confined to his thievish heart-that he was only the foremost and the loudest in giving expression to a sentiment in which others of them concurred—is pretty clear from the statement in the chapter before us, where the evangelist says, that "when his disciples saw it, they had indignation." St. Mark also says, "there were some that had indignation within themselves." " -* The reproof, too, with which our Lord silenced their animadversions, was evidently addressed not to one, but to several. Now, that Judas should affect a benevolent indignation was only natural and characteristic; but that any other of the disciples should have felt displacency, was, perhaps, scarcely to have been expected. One would have thought that simple reverence for their Great Master would have led them to admire and applaud such an act of homage to His person; and that the more costly the offering, the heartier would be their approval. What! could they really think the ointment wasted, when poured upon the head of Him whom they themselves recognized as God's Anointed? Or did they so little appreciate His greatness and goodness, that, when one who did feel them came and gave this affecting testimony of her reverence and love, their only sentiment was one of indignation at her profusion? They knew, too, who the woman was. They needed no one to tell them that she was Mary, the sister of Lazarus ; they knew the love that Jesus had for all that favored family, especially for her who sat such an eager listener at His feet; they knew also how doubly He had endeared Himself to her by the wonderful mercy He had so recently shown her in raising her brother from the grave; and there, too, was Lazarus at the table with them, the living memorial of His marvellous kindness. Was it possible, then, that when Mary, in some feeble expression of her unutterable gratitude, came and poured the ointment on His gracious head, they should have so little consideration either for her or for their Master, that they could only condemn it as a wasteful extravagance? "To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment * Mark xiv. 4.

might have been sold for much, and given to the poor." No! let us not be unjust towards the disciples. In Judas, this was merely the hypocritical expression of disappointed rapacity. "This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag;" from which he would have rejoiced in the opportunity of embezzling to such an amount. Not so with the other disciples. No bad or sordid feeling mingled with their censure; nor probably would the thought of it have occurred to them at all, but for the suggestion of the traitor. They knew the benevolence of their Master's heart, and how considerate He was for the wants and distresses of others; they knew how little He cared even for the comforts, still less for the luxuries, of life; and they thought, therefore, that Judas's observation was only reasonable and right, and that Mary would have acted far more in accordance with the spirit and example of Jesus Himself, whose whole life was a ministry of mercy to the poor, had the precious balsam been sold and the money distributed as Judas had suggested. They thought that they understood their Master better than she did, and that they were only entering into His feelings and anticipating His judgment, in thus condemning as extravagance what she meant as devotion.

And plausible enough their reasoning may at first sight seem. Three hundred denarii would have comforted and cheered many a poor destitute heart; whereas, here, they were suddenly dissipated in a momentary act of homage. Yes; but there is often a lamentable lack of wisdom in these narrow calculations of obvious and immediate utility. Had Mary acted as the disciples would have had her act, had she sold the ointment and distributed the money among the poor, some would no doubt have been directly benefitted at the time; but thousands upon thousands, in all succeeding ages, would have lost immeasurably more than the objects of her charity would have gained. For how many thousand hearts have been opened by the touching narrative before us? How many thousand thousand times three hundred

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pence have been given to the poor as the genuine consequence of this act of devotion? The odour of her ointment filled the house; but the odour of her love has filled the world, and multiplied its fragrance by spreading its inspiration.

Had she, indeed, in humble imitation of her Lord's beneficence, sold the spikenard and given the produce to the poor, she would doubtless have done that which would have been acceptable to Him; but she would not have satisfied the instincts and urgencies of her own heart. To do good to others for His sake, would seem a very different thing in her eyes from doing homage to Himself, when she had such an opportunity of rendering it. And it is to Himself personally, to Himself, her great and heavenly Benefactor, the unction of whose ineffable wisdom and grace had filled her soul with gladness, that the instinct of her new heart impels her. She reasons not about consequences; she can enter into no cold calculations of comparative utility; she thinks only of Him; she can think only of Him while He is there, and she can do Him reverence; and to Him, therefore, she goes, with the costliest offering in her power, and pours out upon His head the precious spikenard-say, rather, pours out upon Him her heart, her heart all melted with its own fervors.

