^ Mary was quick to perceive that there are times and seasons in our relations to God. The Lord's ministry was rapidly passing away. The opportunity for the privileges of loving expression and for personal service would be few. Mary seizes this one as it passes; and the wisdom of her act, not to say its supreme importance, is what the Lord recognizes and approves. There are times when the Lord means to give us surcease of care, and to lift our spirits into the light of His countenance, and to create in us the radiant joy of a Divine companionship, — times when our spirit responds to the Spirit of God, and when we are permitted to hear the voice of God calling to us as the still small voice spoke to the prophet after the whirlwind and the fire. Then is the golden opportunity for the man who would know God. In such hours the Master calls us to new duties, or opens to us new doors of opportunity, or seeks to bestow upon us new joys in new revelations of Himself. Well for us if, with Mary, we recognize the hour and the privilege.^
She sitteth at the Master's feet
In motionless employ; Her ears, her heart, her soul complete
Drinks in the tide of joy.
* J. Laidlaw, Studies in the Parables, 232.
* H. A. Stimson, The New Things of God, 151.
234 THE ONE THING NEEDFUL
Ah ! who but she the glory knows
Of life, pure, high, intense, In whose eternal silence blows
The wind beyond the sense !
In her still ear, God's perfect grace
Incarnate is in voice ; Her thoughts, the people of the place,
Eeceive it, and rejoice.
Her eyes, with heavenly reason bright. Are on the ground cast low ;
His words of spirit, life, and lights They set them shining so.
Sure, joy awoke in her dear heart
Doing the thing it would, When He, the holy, took her part,
And called her choice the good!
Oh needful thing, Oh Mary's choice,
Go not from us away ! Oh Jesus, with the living voice,
Talk to us every day ! ^
G. MacDonald, "The Gospel Women" {Poetical Works, i. 243).
The Gift of the Holy Spirit.
Literature.
Binney (T.), Sermons in King's Weigh-House Chapel, 1st Ser., 214.
Boiirdillon (F.), The Parables Explained and Applied, 150.
Campbell (R. J.), City Temple Sermons, 38.
Clayton (C), Stanhope Sermons, 166.
French (R. A.), God's Message through Modern Doubt, 165.
Jones (J. S.), Saved by Hope, 134.
Matheson (G.), Voices of the Spirit, 105.
Murray (A.), The Ministry of Intercession, 20.
„ „ With Christ, 48. Sanderson (T.), The Illimitable Domain, 81. Shedd (W. G. T.), Sermons to the Natural Man, 123, 140. Simpson (J. G.), The Spirit and the Bride, 163. Christian World Pulpit, xxi. 362 (A. Scott) ; xlv. 145 (H. M. Butler) ;
Ix. 376 (E. Griffith-Jones). Churchman's Pulpit : Whitsunday, ix. 165 (S. P. Bevan) ; Sermons to the
Young, xvi. 276 (E. Garbett).
•se
The Gift of the Holy Spirit.
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ?— Luke xi. 13.
1. The text is an inference rather than a demonstration. This was quite a favourite method with Christ — to take a generally admitted premise and shut His hearers up to a necessary con- clusion resulting from it. Analyze the present statement and it comes to this : Human nature is confessedly selfish, yet men are not so exclusively devoted to themselves and to their own interests as not to provide for their offspring. Now, if they, being self- centred and self-regarding, do this, shall a supremely benevolent Being fall short, and fail to supply the deepest needs of those who seek His interference on their behalf ?
2. Notice, again, that here, as always, Jesus draws His parable from the simplest habits of man. Giving to those we love is a necessary part of our happiness, one might almost say of our humanity. Imagine if you can a family in which there is no delightful giving from parent to child, child to parent, brother to sister ; it is simply inconceivable. All family life is a daily acting out of the great saying, It is more blessed to give than to receive. Let any one think of a birthday in a household, of the gifts that pour in as symbols of the love that is felt. It needs no great virtue in a parent to rejoice in the pleasure of a child when it receives a gift; it may well be one of the few unworldly moments of a generally worldly life taken up and saturated with the poor desire of gain. But this poor desire slips aside for a time as he sees his child smiling and rejoicing over some small birthday gift.
Now this is the habit, the instinct, on which Jesus Christ fixes His eye. He detects in it a proof of prayer. He sees in it some- thing of the majesty of God. No infirmity, no degradation even
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238 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
on the part of the parent can prevent him from so far being a witness, indeed an interpreter and representative of his all-perfect, all-bounteous Creator. " If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ? "