What lack I yet? Matthew 19:20. Yet lackest thou one thing. Luke 18:22. For, one thing is needful. Luke 10:42.
This one thing needful is to have Christ; and by being first, with Mary, served and treated by him, we draw the necessary strength from him, to serve him again. He must be first our meat, before we can feed on him, or do any thing for him. Faith receives grace first, from the fulness of Christ, and being thus strengthened, begins to give and work also, though it were but faintly. However, it is not by our working and giving, but by the receiving in faith, that we become Christians, and remain in a perfect state of salvation; since we received even with the feeble hands of faith, a whole and perfect Christ. This one thing is needful.
I’ll hear of nothing else beside,
My Jesus, and him crucified;
In him is all I want;
His blood, his meritorious blood.
Alone is rich, alone is good;
For that alone I pant.
Sure none refuse to join this song,
To praise our Saviour all along
Their pilgrimage below:
To sing, " There’s none, there’s none beside
But Jesus, and him crucified,
Needful for us to know."