Martha and Mary
#927.
Delivered on April 24th, 1870, by C. H. Spurgeon, at the Metropolitan
Tabernacle, Newington.
As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a
village where a woman named Martha welcomed them into her home. Her sister,
Mary, sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was
worrying over the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said,
"Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I
do all the work? Tell her to come and help me."
But the Lord said to her, "My dear Martha, you are so upset over all these
details! There is really only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has
discovered it—and I won't take it away from her." Luke 10:38-42
It is not an easy thing to maintain the balance of our spiritual life. No man
can be spiritually healthy who does not meditate and commune with Jesus; no
man, on the other hand, is as he should be unless he is active and diligent in
holy service. David sweetly sang, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures;”
there was the contemplative, “he leads me beside the still waters;” there was
the active and progressive: the difficulty is to maintain the two, and to keep
each in its relative proportion to the other. We must not be so active as to
neglect communion with God, nor so contemplative as to become unpractical. In
the chapter from which our text is taken, we have several lessons on this
subject. The seventy disciples returned from their preaching tour flushed with
the joy of success; and our Savior, to refine that joy, and prevent its
degenerating into pride, bids them rather rejoice that their names were written
in heaven. He conducted their contemplations to the glorious doctrine of
election, that grateful thoughts might sober them after successful work. He
bids them consider themselves as debtors to the grace which reveals unto babes
the mysteries of God, for he would not allow their new position as workers to
make them forget that they were the chosen of God, and therefore debtors. Our
wise Master next returns to the subject of service, and instructs them by the
memorable parable of the good Samaritan and the wounded man; and then as if
they might vainly imagine philanthropy, as it is the service of Christ, to be
the only service of Christ, and to be the only thing worth living for, he
brings in the two sisters of Bethany; the Holy Spirit meaning thereby to teach
us that while we ought to abound in service, and to do good abundantly to our
fellow men; yet we must not fail in worship, in spiritual reverence, in meek
discipleship, and quiet contemplation. While we are practical, like the
seventy; practical, like the Samaritan; practical, like Martha; we are also,
like the Savior, to rejoice in spirit, and say, “Father, I thank you,” and we
are also like Mary, to sit down in quietude and nourish our souls with divine
truth.
This short narrative I suppose might be paraphrased something after this
fashion. Martha and Mary were two most excellent sisters, both converted, both
lovers of Jesus, both loved by Jesus, for we are expressly told that he loved
Mary and Martha and Lazarus. They were both women of a choice spirit, our
savior’s selection of their house as a frequent resort proved that they were an
unusually gracious family. They are people representative of different forms of
excellence, and I think it altogether wrong to treat Martha as some have done,
as if she had no love for good things, and was nothing better than a mere
worldling. It was not so. Martha was a most estimable and earnest woman, a true
believer, and an ardent follower of Jesus, whose joy it was to entertain Jesus
at the house of which she was the mistress.
When our Lord made his appearance on this occasion at Bethany, the first
thought of Martha was, “Here is our most noble guest, we must prepare for him a
sumptuous entertainment.” Perhaps she marked our Savior’s weariness, or saw
some traces of that exhaustion which made him look so much older than he was,
and she therefore set to work with the utmost diligence to prepare a festival
for him; she was anxious about many things, and as she went on with her
preparations, fresh matters occurred to ruffle her mind, and she became
worried; and, being somewhat vexed that her sister took matters so coolly, she
begged the Master to upbraid her.
Now Mary had looked upon the occasion from another point of view. As soon as
she saw Jesus come into the house she thought, “What a privilege have I now to
listen eagerly to such a teacher, and to treasure up his precious words! He is
the Son of God, I will worship, I will adore, and every word he utters shall be
stored in my memory.” She forgot the needs both of the Master and his
followers, for her faith saw the inner glory which dwelt within him, and she
was so overpowered with reverence, and so wrapped in devout wonder, that she
became oblivious of all outward things. She had no faults to find with Martha
for being so busy, she did not even think of Martha, she was altogether taken
up with her Lord and with those gracious words which he was speaking. She had
no will either, to censure or to praise or to think even of herself; everything
was gone from her but her Lord and the word which he was uttering.
