suggest two thoughts, which we will consider, before we turn a leaf in their history.

1. There may be sin in being very busy.

It is not enough for us, it will not satisfy Christ, nor be for our justification in the great day, that we were constantly at work. The question will be, What were you doing? Always working with your hands and head, and finding no time to sit at Christ's feet; opening the store, or shop, or room, early; leaving it only for a hasty meal; closing it, tired and sleepy, at night; and later and more fatigued on Saturday night than any other; sitting at your desk or table incessantly, with no time for God and heaven; or working from morning to night for the family, to provide the meat that perisheth, or raiment, and other necessaries of life? God requires diligence, and rebukes those who deal with a slack hand. But to how many would the Saviour's just reproof apply: Thou art careful and troubled about many things;' to many who think that they are the best of fathers and mothers, and sons and daughters, and tradesmen and mechanics. They who think only of this life and their business, of the body and the supply of its wants, with no reference to the soul and eternity, are like a ship's company who should put to sea with nothing but provisions on board. On they sail, from day to day; but they only know that they are going across the water; they have no freight for trade, nor money to buy a cargo; and yet they work hard at the ropes, buffet the storms, escape shipwreck, endure cold and heat, only with the thought of living from day to day. Such is a picture of many who are sailing over this sea of time, and are doing nothing but getting across the sea. What will become of them there, or what they shall do, they seldom, if ever, think.

Christ says, Take heed that your hearts be not overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life. What company is this in which many will find their employment, which they think so exemplary? - the cares of life are classed with surfeiting and drunkenness. Yes, there may be sin in being busy. Are you seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? Do you work merely to live, or do you live for man's chief end, to glorify God and enjoy him forever? If not, the Saviour reproves you; though you were doing all this for his bodily comfort, he reproves you; and surely, then, if it be for yourselves and families, he reproves you; and sets in contrast before you the example of one who has a higher aim, a nobler spirit, an enduring portion.

Some say, I cannot attend to the subject of religion, my business is so great and pressing. But who made it so? Has God thus disabled you? Have you not yourself made the net which confines you? and do you not feel satisfied with it? God will not accept it as an excuse for neglecting him.

2. Religion is the only thing which we cannot lose. What will be the result of all these careful and troubled thoughts, and the end of these busy days and nights, and of this occupation, which is so incessant that you cannot save your soul? What will you have to show for them in a dying hour, at the bar of God, and in the other world? Every thing is worthless which is not subservient to religion and the soul. Whose shall these things be which thou hast provided?' and where shall they be for whom thou hast provided them? It is a most interesting sight - Mary sitting at Christ's feet, absorbed, for the time, in the one thing needful, and securing for herself that good part which change and death cannot take from her. Every one ought sincerely to ask himself, at his daily business, - he should put the question frequently; let him write it, if he will, inside his desk, or in something which comes in occasional use, - What am I living for? Let him consider whether, by all his care and trouble, he is securing any thing which will avail him for more than a little period of time, which, compared with eternity, is like a drop of water on the finger's end, taken from the measureless sea. O, sad choice, to prefer the world, and care, and labor, and the pleasure of being indifferent about religion, and freedom from anxiety about the soul, to the blessedness of being a child of God. All that indifference will be taken away from you, with every thing else, and you must be intensely interested in the things unseen and eternal. Look at those busy hands. Soon, folded over your breast, in your long, long sleep, they will consume away in the grave.

"And must this body die,

This mortal frame decay?
And must these active limbs of mine
Lie mouldering in the clay?"

Where shall the soul that never dies, find herself then? What has she, what am I providing for her, which shall never be taken away from her?

Thus far we see these two sisters representing two great classes, the one, losing sight of the one thing needful, by inordinate occupation with the duties and cares of life, and the other, seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The sisters of the same family, the brothers, the husband and wife, and all of them together, are admonished by this family picture to consider how Christ regards the manner of their life. One thing is needful.' What place and proportion does this one thing needful hold in our thoughts?

We cannot conclude with certainty that Martha was not, up to this time, a pious woman; and yet we fail to get satisfying evidence of it. Some think that, because it is said of Mary, she also' sat at Jesus' feet, it is implied that Martha, too, was of the same religious disposition with her sister. But the sitting at Jesus' feet, here spoken of, does not refer to a habit or disposition, but to a certain act done at that time; and the word, also,' rather joins Mary with the twelve disciples than Martha with Mary. The comparison which Christ makes in favor of Mary is a strong reflection upon Martha. Still, we read, "Now Jesus loved Martha, and Mary, and her brother Lazarus." Whether this was more than the love which he felt for the young ruler, who, nevertheless, like Martha, was also cumbered with the world, so that he went away from Christ sorrowful, we cannot tell. But we will pass to another chapter in her history, and there we shall see evidence that Martha had then, if not before, like Mary, chosen the good part.

Affliction visited the house where Jesus had been a guest. The brother was sick. The sisters sent a pathetic message to Christ, saying, 'Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick.' The prayer reached him, and touched his heart; and we see in his conduct the manner in which he frequently hears and treats our