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F arra r. Bid her help me. If Mary was in the wrong thu s to sit a t th e feet of Jesus, M artha certainly was not im th e right. There was no occasion to give th is public reprim and, th is round- hand rebuke. Her feelings got the b etter of her judgment.— Exp. Bible. v. 41. M artha, M artha. He said it as if h er m ind had wandered and the iteration was necessary to call her to herself.— Burton. Let Jesus be per sonal w ith you. Let Him call you by your name and tell you your faults.; - Sel. Troubled about many things. The mystical and practical are both required in Christ’s service and blend at His feet. Do not live for things but for Him.—Meyer. v. 42. One th ing needful. Those who rise above all th a t is superficial and trifling, enjoy a peace which the world can neith er give nor take away. —W illcock. I t was rig h t for Martha to serve and for Mary to listen. The danger is th a t one th ink s the only service th a t should be rendered is the service he or she is rendering. Christ tau g h t M artha th a t ail th.ngs are secondary to th e one great thing, love to Himself. Davies. T h at good p art. Both sisters would honor Him more by attending to w hat He said th an by giving Him an elaborate dinner.— Dum- melow. Shall no t be tak en away. True communion w ith Him is indispensable, needful, perfectly good, absolutely in alienable. It wears, it satisfies. Honor, wealth, home, health, all may go— this alone is worth while.—Morris. 11:42. Mint, ru e and herbs. The Pharisee, in his m inute scrupulosity, made a point of gathering th e tenth sprig of every garden herb and present ing it to the priest. So far as th is was done a t the bidding of an imperfectly enlightened conscience, th e Lord would hot blam e it. W hat He censured was the substitu tion of the lower for the higher.-—Plumptre. Mint was grown for its pleasant odor; anise, or dill, and cummin, for th eir arom atic flavor. These were cultivated, not for food bu t for scents and relishes.— F raser. v. 44. Graves which appear not. The Jews whitewashed th e tombs, not to em bellish them bu t to point out the grave stones to the passers-by th a t they m ight not tread on them or touch them. L ater casuists pronounced the man unclean who stepped on a grave or touched a tombstone. This explains our Lord’s saying here. It amounts to a charge against th e Pharisees of concealing th eir tru e character from the people and
what g reat theologians we have studied. If we have not been a t th e feet of Jesus, we have not learned much,-— Torrey. H eard H is word. W ith M artna the pleasure of g.ving much to Jesus was piom inent. Mary feels the necessity of receiving much.—Van Oosterzee. Mary had learned to concen tra te her mind. M artha could not do this. Too many of God’s dear children are like Martha. W hat vain solicitudes. W hat is the use of it all?—Vaughan. v. 40 M artha was cumbered. L iter ally, “ pulled th is way and th a t.”— Saw yer. M artha carried her act.vity beyond proper bounds. By undertaking more labor th an was necessary she deprived herself of the advantage of Christ’s visit. She was so delighted w ith her own bustling operations as. to despise her sister’s pious eagerness to receive instruction.—-Calvin. We find in Martha the type of life busily devoted to externals, in Mary, th e type of quiet self-devotion to th e divine as the only thing needful. There is the active and the contemplative. The most active must be from the depths of a soul given up to the Lord. The man of contempla tion must, consecrate h.s energies to the advancement of God’s kingdom.— Olshausen. Much serving. It is a significant coincidence th a t John (1 2 :2 ), speaking of another silpper at Bethany, in the house of Simon, states th a t M artha served, using the same word th a t Jesus addressed to h er in th e narrative of Luke. Evidently M artha was a server. This was her forte. Hers was a cul.nary skill. In th is case she overdid it.— Burton. Came to Him. The word implies “ suddenly appearing before H im ,” evidently coming from the room where preparations were being made, into th a t in which Jesus was. The phrase, “She flounced in ,” would best describe her action and mood.— Willcock. Dost thou n o t care? Many have a habit of quick, sharp speaking. It cuts, it stings. T h at was th e trouble w ith M artha.—Moody. Doe3 your Christian service make you peevish w ith the Lord? Then there is something decidedly wrong w ith your service. You need to sit a t Jesu s’ feet—-McNeill. Left me to serve. She was anxious to give her Lord a most hospitable recep tion and was vexed a t the contempla tive hum ility which she regarded as slothfulness. Jesu s’ reproof is made, not a t her hospitality but a t the fre t and fuss, the absence of repose and calm, and th e tendency to in terfere with excellence of a different kind.—
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