One thing is needful. Luke, x. 42. Could we imagine an intelligent being, entirely a stranger to the state of this world and its inhabitants, to take a view of their va rious enterprises and employments, and thence conjecture the end of their existence, he surely would conclude that these creatures were de signed to be occupied with many things : while he observed not only the difference of the ends which different men were pursuing, but how vast a multitude of objects were successively pursued by almost every person, he fairly might infer that the sons of men were placed upon the earth to gratify their several inclina tions either with pleasure, riches, honour, or power. How astonished would he be to hear their Creator declare to all without distinction " One thing is needful ! " but how much more astonished when he knew that this one thing needful for men, their one business, the one end of their existence, was none of all those things which occupied mankind, none of all those ends they were pursuing, none of all those engagements wherein they were so deeply absorbed, which filled their hearts and employed their hands nay, that it was an end not only distinct from, but contrary to them all; as contrary as light and darkness, heaven and hell, the kingdom of God and that of Satan ! The only thought he could form in their favour must be, that they had a surplusage of time at their command, and therefore trifled a few hours because they were assured of thousands of years wherein to work. But how beyond measure would he be amazed when informed that these were creatures of a day; that as they yesterday arose out of the dust, so to-morrow they would return to it; that the time allotted for their great work was but a span long, a little speck, a moment, and yet that they had no manner of

assurance of not being snatched away in the midst of this moment, or indeed at the very commencement of it when he saw that all men were placed on a narrow, weak, tottering bridge, either end of which was swallowed up in eternity ! that the waves and storms that passed over it were continually bearing away one after another in an hour when they ex pected it not ; and that those who yet stood knew not but they should plunge into the great gulf the very next instant, but well knew that if they fell before they had finished the end of their existence they were lost, destroyed, undone for ever ! How would all utterance, nay, all idea be lost ! how would he express, how would he conceive the senselessness, the madness, of those creatures who, being in such a situation, could think of any thing, could speak of any thing else, could do any thing else besides, could find time for any other design or care, but of ensuring the one thing needful ! It cannot, therefore, be an improper em ployment, First, to observe what this one thing is; and,

Secondly, to consider a few of the numerous reasons that prove this to be the one thing needful. We may first observe what this one thing is, in which many things are comprised ; as are all the works of our callings, all that properly belong to our several stations in this world ; insomuch that whoever neglects any of these so far neglects the one thing needful : and this indeed can no otherwise be pursued than by performing them in such a manner as in and by every one to advance our great work. Now this great work, this one thing needful, is the renewal of our fallen nature. In the image of God was man created, but a little lower than the angels : his nature was perfect, angelical, divine ; he was a dignified image of the God of glory ; he bore his stamp on every part of his soul ; the brightness of his Creator shone mightily upon him. But sin has now effaced the image of God ! He is no longer nearly allied to angels ; alas ! he is sunk lower than the very beasts of the field ! His soul is not only earthly, addicted to covetousness and idolatry sensual, a lover of pleasure more-

than of God ; but devilish, inclined to hatred, malice, and revenge ! Thus is the mightyfallen ! the glory is departed from him ; his Justre is swallowed up in utter darkness! From the glorious liberty in which he was created, he is fallen into the basest bondage. That evil spirit, whose slave he is now become, holds him so fast in prison that he cannot ex tricate himself. He hath bound him with a thousand chains, even the heavy chains of his own vile affections ; for every inordinate appe tite, every unholy passion, as it is the express image of the god of this world, so it is the most galling yoke, the most grievous chain, that can bind a freei-born spirit; and with these is every child of Adam, every one that is bora into this world, so loaded, that he cannot lift up an eye, or raise a thought, to heaven ; nay, his whole soul cleaveth to the dust ! These chains of darkness under which we groan do not only hold us in on every side, but they are within us also ; they enter into the inmost re cesses of our soul, they pierce its very sub stance. Vile affections are not only so many chains, but likewise so many diseases. Our

nature is distempered as well as enslaved ; the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint." Our body, soul, and spirit, are infected, overspread, consumed with the most fatal moral leprosy ; every one of our brutal passions and diabolical tempers, every kind of pride, sen suality, and selfishness, is one of those deadly wounds full of corruption. To recover our first estate from which we are fallen is the one thing needful : to reexchange the image of Satan for the image of God, bondage for freedom, sickness for health ! Our one great business is to erase out of our souls the likeness of our destroyer, and to be born again, to be formed anew after the like ness of our Creator. This is our one concern, to shake off this servile yoke, and regain our native liberty ; to cast away every chain, every passion, that does not accord with an angelical nature. The one work we have to do is to re turn from the gates of death, to have our dis eases cured, our wounds healed, and ourselves restored to perfect soundness. Let us in the second place consider a few of the numberless reasons which prove that this

is the one thing needful, that this alone is to he kept in view, and pursued at all times and in all places ; not indeed by neglecting our temporal affairs, but by making them all mi nister unto it : by so conducting them all, that every step therein may be a step to this higher end. Now that the recovery of the image of God, of this glorious liberty, this perfect re storation, is the one thing needful upon earth, appears first from hence, that the enjoyment of them was the end of our creation ; for man was created to love God, and to this end alone, even to love the Lord his God with all his heart, and soul, and mind, and strength. Love is the very image of God, it is the brightness of his glory. By love, man is not only rendered like him, but in some sense one with him. If any man love God, God loveth him, and maketh his abode with him ; he dwelleth in God, and God in him ; and he that is thus joined to the Lord is one spirit. Love is perfect freedom. As there is no fear or pain, so there is no constraint in love. Whoever acts from this principle alone,he doeth whatsoever he will; all his thoughts move spon

