2. Martha was determined to provide a fine entertainment on this occasion. She was doubtless a notable housewife, and, not unnaturally, a little proud of it ; and she had with her now her
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220 THE ONE THING NEEDFUL
dearest and most honoured Guest, and was bent on setting before Him her best, and in her best style. So there was much anxious discussion, we may suppose, about what dishes should be prepared, and not a little anxiety about their being properly cooked and served, and that the honoured Guest should have what might please Him most. It was a loving impulse on her part, and our Lord did not fail to appreciate it. All natures do not express their affection in the same way. What a blessed fact it is that our Master and Judge sees the love behind the differences, and toler- ates the differences for the love's sake !
^ The genuine kindness and mingled humour with which this old man of eighty-eight [Dr. Dollinger] looked on at youthful ways, is observable in the following letter, in which he described to me his holiday minage with his nieces at Tegernsee : —
" We, uncle and nieces, are leading an idyllic life here, if an unsentimental one. I sit much in my room, and the girls go their different ways. Elise lives here much as the sparrows do, and has no cares except as regards the weather ; she skips about, upstairs and down, now in the house, now in the garden, and finds room in that spacious heart of hers every day for a fresh friend. I believe she counts half the female population as her allies and patronesses. Jeanette, on the other hand, goes thoughtfully about, burdened with our household and culinary cares. She has a problem to solve which much resembles the squaring of a circle. It is her ambition to carry the art of saving to its highest point, and to eclipse, if possible, in this respect my old pensioned housekeeper. With all this, the old uncle is not to miss any of his comforts, nor is the dinner-table to be worse served than formerly, but rather better. Such opposite ends cannot of course be attained without much wear and tear of brain, especially here at Tegernsee, where living is dear, and the resources of Munich are not at hand." ^
3. Custom in all ages has prescribed a feast as an appropriate way of honouring a guest. You give a man a mark of your confi- dence and respect by inviting him to your table ; but you do not, after all, if you will think of it, show him the highest mark of respect by inviting him to a splendid and formal banquet, assuming that he is best entertained by the gratification of his appetite. You show him a higher token of your regard when you invite him to partake of your informal family meal ; taking him into your private life, and assuming that he cares more for your society than
^ Louise Von Kobell, Conversations of Dr. Dollinger, 60.
ST. LUKE X. 42 221
for your fare. Mary discerned this fact, with a loving woman's quick perception ; and so she was less anxious than Martha about the details of the feast. She had done all that she thought necessary for comfort and decency; and she valued her Gruest enough to desire to get something more out of His visit than the mere pleasure of seeing Him eat, or the gratification of having Him praise her viands. Call it a kind of selfishness, if you will — indeed, Martha had no hesitation in calling it so — it was neverthe- less true, that Mary was bent on enjoying as well as entertaining her Guest. Surely we are all selfish to that extent. She knew the blessing of Jesus' presence in the house.
^ When the allied armies entered Paris after the great battle of Waterloo, the British Ambassador prepared a banquet for the Duke of Wellington. The lady of the house observed that the Duke talked much, but ate little. So she called his attention to the fact that he was not eating. " No," said he, — " No ! I don't care much about eating and drinking."
There are many aspects in which the incident of the text may be viewed. Let us take three of them, and consider : — I. Two Temperaments. II. Doing and Being. III. First Things First.
Two Temperaments.
1. There are some natures which are essentially passive, whose power is in their receptivity, and whose chief ministry is in their presence. Their lives pronounce benedictions, just as the activities of others confer benefactions. The bequests with which they enrich the world are not great charities and noble deeds, but sacred memories and gracious influences. They are the flower- gardens of humanity, whose value is in their beauty, not the orchards and fields, whose value is in their utility. Their charm is not in what they do, but in what they are. They are no drones in the hive of human industry, nor yet busy bees hurrying here and there in the prosecution of their useful task. They are flowers in the garden, distilling fragrance and supplying sweetness. They do not toil, neither do they spin ; yet the aroma which they