You see then, that Martha was serving Christ, and so was Mary; Martha meant to
honor Christ, so did Mary; they both agreed in their design, they differed in
their way of carrying it out, and while Martha’s service is not censured (only
her being cumbered comes under the censure), yet Mary is expressly commended, as
having chosen the better part; and therefore we do Martha no injustice if we
show wherein she came short, and wherein Mary exceeded.
Our first observation will be this, the Martha spirit is very prevalent in the
church of God just now; in the second place, the Martha spirit very much
injures true service; in the third place, the Mary spirit is the source of the
noblest form of consecration.
I. THE MARTHA SPIRIT IS VERY PREVALENT IN THE CHURCH at this period — prevalent
in some quarters to a mischievous degree, and among us all to a perilous
extent. What do we intend by saying that the Martha spirit is prevalent just
now? We mean first, that there is a considerable tendency among Christian
people, in serving Christ, to aim at making a fair show in the flesh. Martha
wanted to give our Lord it right worthy entertainment which should be a credit
to her house and to her family, and herein she is commendable far above those
slovens who think anything good enough for Christ. So also, among professing
Christians, there is at this present a desire to give to the cause of Christ
buildings notable for their architecture and beauty. We must have no more
barns, our meeting houses must exhibit our improving taste; if possible, our
chapels must be correctly Gothic or sternly classical in all their details,
both without and within. As to the service, we must cultivate the musical and
the tasteful. We are exhorted not to be barely decent, but to aim at the
sublime and beautiful. Our public worship, it is thought, should be impressive
if not imposing; care should be taken that the music should be chaste, the
singing conformed to the best rules of the are, and the preaching eloquent and
attractive. So everything in 291 connection with Christian labor should be made
to appear generous and noble; by all means the subscription lists must be kept
up; each denomination must excel the other in the amount of its annual funds;
for surely everything done for Christ ought to be done in the best possible
style. Now in all this there is so much that is good, so much that is really
intended to honor the Lord, that we see no room to censure: but yet show we
unto you a more excellent way. These things you may do, but there are higher
things which you must do, or suffer loss. Brethren, there is something better
to be studied than the outward, for though this may be aimed at with a single
eye to God’s glory, and we judge no man, yet we fear the tendency is to imagine
that mere externals are precious in the Master’s sight. I trow he counts it a very
small matter whether your house be a cathedral or a barn, to the Savior it is
small concern whether you have organs or whether you have not, whether you sing
after the choicest rules of psalmody or no; he looks at your hearts, and if
these ascend to him he accepts the praise. As for those thousands of pounds
annually contributed, he estimates them not by the weights of the merchant but
after the balances of the sanctuary. Your love expressed in your gifts he
values, but what are the mere silver and gold to him? Funds, and encouraging
accounts, and well-arranged machineries are well if they exist as the outgrowth
of fervent love, but if they are the end-all, and the be-all, you miss the
mark. Jesus would be better pleased with a grain of love than a heap of
ostentatious service. The Martha spirit shows itself in the censuring of those
people who are careful about Christ’s word, who stand up for the doctrines of
the gospel, who desire to maintain the ordinances as they were delivered unto
them, and who are scrupulous and thoughtful, and careful concerning the truth
as it is in Jesus. In newspapers, on platforms, and in common talk, you
frequently hear earnest disciples of Jesus and consistent believers in his
doctrines snubbed and denounced as unpractical. Theological questions are
scouted as mere impertinences. Go in for ragged schools, certainly; reclaim the
Arabs of the street, by all manner of means; pass a compulsory education bill,
certainly; soup kitchens, free dinners, all excellent; we can all join in
these; but never mention creeds and doctrines. Why, man, you cannot be aware of
the enlightenment of our times! What importance can now be attached to mere
biblical dogmas and ordinances? Why contend as to whether baptism shall be
performed upon a babe or upon a believer, whether it shall be by sprinkling or
by immersion? What matters the law of Christ in such a case? These things would
do for the schoolmen of the dark 292 ages to fight about, but what can be the
importance of such trifles in this highly enlightened nineteenth century? Yes,
that is the exaggeration of Martha. Mary, treasuring up every word of Christ,
Mary counting each syllable a pearl, is reckoned to be unpractical, if not
altogether idle. That spirit, I fear, is growing in these times, and needs to
be checked; for, after all, there is truth and there is error, and charitable
talk cannot alter the fact. To know and to love the gospel is no mean thing.
