chose P Have we chosen it for ourselyes P Can we say with truth that it is ours P Let us never rest till we can. Lotus " choose life/' while Christ offers it to us without money and without price. Let us seek treasure in heaven, lest we awake to find that we are paupers for evermore.
Notes. Ltjxb X. 38—42.
38. — [As they went.] It is not quite clear at what period of our Lord's earthly ministiy the history here recorded comes in, nor what is the connexioo between it and the preceding passage. Stier conjectures that one object is to supply a serviceable cau- tion against the idea that active working charity, like that of the good Samaritan, was theonly way to serve Christ, and to show that sitting still and hearing is just as useful in its season as relieving distressed people. — He says, "Is not the inmost fundamental thought of the words directed to busy Martha, a warning against the tendency to an unquiet bustling character? "Do" was the word of the Lord in the parable of the good Samaritan ; but now He says, "rest." — "Do not forget the hearing in thy much doing."
In any point of view one thing is certain. The Martha and Mary here spoken of, are the same sisters of whom we read in the eleventh chapter of John.
40. — [Was cumbered.] The Greek word so translated, means literally, "was drawn about, distracted."
[Came to him.] The word liranslated " came " implies a sudden coming. See Luke xxi. 84, and xxiv. 4.
41. — [Troubled.] The word so rendered is only used here in the New Testament. It means literally " to be in a tumult; to be disturbed."
Our Lord, we must remember, does not mean to say that Martha's occupation was wrong, but that, for the time, Mary's occupation was better than Martha's.
42. — [One thing is needful.] Not a few commentators consider this to mean, "one dish of meat is needful," and think that our Lord was only referring to the many dishes which Martha was preparing in order to entertain Him.
I cannot entertain this notion for a moment. There is no proof that Martha was preparing a banquet at all, though she was undoubtedly busy about household affairs. Our Lord's words have a far deeper signification. "Of one thing, even