And in this light our Lord Himself regarded her conduct. "Why trouble ye the woman," He said, tenderly shielding her from the censoriousness of the disciples. More positive and immediate good she might perhaps have done had she thought and reasoned as you think and reason; but could she have more feelingly testified her gratitude and devotion? Why disturb her with your ungenerous objections, when evidently" she hath done what she could" for the emphatic expression of her love and reverence? Even were she mistaken in offering me such a tribute of affection, it were an error which you might indulgently regard. But it is far from being an error. In thus simply obeying what you consider a thoughtless and extravagant impulse, "she hath

wrought a good work upon me. For the poor," upon whom you think her solicitude more wisely bestowed, "the poor ye

have always with you," and to their necessities you can always minister," but me ye have not alway." My absence you will soon be called to lament; and, indeed, the time of my departure is so near at hand, that I may almost look upon myself as already dead; and upon this act of hers, in pouring the ointment on my body, as the anointing of it for my burial. Ah! There is more, far more, in such a genuine, earnest act of love, however unnecessary and extravagant it may seem, than you have any conception of; and "verily, I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world," and throughout the whole world it shall be preached," there shall also this, which this woman hath done"--this simple, touching act of devotion to me-be everlastingly spoken of in its touching connexion with my sufferings and death.

"In that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial." Not, however, that our Lord meant that she was aware of His approaching death, and that she acted thus in ceremonial preparation of His body for interment but only that in effect it was such a preparation, and in the event would be seen to be so. It would be going too far to understand our Lord's language in this strict and literal sense. Some, it is true, there are, who put this construction upon it, and represent her as deliberately acting with this specific intention. "Yes," says a divine of deserved celebrity, this day is already in the reckoning of Mary's faith, the day of His burial. Her grief anticipates the hour of mourning. She sees the sacrifice already offered; the victim lies before her; she sees it already pierced, bleeding, dead! She pays to this Jesus, yet living and speaking to her, the funereal honours which she had reserved for His lifeless remains. So lively is her faith; so much has her grief outstripped time; so deeply has she entered into the thought and purpose of Jesus Christ." But surely, this is going too far. This is allowing the imagination to run away with the judgment. It is falling into the very common error * Vinet, in his discourse on "Le Vase de Parfums.”

of attributing to the disciples a clearness of intelligence, and an amount of knowledge, which, at this period, they were very far from possessing. Love, no doubt, is apprehensive and farsighted. The heart often sees much further than the head. But nothing is more clear than, that, notwithstanding our Lord's express and repeated declarations that He was to suffer and to die, and to rise from the dead the third day, His disciples did not understand Him. None of them were able to receive these sayings. True, His language was sufficiently intelligible; but how-if He was really to be crucified and slain how was He to be the Redeemer of Israel? In their view the two things were totally incompatible; and that He could really mean what He said, seemed to them, therefore, impossible. In this respect there was nothing to distinguish Mary from the rest. His apprehension and death came upon them all alike with a sudden and overwhelming surprise, fatal to every hope they had cherished respecting Him. It was not, then, in the anticipation of faith that she acted as she did it was not because she was aware that His hour was almost come; but simply because she loved, and was zealous to do all she could to do Him honor. It was her love, eagerly embracing an opportunity of expressing itself, and thus unconsciously doing a far more beautiful thing than she had any thought of doing. "She did it for my burial."And from this it is, as it strikes me, that our Lord's vindication of her derives its peculiar force and instructiveness. There was a certain solemn propriety in the act, totally unintentional on her part: but because it was done with the simple desire to do Him honor, He graciously accredits her with the whole of it. There was a goodness and a beauty in the deed which she herself had never designed; but because of the sanctity of the motive from which she acted, He accepts it just as if she had been aware of all that was to happen to Him, and had anointed his body in distinct anticipation of His burial. And upon precisely the same principle does He represent Himself as acting in the day of judgment. "Then shall the King say unto them on his