Obedience to Jesus, and anxiety to learn his will so as to please him in all
things, are not secondary matters. Contemplation, worship, and growth in grace
are not unimportant. I trust we shall not give way to the spirit which despises
our Lord’s teaching, for if we do, in prizing the fruit and despising the root
we shall lose the fruit and the root too. In forgetting the great well-spring
of holy activity, namely, personal piety, we shall miss the streams also. From
the sincerity of faith and the fervor of love practical Christianity must
arise; and if the food that faith and love feed upon be withdrawn, if sitting
at the feet of Jesus be regarded as of secondary consequence, then both
strength and will to serve the Lord will decline. I dread much the spirit which
would tamper with truth for the sake of united action, or for any object under
heaven — the latitudinarian spirit, which sneers at creeds and dogmas. Truth is
no trifle. Not so thought our fathers, when at the stake they gave themselves
to death, or on the brown heather of Scotland fell beneath the swords of
Claverhouse’s dragoons for truths which nowadays men count important, but
which, being truths, were to them so vital that they would sooner die than
suffer them to be dishonored. O for the same uncompromising love of truth!
Would to God we could be both active and studious, and both learn with Mary and
work with Martha! The Martha spirit crops up in our reckoning so many things
necessary. Martha believed that to make Christ an entertainment, there must be
many things prepared; as to leaving one of those things out — it could not be.
Our Lord would have been satisfied enough with the simplest fare a piece of
fish or of a honeycomb would well have contented him; but no, according to
Martha’s judgment there must be this, and there must be that. So is it with
many good people now. They have their ideas of excellence, and if these cannot
be realized they despair of doing anything acceptable for Christ. I believe an
educated ministry to be desirable, but none the less do. I deplore the spirit
which considers it to be essential. In the presence of the fishermen of Galilee
we dare not subscribe to the necessity which with 293 some is beyond doubt. You
must not, according to the talk of some, allow these earnest young people to
set about preaching, and your converted colliers and fiddlers should be stopped
at once. The Holy Spirit has in all ages worked by men of his own choosing, but
some churches would not let him if they could help it. Their pulpits are closed
against the most holy and useful preachers, if they have not those many things
with which the church nowadays cumbers her ministers and herself. Then, my
brethren, to carry on a good work, it is thought needful to have a society and
large funds. I also approve of the society and the funds, I only regret that
they should be so viewed as prime necessaries that few will stir without them.
The idea of sending out a missionary with a few pounds in hand as in the day’s
of Carey, is set down in many quarters as absurd. How can you save souls
without a committee? How can London be evangelized until you have raised at
least a million of money? Can you hope to see men converted without an annual
meeting in Exeter Hall? You must have a secretary — there is no moving an inch
until he is elected; and know you not that without a committee you can do nothing?
