Book of Common Prayer

⁷ On the first day of the week we gathered to break bread. Paul was intending to leave the following morning. He was engaged in discussion with them, and he went on talking up to midnight. ⁸ There were several lamps burning in the upper room where we were gathered. ⁹ A young man named Eutychus was sitting by the window, and was overcome with a deep sleep as Paul went on and on. Once sleep had got the better of him, he fell down out of the third-story window, and was picked up dead.

¹⁰ Paul went down, stooped over him and picked him up.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “There is life still in him.”

¹¹ He went back upstairs, broke bread and ate with them, and continued speaking until dawn. Then he left. ¹² They took up the young man alive and were very much comforted.

²² “So let me tell you this,” he said to the disciples. “Don’t be anxious about your life—what you should eat; or about your body—what you should wear. ²³ Life is more than food! The body is more than clothing! ²⁴ Think about the ravens: they don’t sow seed, they don’t gather harvests, they don’t have storehouses or barns; and God feeds them. How much more will he feed you! Think of the difference between yourselves and the birds!

²⁵ “Which of you by being anxious can add a day to your lifetime? ²⁶ So if you can’t even do a little thing like that, why worry about anything else? ²⁷ Think about the lilies and the way they grow. They don’t work hard, they don’t weave cloth; but, let me tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed up like one of them. ²⁸ So if that’s how God clothes the grass in the field—here today, into the fire tomorrow—how much more will he clothe you, you little-faith lot!

²⁹ “So don’t you go hunting about for what to eat or what to drink, and don’t be anxious. ³⁰ The nations of the world go searching for all that stuff, and your father knows you need it. ³¹ This is what you should search for: God’s kingdom! Then all the rest will be given you as well.