that he may be trodden down, but that he may be made the recipient—the grateful recipient, of liberality and goodness.

How exquisite the reply! sured up in this simple story! half of the decalogue. The

What richness of meaning is treaWhat a grand comment on the last heartfelt and world-wide recognition

of the fact that every sufferer of every land, and sect, and caste is our neighbour, and that all we can do is what we owe, would light up earth with the sunshine of heaven.

Christ and his Friends, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.

ESUS was perfect man. He had friends on earth; few in comparison of his enemies, all of them imperfect beside Himself, yet loved and received into blessed communion with that Friend who sticketh closer than a brother.

Martha, with her sister Mary and her brother Lazarus resided at Bethany, and Jesus ofttimes resorted to their happy home. In the eleventh chapter of St. John we read, "Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha." What a beautiful distinction is here given to a town! The proper name of the town was Bethany, but its nobler name was "the town of Mary and her sister Martha.” The residence of these two Christian women gave it a distinctive and lasting name. Martha was, with all her defects, a Christian. Her conduct, as recorded here, indicates traits that none but a Christian could have developed. At the time this incident occurred, Jesus was persecuted and hunted from place to place. To sympathize with Him was to be guilty of an offence in the sight of the Rabbis;

to receive Him into one's home was, according to them, to commit treason against the rulers of Israel, and so to disregard the decision of these rulers who sat in the chair of Moses. Martha, notwithstanding this, invited the persecuted Man of sorrows into her home, and cheerfully ministered to Him. The flower that blossomis through the snow-drift, and flourishes in the midst of the beating winds, must have its root struck deep into the earth, and have within it the elements of vitality. The woman who could thus risk persecution because of her faithfulness to her Lord, was not a mere professor; and though a person of some distinction, she felt ennobled when her own hand ministered to the wants of Jesus. Those holy hands which would be nailed to the cross had often ministered to her; and the least she could do or desire was, that her sinful hands might have the privilege and the joy of ministering to Him.. Such features and facts indicate the Christian woman. In spite of imperfections there was in her heart real Christianity. If Martha erred on this occasion, as she did, much may be said for her. She was the eldest; she had the weight of domestic duty and the responsibility of providing for visitors. Feeling this responsibility resting upon her, and unprepared, as she should be to receive Him with all the respect that was due to so holy, so beloved, and so illustrious a Visitor, she did what other Marthas have done in less provoking circumstances, she lost her temper for a moment, and. forgot what was due to the Lord of glory in her anxiety to present what she owed a visitor in her home. But it must still be admitted there was blame which lay less in what she said, and more, perhaps, in what Jesus saw in her heart. She feared lest she should fail to entertain her Visitor with all the pomp and circumstance she thought due. Perhaps she felt ashamed that things were not so elegant as she could wish; thinking too little about the furniture of her heart, and too much about the furniture of her house, forgetting for a moment that the reception of Christ into the heart was the first duty she

owed to Him and to herself. It was the excess of a taste, beautiful and just in itself, which became sin by the feelings that it provoked. But every one has his temptation and "weak side." With one man literature is his idol; with a mother it is her babe, her firstborn; with a statesman, ambition; with a scholar or soldier, reputation; and with many a modern Martha, domestic elegance. Mary sat, drinking in every word and syllable that fell from the lips of Him that spake as never man spake; while Martha was toiling and excited, having lost her self-possession, in order to arrange all that was within for the reception of Him who had crossed her threshold. In the heat of her temper, she cried, "Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she come and help me." This was the language of indiscretion, more perhaps, it was a rude interruption of a holy discourse on more important things. It showed that she was more anxious to entertain respectfully a friend than to receive instruction from the great Teacher. She thought too much about a guest, and too little about Him who had come not to be ministered to, but to minister. Anger is not in itself sin. There is not any more sin in being angry than in being hungry; it is part and parcel of the original constitution of our nature. Sin consists in its excess. "Be ye angry;" I do not forbid you to be angry, but I forbid sin; "be ye angry, and sin not." Anger is a passion that trembles on the very verge of sin. We read, that Jesus, the very Son of God Himself, was angry; but it is added, "being grieved for the hardness of their hearts," for his anger dissolved and diluted into sorrow.

Mary was a Christian; indeed both sisters were so; but Mary was a Christian of a higher stamp. "It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick." She there showed love, faith, patient self-sacrifice, rich liberality, and proved by her fruits that she was a tree of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. She had less temper

than her sister Martha, and also was of a more meditative and studious temperament. She so appreciated the visit of the Lord that she felt she dared not miss one word that fell from his lips, or let go the least opportunity of hearing the precious lessons He had come to teach. Her Christianity was of a riper nature than that of Martha. Thus the younger sister may have more grace than the elder. Grace is not of flesh, nor of blood, nor of age, but a spiritual and divine gift. Constitutionally she had also a milder and a gentler temperament. When she was thus rebuked by Martha, in Martha's complaint of her to her Lord, Mary might have said, and it would not have been unchristian if she had done so,-" Martha, I may be wrong, but this is not the place or time to rebuke me; could you not have waited till our Lord's blessed footsteps had crossed the threshold, and then have told me of my fault?" But she did not do so she was silent. She recollected, "A soft answer turneth away wrath." It requires more grace to be silent under provocation than to be eloquent in defence of truth. There is a time to speak, and it needs grace to enable us to speak; there is a time to be silent, and it needs as much grace to enable us to be so.

Having seen these two friends, Martha, the domestic Christian, busy in the arrangements of her home; and Mary, the gentle and retiring Christian, sitting at the feet of Jesus, and listening to his beautiful and instructive lessons, let us study one greater than either -the central personage in this happy and favoured group-the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He came for shelter to their home! and He makes their reception of Him what He can make ours, not merely a shelter, but a blessing. He preferred to feed with living bread them that hungered for it, rather than to partake of the most bountiful repast that the hands of industrious Martha could prepare. He taught, by the rebuke that He administered to Martha, that He would rather have Mary listening to what could not profit Him, than Martha serving what would profit Him but could not profit her. It