The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 285

But the MRrys, to?, hRve t!1eir place. Busy business people e.ro Rpt to underrate them. They exh1b1t something of the elrler sister's impatience: "We !\re left to do nil; these dree.mers do not hl'!p." Not help? It is Mary who sees into the truth of .Tes_us' sacrifi~e. It is she who, sitting e.nd listening, divines the joy and the sorrow which meet m thi, heart of the Lord. Dy-and-by, when Martha mnkes e. feast, she feels that the hour has come, e.nd she brings the alabaster box of ointment which ~.he has been keeping for the_honr. "Against the day or my burying," so.ye Christ, has she kept this box ... this that she hath doue shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." The prophetic spirit belongs to the meditative. Marthe. is the worker but Mary is the see~. 2. The conclusion, therefore, is, " Let the Marthas and the Marye abide together m peace and mutual self-respect. Let the world of action e.nd the world or letters recognize, each in the other, the balancini;r, completing ha.If. God has created minds male and female--the active and the contemplative, the communicative and the r~eptive, the objective and the subjective. The Church of Christ, the progress of humanity, demands both; if the one is the guide, the other is· the inspirer, of movement; e.nd, for permanent effect, as well a.s for the discovery of truth, the Johns ?utrun the Peters. Let each person ascertain which of the two sides is predominant ID him, and seek the balance supplied by the other. Whoso is Martha-like should cultivate the Mary temper. Unless he sit at Jesus' feet, he will be cumbered about the sen-ing. It is not enough to get all right for the Lord; the first thing is to be right with and in the Lord. Whoso is Mary-like should recollect that gymnastic is needful to health; that he must work as well as enjoy quietly. He must not eat all the fat and drink all the sweet. The sitting at Jesus' feet must be with a view to the following in Jesus' steps. The real moral strength is found when this balance is found. So, from the Martha side it was found by St. Paul, who laboured more abundantly than all thtl apostles, yet all the while sat a.t Jesus' feet. From the Ma.l'y side it was found by St. John, who, although the one who leant on Jesus' bosom, was the one named Boanerge--Son of thunder. To serve much, without being cumbered about it, "inquiring in the temple;" to be the thinker, with the liberty of the seat at the Master's feet, and yet the doer of the Word ;-this is the beautiful pl'Oportion of the heavenly life. This life is love; and love must first see as did Mary; then, but in a sweeter and wholesomer spirit, it can work as did Martha. II. Consider now THE TRUTH OF THE HEAVENLY LIFE WHICH IS INDIOA'l'ED IN THK COUNSEL GIVEN BY CHRIST. It is a counsel administered under the twofold form of a caution and a commendation. 1. The finger of caution is pointed to Martha. (Ver. 41.) Observe the antithesis-the "many things," the "one thing." The good, kind soul is distre.cted by a n:.ultitude of concerns. Who does nut know the worry which conies through the pressure of many littles? May it not be added that there is nothing which more wears the energy out than attention to the details of home-management? The whole sentence of Jesus is most expressive. First, the "careful, or anxious,"- this is the inward fault; and then the "troubled,"-this includes the external, the "restless turning and hustling hither and thither." Is it not eminently characteristic of what we notice in others and sometimes feel in ourselves? And note the mistake. It is not the serving; it is the being "cumbered" about the serving-the serving imped- ing the movement heavenward, as a heavy garment impedes the one who runs a race. The "many things" run away with both the peace and the strl'ngth of the mind. We may not absolutely forget; in a kind of way we recollect; but we cannot really con- ~entrate our attention on the one thing which is needful. "Martha, the feast over which thou art exercised is good in its way. The intention is kind. But this day salva- tion bas come into thy house. There is no need of all these dishes, all this cooking and preparing. But there is need of thine acceptance of the gift of God. If thou_ knewest that gift, and who it is that speaks to thee, thou wouldst feel that the one thmg need- ful is to ask life of him, to learn what the life is from him, to receive the gift or the life eternal. 0 Marr ha-like snuls, of every type and shade, 'why do ye Fpeud monev on that which is not bread, and your labour on that which eatisfieth not'? The heart hearkeDing for Christ is the one thing, and you cannot have that wi1hout an inward collection and repose of spirit, without peace and liberty in God. Why be so greedy of the unneedful? Why pursue it with such impetuous eagerness that there are only odd times, fragments of thought, for that which is needful to health of mind,  t!II, X, 1-42.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 287