men who troubled, to Jesus who approved her: "Not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts."

Uncharitable judgments, my brethren, are not wholly precluded by our increase of light and liberality; and were it left us to make out the significance of this deed, perhaps we should go as wide of the mark as those who witnessed it first. But the monument bears its own record. Let us approach and read it there, traced by the same hand that raised the memorial, in lines most legible and plain.

(1.) It was a useful work. Such is the first inscription: "Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me." The word thus translated means, primarily-fair, goodly, beautiful, as to external form and appearance. This it was, but the language implies more. "Many good works," said Jesus to the Jews, "have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?" (John 10: 32.) It was moral excellence that distinguished the miracles and teachings of the Saviour; and the quality pertaining to them he ascribes to this humble performance. More precisely, however, the epithet refers to the effect and influence of the work possessing this quality. This is the ordinary sense of the word, where it is used to characterize the practices of piety among the followers of Christ. "Charge them that be rich," writes the Apostle, " that they be rich in good works;" which he explains by adding: "Ready to distribute, willing to communicate." (1 Tim. 6: 18.) "They which have believed in Christ," he says again, "must be careful to maintain good works. These things," he continues, "are good and profitable to men." (Titus 3: 8.) Of the widows for whom provision was made by the churches, he ordains that they must be such as are "well-reported of for good works;" and these he specifies: "If she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work." (1 Tim. 5 10.) "Let ours also," he exhorts concerning the members of the apostolic congregations, "learn to maintain good works;" or, as the margin reads, "profess honest trades; that they be not unfruitful." (Titus 3: 14.) From these illustrations we learn that the transaction before us belongs to the same class of useful and profitable deeds, with alms-giving, hospitality, the training up of orphans, the comforting of the distressed, the diligent pursuit of honorable and remunerative business. A truth in direct contradiction to the selfish utilitarianism of worldly sinners and worldly Christians alike.

(2.) Passing on to another side of this memorial pillar, we read its second inscription. It was a great work. Jesus said: "She hath done what she could." The deed was coëxtensive with her ability; the ability of a rational and immortal creature to honor,

extol, and glorify the Saviour who redeemed her with his most precious blood. To the eye which looked only upon the outward appearance, it seemed an act which nothing but its wasteful extravagance raised above insignificance; to the eye that searcheth hearts, it was grand, august, important. Simon has not done so much in making him a supper; Martha is not doing so much in serving; nor will Peter do more, when fastening his eyes upon the lame man lying at the gate which was called Beautiful, he shall say: "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." (Acts 3: 6.) The value of a deed wrought upon Christ or for the sake of Christ, though relative to us, is absolute to him. If it be our best, though it were another's least, it is great and precious when its perfume ascends to heaven. He asks for our hearts, our whole hearts; and if as the outward sign and seal of that inward consecration, we can give him but two farthings, or a cup of cold water, it is as though we had given him, with that same sanctifying gift, all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory and power.

(3.) There is a third inscription upon the monument. It informs us that this memorable deed was an act of faith in a crucified Saviour. Jesus said: "Let her alone; against the day of my burying hath she kept this." Some would have it, that reference is here made, not to the intention of the woman, but rather to the overruling purpose of Providence: as though the Saviour had said: "She hath done it in effect, though unconsciously, to prepare my body for the tomb." But the extraordinary commendation bestowed upon her in our text, was scarcely such as Christ would pronounce upon a blind instrument for the fulfillment of the Divine will. There were others who unwittingly subserved that will, by procuring the Saviour's death; as Judas, of whom he said: "The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him; but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born." (Matt. 26: 24.) Another such instrument was Caiaphas, who "spake not of himself, but, being high-priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation." (John 11: 51.) The woman concerned in this transaction, however, was qualified for a far more. intelligent part. Who was she? It was that Mary, say some, who washed his feet with her tears, as he sat at meat in a Pharisee's house, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head. (Luke 7.) It was that Mary, as all are agreed, who once sat at Jesus' feet in her own home at Bethany, and heard his word, and chose that good part which was never to be taken from her. (Luke 10.) Of all the followers and friends of Jesus, we read of only one, who pondered and treasured the sayings concerning him with equal intentness; and she was that other Mary, the blessed mother

of our Lord. (Luke 2: 19, 51.) With no more than the faith of her father Abraham, who longed to see his day, and saw it, and was glad, (John 8: 56,) she had been competent to this service. But hers was the fuller apprehension reserved for Gospel times; faith nourished not like his by prophecy, nor like ours by history, but by living communication with him who was its author and object. Even the less spiritual Martha had confessed her belief in him as the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. To Mary he was more than Messiah, the Anointed; more than Master, Teacher, Healer; yea, more than the Resurrection and the Life. By the clear illumination of that faith, which is always and in every case the gift of God, enabling us to discover and embrace the Redeemer in all his offices, as Prophet, Priest, and King, she now beheld him also as the suffering Messiah, the atoning Lamb to be slain for the expiation of sins; and she anointed him to the sacrifice of his body upon the cross.

III. Such was the deed, and such, at least in part, its significance. Look now at its COMMEMORATION. "Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her."

