Spurgeon’s assessment of Martha and Mary is not just a crass comparison between the two women, but is rather used to throw light on a disposition he perceives in the church as a whole. It may not be the kind of sermon that all men are in a position to preach, for not all are exposed to the range of activity, the range of influence, and the range of censure to which Spurgeon was exposed. That opportunity enables him to ask about attitudes he perceives rising in the church of his day, the kinds of critiques perhaps thrown about in the Christian journals and popular newspapers of his day. He responds and instructs by identifying the Martha spirit and its consequences (being careful to acknowledge what is good by desire or intent in her approach) as well as underscoring the important of the Mary spirit. No-one who recognises the kind of labour in which Spurgeon engaged will accuse him of dismissing Martha’s activism or of pursuing mere pietism in insisting that Mary’s communion with Christ was the foundation of all her usefulness. The warning is still well taken today: that mere activity is not enough; we must be close to Christ.

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