one thing is needful

"There is no mistake as to which is to have pre-eminence in our hearts and lives. Our Lord and Master is our authority here, as in everything. 'One thing is needful', said he to Martha; and that would be his answer to many of his sisters now if they could hear his voice in reply to many anxieties. Many of the things they think needful to be done, he would not think needful, that is to say, not indispencable. ... We have to study to get a truer view of the present than is presented by our external surroundings, otherwise the sisters [today] are just as much in danger as was Martha of the 1st, of giving too much prominence to that which is of a merely passing nature, and leaving too little time and energy for the things of Christ."