All these and a thousand things which time fails me to mention, are now deemed
to be needful for the service of Jesus, until a true-hearted soul who could do
much for his Lord, scarcely dares to move until he has put on Paul’s armor of
human patronage. O for apostolical simplicity, going every where preaching the
word, and consecrating the labor of every believer to soul winning. To bring us
back to first principles, “one thing is needful,” and if by sitting at Jesus’
feet we can find that one thing, it will stand us in better stead than all the
thousand things which custom now demands. To catch the Spirit of Christ, to be
filled with himself, this will equip us for godly labor as nothing else ever
can. May all Christians yet come to put this one thing first and foremost, and
count the power of deep piety to be the one essential qualification for holy
work. The censurable quality in the Martha spirit appears in the satisfaction
which many feel with more activity. To have done so much preaching, or so much
Sunday-school teaching, to have distributed so many tracts, to have made so
many calls by our missionaries, all this seems to be looked at as end rather
than means. If there be so much effort put forth, so much work done, is it not
enough? Our reply is, it is not enough, it is nothing without the divine
blessing. Brethren, where mere work is prized, and the inner life forgotten,
prayer comes to be at a discount. The committee is attended, but the devotion
meeting forsaken. The gathering together for supplication is counted little
compared with the collecting of subscriptions. The opening 294 prayer at public
meetings is regarded as a very proper thing, but there are those who regard it
as a mere formality, which might be very well laid aside, and, therefore,
invariably come in after prayer is over. It will be an evil day for us when we
trust in the willing and the running, and practically attempt to do without the
Holy Spirit. This lofty estimate of mere activity, for its own sake, throws the
acceptance of our work into the shade. The Martha spirit says, if the work is
done, is not that all? The Mary spirit asks whether Jesus is well pleased or
no? All must be done in his name and by his Spirit, or nothing is done.
Restless service, which sits not at his feet, is but the clattering of a mill
which turns without, grinding corn; it is but an elaborate method of doing
nothing. I do not want less activity — how earnestly do I press you to it
almost every Sabbath day; but I do pray that we may feel that all our strength
lies in God, and that we can only be strong as we are accepted of Christ, and
only can be accepted in Christ as we wait upon him in prayer, trust him, and
live upon him. You may compass sea and land to make your proselytes, but if you
have not the Spirit of Christ you are none of his. You may rise up early and
sit up late, and eat the bread of sorrows, but unless you trust in the Lord
your God you shall not prosper. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Those who
wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. Without Christ you can do nothing.
Has he not told you, “He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth
much fruit”? Was it not written of old, “I am like a green fir tree: from me is
your fruit found”? Once more, Martha’s spirit is predominant in the church of
God to a considerable extent now, in the evident respect which is paid to the
manifest, and the small regard which is given to the secret. All regenerated
people ought to be workers for God and with God, but let the working never swamp
the believing, never let the servant be more prominent than the son; never,
because you conduct a class, or are chief man at a village station, forget that
you are a sinner saved by grace, and have need still to be looking to the
Crucified, and finding all your life in him. You lose your strength as a worker
if you forget your dependence as a believer. To labor for Christ is a pleasant
thing, but beware of doing it mechanically; and this you can only prevent by
diligently cultivating personal communion with Christ. My brother, it may be
you will undertake so much service that your time will be occupied, and you
will have no space for prayer and reading the word. The half-hour in the
morning for prayer will be cut short, and the time allotted for communion with
God in the evening will be gradually 295 intrenched upon by this engagement and
the other occupation, and when this is the case I tremble for you. You are
killing the steed by spurring it and denying it food; you are undermining your
house by drawing out the stones from the foundation to pile them at the top.
You are doing your soul serious mischief if you put the whole of your strength
into that part of your life which is visible to men, and forget that portion of
your life which is secret between you and your God. To gather up all in one, I
fear there is a great deal among us of religious activity of a very inferior
sort; it concerns itself with, the external of service, it worries itself with
merely human efforts, and it attempts in its own strength to achieve divine
results. The real working which God will accept is that which goes hand in hand
with a patient waiting upon Christ, with heart searching, with supplication,
with communion, with a childlike dependence upon Jesus, with a firm adhesion to
his truth, with an intense love to his person, and an abiding in him at all
seasons; may we have more of such things. Martha’s spirit, though excellent in
itself so far as it goes, must not overshadow Mary’s quiet, deep-seated piety,
or evil will come of it.
