Three visits of Jesus to the sisters Martha and Mary are recorded in the Bible, in Luke and John. According to the Oxford Cyclopedic Concordance, two of these visits were two or three months apart. On the first occasion Martha, generally regarded as symbolozing a more material state of thinking than Mary, was rebuked by Jesus and Mary was commended.
In Luke we read, "But Martha was cumbered about much serving," and complained to Jesus that Mary had left her to serve alone. How many of us are Marthas in that we are "cumbered about much serving" of error! Perhaps we allow mortal mind's so-called attractions to sway us, are turned by other things from daily study of Christian Science. Believing we see life, substance, and intelligence in matter, we admit a power apart from God. If this is so, then we need not complain if our demonstrations are not made. When ever we allow our thinking to lapse from the high standard of Christian Science, let us remember Jesus' rebuke of Martha's complaint. He said, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."
We need not be "careful" to observe mortal mind's so-called laws, or "troubled" or fearful over the "many things" their nonobservance might bring on us. Turning from matter to Spirit, from error to Truth, from the slavery of wrong thinking to the service of God, choosing "that good part" in striving to follow the teachings of Christian Science, we can rest secure in the perpetuity of Jesus' promise that good can never be taken from us and that all will be fulfilled. The one thing needful is available for all mankind in the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and the other works of Mary Baker Eddy.
