and still they are nourished.
By this the Lord does not however teach that we are to be idle;
but he tries by this example to take all anxiety from us. For
a bird cannot do the work of a farmer as we do; yet, it is not
free from labor, but it does the work for which it was created,
namely, it bears its young, feeds them and sings to our Lord
God a little song for the privilege of doing this. Had God imposed
more labor upon it, then it would have done more. Early in the
morning it rises, sits upon a twig and sings a song it has learned,
while it knows not where to obtain its food, and yet it is not
worried as to where to get its breakfast. Later, when it is hungry,
it flies away and seeks a grain of corn, where God stored one
away for it, of which it never thought while singing, when it
had cause enough to be anxious about its food. Ay, shame on you
now, that the little birds are more pious and believing than
you; they are happy and sing with joy and know not whether they
have anything to eat. 29.
This parable is constantly taught to our great and burning shame,
that we cannot do as much as the birds. A Christian should be
ashamed before a little bird that knows an art it never acquired
from a teacher. When in the spring of the year, while the birds
sing the most beautifully, you say to one: How canst thou sing
so joyfully, thou hast not yet any grain in thy barn I It would
thus mock you. It is a powerful example and should truly give
offense to us and stir us to trust God more than we do. Therefore
he concludes with a penetrating passage, and asks: "Are
not ye of much more value than they?'' Page
115 --------------------------- 30.
Is it not a great shame that the Lord makes and presents to us
the birds as our teachers, that we should first learn from them?
Shame on thee, thou loathsome, infamous unbelief! The birds do
what they are required to do; but we not. In Genesis 1, 28 we
have a command that we are to be lords over all God's creatures;
and the birds are here our lords in teaching us wisdom. Away
with godless unbelief! God makes us to be fools and places the
birds before us, to be our teachers and rule us, in that they
only point out how we serve mammon and forsake the true and faithful
God. Now follows the other example of the flowers in the field,
by which the Lord encourages us not to worry about our raiment;
and it reads thus: "And
which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure
of his life? And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider
the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither
do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his
glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God doth so clothe
the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast
into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little
faith!" 31.
As if to say, your life is not yours, nor is your body, you cannot
make it one cubit longer or shorter; neither be anxious as to
how you are to clothe yourself. Behold the flowers of the field
how they are adorned and clothed, neither do they anything to
that end; they neither spin nor work, yet they are beautifully
clothed. 32.
By this illustration the Lord again does not wish to have us
cease to sew and work, but we should labor, spin and sew, and
not be overanxious and worry. The evil we have is our toil; will
we in addition worry, then we do like the fools; for it is enough
that each day has its own evil. It seems to me, this is disdain
that is commanded, that the flowers stand there and make us blush
and become our teachers. Thank you, flowers, you, who are to
be devoured by the cows! God has exalted you very highly, that
you become our masters and teachers. Shame, that this earth bears
us! Is it an honor for us? I do not know. We must here Page
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that the most insignificant flower, that the cattle tread under
foot, should become our teacher, are we not fine people? I think
so. Now Christ places alongside of this the richest and most
powerful king, Solomon, who was clothed in the most costly manner
in purple and gold, whose glory was not to be compared with that
of the flowers, 1 Kings 10. Is it not remarkable that the adornment
of the flowers in the field should be esteemed higher than all
the precious stones, gold and silver? 33.
However, we are so blind that we do not see what God designs
thereby and what he means. The flower stands there that we should
see it, it strikes us and says: If thou hadst the adornment of
the whole world even then thou wouldst not be equal to me, who
stand here, and am not the least worried whence this adornment
comes to me. I do not however concern myself about that, here
I stand alone and do nothing and although thou art beautifully
adorned, thou art still sickly and servest impotent mammon; I
however am fresh and beautiful and serve the true and righteous
God. Behold, what a loathsome, vicious thing is unbelief! 34.
These are two fine and powerful examples of the birds and the
lilies. The birds teach us a lesson as to our daily food; the
flowers as to our raiment. And in the whole New Testament our
shame is no where so disclosed and held to view, as just in this
Gospel. But they are few who understand it. From these examples
and parables the Lord now concludes and says: "Be
not therefore 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. But seek ye first his
kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things shall be
added unto you. Be not therefore anxious for the morrow; for
the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof." 35.
Now the sum of this Gospel is: Christians should not worry about
what they are to eat; God provides for them before they think
of their need; but they are to labor, Page
117 --------------------------- that is commanded them. But what the kingdom of God and his righteousness are, would require too much time to discuss, you have often heard about them, if you have been attentive. This is now enough on today's Gospel. May God grant us grace that some day we may also even put it into practice! May the Gospel remain not only in our ears and on our tongues, but come into our hearts and break forth fresh into loving deeds! |