II. Secondly, we observe that THE MARTHA SPIRIT INJURES TRUE SERVICE. Service
may be true, and yet somewhat marred upon the wheel. Give your attention not so
much to what I say, as to the bearing of it upon yourselves. It may be that you
will find, as we speak, that you have been verily guilty touching these things.
The Martha spirit brings the least welcome offering to Christ. It is welcome,
but it is the least welcome. Our Lord Jesus when on earth was more satisfied by
conversing to a poor Samaritan woman than he would have been by the best food
and drink. In carrying on his spiritual work he had food to eat, that his
disciples knew not of. Evermore his spiritual nature was predominant over his
physical nature, and those people who brought him spiritual gifts brought him
the gifts which he preferred. Here then was Martha’s dish of well-cooked food,
but there was Mary’s gift of a humble obedient heart; here was Martha decking
the table, but there was Mary submitting her judgment to the Lord, and looking
up with wondering eyes as she heard his matchless speech. Mary was bringing to
Jesus the better offering. With Martha, he would in his condescension be
pleased, but in Mary be found satisfaction. Martha’s service he accepted
benevolently, but Mary’s worship he accepted with complacency. Now, brethren
and sisters, all that you can give to Christ in any shape or form will not be
so dear to him as the 296 offering of your fervent love, the clinging of your
humble faith, the reverence of your adoring souls. Do not, I pray you, neglect
the spiritual for the sake of the external, or else you will be throwing away
gold to gather to yourself iron, you will be pulling down the palaces of marble
that you may build for yourselves hovels of clay.
Martha’s spirit has this mischief about it also, that it brings self too much
to remembrance. We would not severely judge Martha, but we conceive that in
some measure she aimed at making the service a credit to herself as the
mistress of the house; at any rate, self came up when she began to grow weary,
and complained that she was left to serve alone. Like Martha, we also want our
work to show well; we like those who see it to commend it, and if none commend
it we feel that we are harshly treated, and are left to work alone. Now, to the
extent in which I think of myself in my service I spoil it. Self must sink, and
Christ be all in all. John the Baptist’s saying must be our motto, “He must
increase, I must decrease;” for Jesus’ shoe-latchet we are not worthy to
unloose. Too much work and too little fellowship will always bring self into
prominence. Self must be prayed down, and fellowship with Jesus must keep it
down.
Martha seemed to imagine that what she was doing was needful for Christ. She
was cumbered about much serving, because she thought it necessary that there
should be noble hospitality for the Lord. We are sill too apt to think that
Jesus needs our work, and that he cannot do without us. The preacher enquires
what would become of the church if he were removed! the deacon is suspicions
that if he were taken away there would be a great gap left in the
administration of the church; the teacher of a class feels that those children
would never be converted, Christ would miss of the travail of his soul, were it
not for him. Ah, but a fly on St. Paul’s Cathedral might as well imagine that
all the traffic at his feet was regulated by his presence, and would cease
should he depart. I love you to think that Christ will do much work by you, and
to attach as much weight as you can to your responsibilities, but as to Jesus
needing us — the thing is preposterous. Mary is much wiser when she feels, “He
desires me to receive his words, and yield him my love; I would gladly give him
food, but he will see to that; he is the Master of all things, and can do
without me or Martha. I need him far more than he can need me.”
We spoil our service when we over-estimate its importance, for this leads us
into loftiness and pride. Martha, under the influence of this high temper, came
to complain of her sister, and to complain of her Lord too, as if he were
excusing her idleness. “Do you not care that my sister has left me to serve
alone?” How it spoils what we do for Christ when we go about it with a haughty
spirit; when we feel “I can do this, and it is grand to do that; am not I
somewhat better than others? Must not my Master think well of me?” The humble
worker wins the day. God accepts the man who feels his nothingness, and out of
the depths cries to him; but the great ones he will put down from their seat,
and send the rich ones empty away. Activity, if not balanced by devotion, tends
to puff us up, and so to prevent acceptance with God.
