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thou have me to do?" How am I to show myself thy servant? What sinfulness am I to contend against? What duties to practise? What graces to acquire? Thus he has endeavoured to perform the work given him to do. In his Lord's absence, the adversary, the tempter, the destroyer, has often assailed the house; but in the strength of the Lord he has been repulsed: Satan has never got dominion there; he has sought admittance; perhaps for a while he has seemed to have success; but he has not finally prevailed.

Such an one is not found sleeping, even though his Lord come suddenly: he is prepared: and it is a blessed summons which calls him to enter into his everlasting rest.

What, therefore, the Lord said unto his disciples, he saith unto all: Watch. Let watchfulness be the habitual attitude of your lives, which none of the cares, none of the pleasures of life are to disturb. For" the time" is "short," and the business arduous; and ye know not when the master of the house may come to take account, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cock-crowing, or in the morning.

LECTURE LXXXIV.

MARY ANOINTS THE HEAD OF JESUS.

MARK XIV. 1-9.

1. After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.

2. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people.

1

For the people, as we have before seen, were favourable to Jesus. Their impression was, "He is a good man." And recently they had beheld an exercise of his power which filled them with awe and reverence. He had raised Lazarus from the dead, and "by reason of him many of the Jews went away" from the Pharisees "and believed on Jesus :" 2 and formed the company which met and followed him as he advanced towards Jerusalem a few days before, and greeted him as "the king of Israel, which cometh in the name of the Lord." The same people had also judged rightly concerning John the Baptist so that the Pharisees dared not deny that he came with a commission "from heaven," 3 Ib. 13.

1 John vii. 12.

2 John xii. 11.

4

"because they feared the people: for all counted John for a prophet." They were the chief priests and rulers, who neglected John, and opposed Jesus: according to the words of Isaiah, "The leaders of this people cause them to err:" they whose authority would have decreased, if he had been acknowledged; they whose hypocrisy and covetousness he reproved.

5

3. And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. 6

The use of ointment was part of the luxury of that age and country, and stores of it were kept, like gold or jewels, as a valuable possession. Among the riches which Hezekiah boasted of, and displayed to the ambassadors from Babylon, mention is made of his "treasures of spices and precious ointment." This was used on occasions of festivity, or as a mark of reverence to a guest of superior rank. It was also used for the purpose of embalming the body, and preparing it for burial; to which our Lord alludes, when he vindicates Mary for the censure unjustly cast upon her, for this mark of attention shown to him.

4. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?

* Ch. xi. 32.

5 Isa. ix. 16.

6 This was Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. See John xii. 3.

7 2 Kings xx. 13.

5. For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, 8 and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.

6. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.

7. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. 8. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.

9. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

This memorial is not left for her sake, but for ours, that we may know the spirit which our Lord approves in his disciples. Here, as in the case of the poor widow lately, who cast her all into the treasury, he applauds the act, because he approves the motive. On the principles too current in the world, fault might be found with both. The one might be called rash; Mary is accused as wasteful. But he who knows the heart, bestows his approbation. Why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me: she hath done what she could to show her reverence and love. For this was her motive. She saw before her in Simon's house the benefactor, who had restored to life the stay and support of his family. But, more than this, she saw in the restorer of her brother's natural life, the author of

8

• Commonly computed at about 91. 138. 9d. of our money. But a better idea of its value may be conceived, by considering it as the produce of 300 days' labour, according to the recompence of labour in that country, as reckoned in the parable of "the labourers" at a penny a day. Matt. xx. 2.

her own spiritual life. She recalled to mind the "things pertaining to godliness" which she had learnt, whilst she sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word."9 At the various seasons when he had visited the family at Bethany which he loved, he had given her instruction, exhortation, and counsel, which had dwelt in her heart as "a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life."1 And now the thought occurs to her, How can I best prove my thankfulness? As if foreseeing that no future opportunity would arise, What return can I render unto the Lord for all the benefits which he hath done unto me? She then took the box of ointment of spikenard very precious, and she brake it, and poured it upon his head and "anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair." 2

Thus she did what she could. She could not turn aside the malice of the Jews: she could not reverse the "determinate counsel" of God, which had ordained that Jesus should die. But, though unawares, she was impelled to do that which was in fact a prophetic action; she came beforehand to anoint that body for the burying, which should soon require to be laid in the tomb. And the Lord, who knew her motive, and saw into the reverential feelings which animated her, approved what she had done, as a good work, which was to be commended, not blamed.

The narrative illustrates the sentence of the apostle Peter, "Unto them that believe, Christ is cious. To those who are trusting in him for salva

9 Luke x. 39.

2 See John xii. 3.

1 John iv. 14.

3 1 Pet. ii. 7.

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