taneously, they follow the bent of his mind, and dwell On the beloved object ; all his words are dictated by his heart, for out of the abun dance of the heart the mouth speaketh ; all his actions are the result of pure choice. Love is the breath of his soul, the full exertion of all his powers, the perfection of all its faculties ; therefore since the enjoyment of these was the one end of our creation, the recovering of them is " the one thing needful." The same truth appears, secondly, from its being the end of our redemption by Jesus Christ ; of all that our blessed Lord did and suffered for us ; of his incarnation, his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension into hea ven, and the descent of the Holy Spirit. All these miracles of love were wrought with no other view than to restore us to health and freedom, to happiness and immortality. Thus he himself testifies of the end of his coming into this world : " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives;" or, as the prophet expresses it, " to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-

hearted, to prpclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." For this alone the blessed Saviour lived, that he might remove every spiritual disease from our nature ; for this only he died, that he might deliver those who were all their life-time subject to bondage : and it was in pursuance of the very same design that he gave us his merciful law. The end of his command was only our health, liberty, and perfection, or in one comprehensive word, Charity; and the branches of it centre in this one point, our renewal in the love of God ; either enjoining what is necessary for our recovery, or forbid ding what is obstructive of it ; therefore this being the one end of our redemption, as well as our creation, is the one thing needful for us upon earth. Thirdly, it is the one end of all the dispen sations ofProvidence. Pleasure and pain, health and sickness, riches and poverty, honour and dishonour, friends and enemies, are all be stowed by his unerring wisdom and goodness with a view to this one thing. The will of

God, in allotting us our several portions of all these, is solely for our sanotification ; our re covery from the vile bondage, the love of his creatures, to the free love of our Creator. All his providences, be they mild or severe, point at no other object than this ; they are all de signed either to wean us from what is not, or to unite us to what is, worthy our affection. Are they pleasing ? then they are intended to lift our hearts to the Parent of all good. Are they painful ? then they are means of eradicat ing those passions that forcibly withhold us from him : so that all lead the same way, either directly or indirectly, either by gratitude, or disappointment ; for to those who have ears to hear, every loss, especially of what was nearest and dearest to us, speaks as clearly as if it were an articulate voice from heaven, " Little chil dren, keep yourselves from idols " every sor row, every pain, every mortification, " Love not the world, neither the things of the world " and every pleasure, with a small still voice, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." To the same end are all the internal dis«

pensations of God, all the influences of his Holy Spirit, whether he gives us joy or sorrow of heart, whether he inspires us with vigour and cheerfulness, or permits us to sink into deadness of soul, into dejection and heaviness, it is with the same view ; namely, to restore us to health, to liberty, to holiness : these are all designed to heal those inbred diseases of our nature, self-love and the love of the world. They are all given, together with the exter nal dispensation of our daily bread, to enable us to convert them into spiritual nourishment, and to recover his love, which is health to our souls. Therefore the renewal of our natures in this love being not only the one end of our creation and redemption, but likewise of all the providences of God over us, and all the operations of his Spirit in us, it must be, as the eternal wisdom of God hath declared it, c the one thing needful." How great reason, even in the Christian world, there is to resume the apostle's exhort ation, " Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead ?" Hath not Christ given thee light ? why then sittest thou in the shadow of

death ? What slumber is this which oppresses thee ? knowest thou not that one thing is needful ? What then are these many things with which thou art encumbered ? Why hath any but this great concern the least place in thoughts ? Is the entertainment of the senses the one thing needful ? or the gratifying the imagination with uncommon, or great, or beautiful objects ? Our blessed Lord speaketh not thus : he saith not that the one thing is to acquire wealth, or increase what thou hast already ; nor to obtain honour, power, rank, or preferment ; nor yet to possess a large share of that fairest earthly fruit, learning. No ; though any of these may sometimes be conducive to, not one of them is the one thing needful, which simply is to regain an angelical nature ; to recover the image wherein we were formed, to be like the Most High ! This alone is the one end of our abode on earth ; for this alone did the Son of God pour forth his precious blood, that he might form a people to himself, " zealous of good works ;" for this alone does his Holy Spirit watch over us, that we, who without this divine influence are not able to

please him, may be unerringly directed to walk in his ways. One thing we have to do, to press forward to this mark of the prize of the high calling ; to emerge out of chains, diseases, death, into liberty, health, and life immortal ! Let us well observe that our Lord doth not call this our chief, but the one thing, all others being con nected with, or quite foreign to the end of life : on this let us fix our single view, our pure un mixed intention, regarding nothing, small or great, but as it has reference to this. We must use many means, but ever let us remember we have but one end ; for as while our eye is single our whole body will be full of light, so, should it ever cease to be single, in that mo ment our whole body would be full of darkness. Be we then continually watchful over our souls, that there be no duplicity in our inten tion ; be it our one view in all our thoughts and words, and actions, to be partakers of the, divine nature, to regain the highest measure possible of faith which works by love, that faith which unites us to God ! I say, to regain the highest measure possible for us : for who- ever will plead for any abatement of health, life, and glory ? Let us then labour to be per fectly whole, to burst asunder every chain of sin and misery, to attain the fullest conquest over this body of death, the most entire reno vation of our natures ; knowing this, that when the Son of Man shall send forth his angels to cast the double-minded into outer darkness, then shall the single of heart receive the one thing they sought, even the salvation purchased by the Redeemer, and shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father ! Now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all honour and glory, adoration and worship, both now and for ever. Amen.