Martha also fell into an unbelieving vexation. Her idea of what was necessary
to be done was so great that she found she could not attain to it. There must
be this side dish, and there must be that main dish, there must be this food
and that wine, it must be cooked just so many minutes, this must be done to a
turn, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on; and now time flies, she fears
yonder guest has been slighted; that servant is not back from the market...
Many things go wrong when you are most anxious to have them right. You good
housewives, who may have had large parties to prepare for, know what these cares
mean, I dare say; and something of the sort troubled Martha, so that she became
fretful and unbelieving. She had a work to do beyond her strength as she
thought, and her faith failed her, and her unbelief went petulantly to complain
to her Lord.
Have we never erred in the same way? We must have that Sunday school
excellently conducted, that morning prayer-meeting must be improved, that Bible
class must be revived, our morning sermon must be a telling one, and so on! The
preacher here speaks of himself, for he sometimes feels that there is too much
responsibility laid upon his shoulders, and he is very apt in reviewing his
great field of labor to grow desponding in spirit. But when the preacher
confessed that he spoke of himself, he only did so because he represents his
fellow workers, and you also grow faint and doubtful. Alas! in such a case, the
enjoyment of service evaporates, the fretfulness which pines over details
spoils the whole, and the worker becomes a mere drudge and scullion instead of
an angel who does God’s commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
Instead of glowing and burning like seraphs, our chariot wheels fall off by our
anxiety, and we drag heavily. Faith it is that secures acceptance, but when
unbelief comes in, the work falls flat to the ground.
At such times when the man or the church shall become subject to the Martha
spirit, the mandatory principle falls a little into disrepute. I believe the
mandatory principle is the worst thing in all the world– to work where there is
no grace. But where there is grace it is the one principle that God accepts.
Now, Martha would have Mary forced to serve Christ. What right has she to be
sitting down there? whether she likes or not she must get up and wait like her
sister. Martha’s voluntary desire to do much, leads her to think that Mary, if
she has not quite such a voluntary love for the work must be driven to it, must
have a sharp word from Christ about it.
So it is with us. We are so willing to contribute to the Lord’s work, that we
wish we had ten thousand times as much to give. Our heart is warm within us,
and we feel we would make no reserve, and then are grieved with others because
they give so very little, we wish we could compel them to give. And so we would
put their cankered money into the same treasury with the bright freewill
offerings of the saints, as if the Lord would receive such beggarly pittances
squeezed out by force in the same manner as he accepts the voluntary gifts of
his people. It would be wiser if we left those unwilling contributions to rust
in the pockets of their owners, for in the long run I believe they do not help
the cause; for only that which is given out of a generous spirit, and out of
love to Christ, will come up accepted before him. Too readily do we get away
from the free spirit when we get away from the right spirit.
The fact is, the Martha spirit spoils all, because it gets us away from the
inner soul of service, as I have said before, to the mere husks of service; we
cease to do work as to the Lord, we labor too much for the service sake; the
main thing in our minds is the service, and not the Master; we are cumbered,
and he is forgotten. Thus have I indicated as briefly as I could, some of the
weaknesses of the Martha spirit.
III. Now for THE MARY SPIRIT.
I have to show you that it is capable of producing the noblest form of
consecration to Christ. Its noblest results will not come just yet. Martha’s
fruits ripen very quickly, Mary’s takes time. When Lazarus was dead, you will
remember Martha ran to meet Christ, but Mary sat still in the house; Martha
wanted her own time, Mary could take Christ’s time. So after awhile, just
before our Lord’s death, we find that Mary did a grand action, she did what
Martha never thought of doing, she brought forth a box of precious ointment and
poured it on the Lord’s head, and anointed him with ointment. While she was
sitting at Christ’s feet, she was forming and filling the springs of action.
You are not losing time while you are feeding the soul. While by contemplation
you are getting purpose strengthened and motive purified, you are rightly using
time. When the man becomes intense, when he gets within him principles vital,
fervent, and energetic; then when the season for work comes he will work with a
power and a result which empty people can never attain however busy they may
be. If the stream flows at once, as soon as there is a shower, it must be
little better than a trickling rivulet; but if the current stream is dammed up,
so that for awhile nothing pours down the river bed, you will in due time, when
the waters have gathered strength, witness a torrent before which nothing can
stand. Mary was filling up the fountain head, she was listening and learning,
feeding, edifying, loving, and growing strong. The engine of her soul was
getting its steam ready, and when all was right her action was prompt and
forcible.