For the most delicate service that mortal rendered him on earth, our gracious Redeemer provides the most delicate reward. That it was unsought, we know; that it was unforeseen, we may be sure. The promises and blessings pronounced by Jesus were not such as to gratify the ambitious desires of men; though he that refused the petition of the mother of Zebedee's children for worldly preferment, when his disciples asked a recompense for their toils and sacrifices, assured them of an hundred-fold return "now in this time," as well as in the world to come life everlasting. But of all such desires, that for celebrity or fame is perhaps the most refined and the most insidious. We do not learn that our Saviour made to the Twelve any promise of such distinction. It was for two lowly, loving, unaspiring women, that this honor was reserved: for the one, that all generations should call her blessed, (Luke 1: 48;) for the other, that wheresoever the Gospel should be preached in the whole world, approving mention should be made of her good deed.

Upon the immediate disciples of our Lord the accomplishment of this declaration first devolved. Hence Matthew, John, and Peter, (at whose dictation it is supposed that Mark wrote his Gospel,) the three who were present at the scene, all record it; the more fully perhaps, and the more ingenuously, too, because their own uncharitable temper furnished occasion for the reproof it implied. John indeed gives a pleasing instance of his own care to fulfill the command; for happening elsewhere to mention the name of Mary, he adds, with beautiful particularity: "It was that

Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair." (John 11: 2.) And often, we may suppose, was the touching story of this woman's faith and devotion told by those living witnesses of the event, who preached this gospel to the multitudes of many lands. Once, however, inscribed on this imperishable page, "like words graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever," (Job 19: 24,) they constitute "a memorial that shall never be forgotten," (Ecclus. 35: 7.) "None of all the trumpets of fame," one has well said, "sound so loud and so long as the everlasting Gospel." It has been true of the Church of God, as of the dwelling of Simon, that the whole "house has been filled with the odor of that ointment."

And what, my brethren, is the share in this commemoration that falls to us at this late day? What, after so many centuries, shall we do, worthily and honorably, to carry out our Master's purpose here made known? We shall not, like some, exalt the saint to an equality with her Saviour. We shall not build a temple, nor carve an image, nor set apart a day, for idolatrous worship of the creature. That were disparaging to Christ, unprofitable to us, and repugnant to her. Two things are feasible: the one, which we have been endeavoring, by the story of her pious deed read and related from the Gospel page, to keep in fresh remembrance one who was in Christ before us, and who ministered, as it were in our name and behalf, to his comfort. The other, which we shall now attempt, to appropriate this memorial to that one use and service which were all her desire, "the praise of his glory" for whom her deed was wrought.

1. Behold, then, dear friends, how exceedingly precious to Christ is the love of his people! Affection is often squandered on objects most unworthy: the wisest and the best fail sometimes to apprehend the value of sacrifices made for them, and tenderness lavished upon them; but when Jesus becomes the center of our regard, there is no waste of the perfume: there is no depreciation of the gift. Ah! be not afraid then to give him too much! Give him all-the whole heart - keep nothing back. "Jesus is worthy to receive," not thrones and crowns and scepters only, but what he prizes more-incomparably more-the heart, the casket of an offering more sweet to him than aught in the universe beside. Pour out the fullness of your affection upon him who has loved you with an everlasting love, and stooped to the cross that he might win yours. Has he removed some object of your fondness? Have you, like Mary, been called to part for a season with some cherished human friend? Has one or another channel of your affection been cut off? Then let the full tide flow out toward him who was dead, and behold, he liveth for evermore. Give him, your Lord and Master, what you had thought to bury with a

creature the precious ointment of your kindness and service and zeal!

For I

2. See, too, how precious to Christ is the memory of his people! A signal proof we have in the declaration of our text. suppose the design with which it was made to have been rather the illustration of his regard for the memory of all his saints than the elevation of one to a peculiar privilege. To be remembered, my friends; to be honorably remembered; to be lovingly and kindly and gratefully remembered; to be thought of and mentioned, sometimes, often, long after the pulse shall cease to throb, and the brow to ache; to live in the remembrance of the pure and the wise and the just and the holy: ah! what a reward is that! But most of all, to have, in the thoughts of Jesus, a place from which not all the concerns of his eternal kingdom can crowd us; a graven on the palms of his hands," (Is. 49: 16;) a name "set as a seal upon his heart!" (Sol. 8: 6.) "This honor have all his saints." (Ps. 149: 9.)

name"

3. Observe, again, how great the jealousy of Christ for the good fame of his people! Lightly, thoughtlessly drops the word of censure, of suspicion, upon the action or the character; sportively are cast the fire-brands, arrows and death of slander; and men hear not the voice that saith: "Let her alone; why trouble ye her?" "He that toucheth these, toucheth the apple of mine eye!" (Zech. 28.) But in that day when he maketh up his jewels, while he vindicates the justice and wisdom of his own law and dealings, surely, the Lord will look upon his people to take away their reproach. "Them that honor me I will honor, saith the Lord; and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." (1 Sam. 3: 30.) 4. Mark also how generously Christ estimates the offerings and services of his people! Mary was not so lavish of her ointment, as Jesus of his praise. Not his the moderation that withholdeth more than is meet, in its dread of excess. Plenteous in mercy, full of compassion, is the Master we serve. Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, is the reward he gives. Be very sure that whatever others may do, he will put the best construction upon a work of faith and love wrought for his

sake.

5. Once more, Learn how Christ would have us cherish the memory of his people. Records of good men's lives, are among the means which God hath most emphatically approved and blessed, for the sanctification of believers. Some have chosen or affected to despise these means. It has been said, in the very spirit of that captious criticism which our Lord here condemns, that religious biographies are but a species of romance, as unprofit able and as little to be trusted. The word of God and the experience of Christians alike disprove the unworthy statement. Much of the canon of Scripture is made up of religious biography: and