Meanwhile, the manner of her action was being refined. Martha’s actions were
good, but, if I may use the word, they were commonplace, she must make a great
meal for the Lord Jesus, just as for any earthly friend; the spiritual nature
of Christ she had forgotten, she was providing nothing for it; but Mary’s
estimate of Christ was of a truer order; she looked at him as a priest, she
viewed him as a prophet, she adored him as a king, and she had heard him speak
about dying, and had listened to his testimony about suffering, and dimly
guessing what it meant, she prepared the precious spikenard that before the
dying should come she might anoint him. The woman’s deed was full of meaning
and of instruction; it was indeed an embodied poem; the odor that filled the
house was the perfume of love and elevated thought. She became refined in her
actions by the process of musing and learning.
Those who do not think, who meditate not, who commune not with Christ, will do
commonplace things very well, but they will never rise to the majesty of a
spiritual conception, or carry out a heart-suggested work for Christ. That
sitting of Mary was also creating originality of art. I tried two Sabbaths ago
to enforce upon you the duty of originality of service as the right thing, that
as we wandered everyone his own way, we should each serve God in his own way,
according to our peculiar adaptation and circumstances. Now this blessed woman
did so. Martha is in a hurry to be doing something — she does what any other
admirer of Jesus would do, she prepares food and a festival; but Mary does what
but one or two besides herself would think of, she anoints him, and is honored
in the deed. She struck out a spark of light from herself as her own thought,
and she cherished that spark until it became a flaming act. I wish that in the
church of God we had many sisters at Jesus’ feet who at last would start up
under an inspiration and say, “I have thought of something, that will bring
glory to God which the church has not heard of before, and this I will put in
practice, that there may be a fresh gem in my Redeemer’s crown.
This sitting at the Master’s feet guaranteed the real spirituality of what she
did. Did you notice when I read what the Master said concerning the pouring of
the ointment upon him, “She has kept this for my burial”? He praised her for
keeping it, as well as for giving it. I suppose that for months she had set
apart that particular ointment, and held it in reserve. Much of the sweetest
aroma of a holy work lies in its being thought over and brought out with
deliberation. There are works to be, done at once and straightway, but there
are some other works to be weighed and considered. What shall I do to praise my
Savior? There is a cherished scheme, there is a plan, the details of which
shall be prayed out, and every single part of it sculptured in the imagination
and realized in the heart, and then the soul shall wait, delighting herself in
prospect of the deed, until the dear purpose may be translated into fact. It is
well to wait, expectantly saying, “Yes, the set time will come, I shall be able
to do the deed, I shall not go down to my grave altogether without having been
serviceable; it is not yet the time, it is not yet the appropriate season, and
I am not quite ready for it myself, but I will add grace to grace and virtue to
virtue, and I will add self-denial to self-denial, until I am fit to accomplish
the one chosen work.” So the Savior praised Mary that she had kept this; kept
it until the fit moment came before his burial; and then, but not until then,
she had poured out and revealed her love.
Ay, it is not your thoughtless service, performed while your souls are half asleep,
it is that which you do for Christ with eyes that overflow, with hearts that
swell with emotion, it is this that Jesus accepts. May we have more of such
service, as we shall have if we have more of sitting at his feet.
Christ accepted her, he said she had chosen the good part which should not be
taken from her; and if our work be spiritual, intense, fervent, thoughtful, if
it springs out of communion, if it be the outgushing of deep principles, of
inward beliefs, of solemn gratitudes, then our piety shall never be taken from
us, it will be an enduring thing, and not like the mere activities of Martha,
things that come and go.
I have thus wrought out my text. I shall utter but two or three words upon the
GENERAL APPLICATIONS of it. I shall apply it to three or four things very
briefly. Brethren, I believe in our Nonconformity; I believe if ever England
needed Nonconformists it is now; but there is a tendency to make Nonconformity
become a thing of externals, dealing with state and church and politics. The
political relations of Nonconformists, I believe in their value, I would not
have a man less earnest upon them, but I am always fearful lest we should
forget that Nonconformity is nothing if it is not spiritual, and that the
moment we, as Dissenters, become merely political or formal, it is all over
with us. Our strength is at the Master’s feet, and I am afraid for our
Nonconformity if it lives elsewhere. I mark so much conformity to the world, so
much laxity of rule, so much love of novel opinions, that I tremble. I wish we
could go back to Puritanism. We are getting too lax, there is too much
worldliness and carnality among us. There is little fear of our being censured,
even by the world, for being too particular. I am afraid we are too much like
the world for the world to hate us. As I pray that Nonconformity may always
prevail in England, so I earnestly pray that she may stand because she abides
near to Christ, holds his truth, prizes his word, and lives upon himself.
Now the like is true of missions. Apply the principle there. God bless
missions; our prayer goes up for them as warmly as for our soul’s salvation.
When shall the utmost ends of the earth behold the salvation of our God! But
the strength of missions must lie not so much in arrangements, in committees,
in money, in men; as in waiting upon Christ. We shall not do any more with a
hundred thousand pounds, than with a single thousand, unless we get more grace;
we shall not have more souls won with fifty missionaries than with five, unless
we get ten times the amount of power from the right hand of the Most High. The
waking up in missions needs to begin in our prayer meetings, and in our
churches; in our personal wrestlings with God for the conversion of the heathen
must lie the main strength of the workers that go out to do the deed. Let us
remember this, Mary shall yet pour the box of ointment upon the head of the
Anointed, Martha cannot do it.
The same thing is true in revivals. People will talk about getting up a revival
— of all things I do believe one of the most detestable of transactions. “If
you want a revival of religion,” it is said, “you, must get Mr. So-and-so to
preach” — with him I suppose is the residue of the Spirit. Oh, but if you want
a revival, you must adopt the methods so long in vogue, and so well known as
connected with such-and-such a revival! I suppose the Spirit of God is no more
a free Spirit, then, as he used to be in the olden times; and whereas of old he
breathed where he desired, you imagine your methods and plans can control him.
It is not so; it is not so in any degree. The way to get the revival is to
begin at the Master’s feet; you must go there with Mary and afterwards you may
work with Martha. When every Christian’s heart is act right by feeding on
Christ’s word and drinking in Christ’s Spirit, then will the revival come. When
we had the long drought, some farmers watered their grass, but found it did but
very little good. An Irish gentleman remarked in my hearing that he had always
noticed that when it rained there were clouds about, and so all the air was in
right order for the descent of rain. We have noticed the game, and it so
happens that the clouds and general constitution of the atmosphere have much to
do with the value of moisture for the herbs. It is no good watering them in the
sun, the circumstances do not benefit them. So with revivals. Certain things
done under certain circumstances become abundantly useful, but if you have not
similar circumstances, you may use the same machinery, but mischief instead of
good will follow. Begin yourself with the Master, and then go outward to his
service, but plans of action must be secondary.
So too, lastly, if you want to serve God, as I trust you do, I charge you first
be careful of your own souls; do not begin with learning how to preach, or how
to teach, or how to do this and that; dear friend, get the strength within your
own soul, and then even if you do not know how to use it scientifically, yet
you will do much, The first thing is, get the heart warmed, stir up your
manhood, brace up all your faculties, get the Christ within you, ask the
everlasting God to come upon you, get him to inspire you, and then if your
methods should not be according to the methods of others it will not matter, or
if they should, neither will it be of consequence, having the power you will
accomplish the results. But if you go about to perform the work before you have
the strength from on high, you shall utterly fail. Better things we hope of
you. God send them. Amen.