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SERMON XXII.

THE ACCEPTABLE OFFERING.

MARK xiv. 8.

"SHE HATH DONE WHAT SHE COULD."

DEEPLY interesting are the circumstances connected with the last visit of our Lord to Bethany. It was only "six days before the passover" at which he suffered,* that Simon the leper entertained him and his beloved friends, Lazarus and Mary and Martha. There is little doubt that Simon himself was one of those who had been cured of leprosy by the word of Jesus. At the table also sat Lazarus, who had been dead, whose body had seen corruption, and who was now a living witness to the power of Christ, by whose voice he had been called from the grave! St. John, relating the same occurrence, says, "there they made him a supper, and Martha

*John xii. 1.

served."* But Mary, who had given proof long before that she had "chosen that good part which could not be taken from her," having "an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; brake the box, and poured it on the head" of her divine Master; and so fragrant was it, that "the house was filled with the odour of the ointment." This act of the sister of Lazarus must be distinguished from a somewhat similar occurrence which took place in the house of SIMON the Pharisee. On that occasion "a woman who was a sinner" bathed the FEET of Jesus with her tears-but Mary, with the familiarity and confidence of a friend, and with the affection of one who had recently experienced that most gracious token of his love, the restoration of her brother from the dead, anointed his HEAD with costly ointment, such as the Jews were accustomed to prepare for their own burial. We find that, first Judas, from motives of covetousness, and afterwards all the disciples, through ignorance and misconception, censured the woman for expending so costly an offering upon Jesus: they thought she would have done better had she sold the box of spikenard for three hundred pence, and given it to the poor. But our Lord, who knew her heart, and discerned the spirituality and purity of her intention, vindicated and commended her; "Jesus said, let her alone; why trouble ye her? She

*John xii. 1–9..

For ye have

hath wrought a good work on me.

the

ye

with poor you always, and whensoever will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. SHE HATH DONE WHAT SHE COULD: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying." And then, for her further encouragement, and to her especial honour, he added, 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!"

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These few but emphatic words-" SHE HATH DONE WHAT SHE COULD,"--may be considered, I. AS AN APOLOGY; and, II. As A

REPROOF.

And may the Holy Spirit be pleased to accompany them with his blessing, applying them to our hearts and consciences, for consolation, "for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness," as we severally stand in need.

I. HERE IS AN APOLOGY; "THIS WOMAN HATH DONE WHAT SHE COULD," said our blessed Lord! She could not preach his gospel, nor vindicate his righteous cause before his iniquitous judges, nor fulfil the angel-office of supporting him in his last agony, but she did that which was within her proper sphere; she gave him the most costly thing she had, the best of her property, as he already possessed the best of her affections; and while man censured, and even mistaken apostles condemned, He who alone can

read the heart, and search the hidden motives of action, accepted, justified, and applauded her; he bore witness to her, "She hath done what she could."

Here is abundant evidence out of the lips of Him who could not err, that God is not "a hard master, reaping where he has not sown, and gathering where he has not strawed;" that he does not expect to " gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles;" but that he accepts each man's service according to the light and talents he possesses. He ponders the hearts, and weighs the thoughts of the children of men: to whom he entrusts much, from them he expects much; but to whom little is committed, from them little is expected. From his faithful servants of old, walking by the dim lamp of the Mosaic dispensation, he did not require nor expect that clearness of spiritual perception, that indifference to the present life, nor that eager anticipation of a better, which he may justly look for in us, now that "life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel." "The least in the kingdom of heaven," or in the gospel dispensation, has probably more distinct views of the great truths of revelation than the most eminent of those whose faith struggled with surrounding darkness and mystery, and who searched diligently "WHAT, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings

of Christ, and the glory which should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that NOT UNTO THEMSELVES, but unto us, they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven."* "They did what they could;" believed what was revealed to them, obeyed the will of God as far as they knew it, and by the implicit and often blind adoption of forms, ceremonies, and services, which in their full import could not have been understood by them, they displayed a principle of faith not inferior either in kind or degree to that of "the chiefest of the apostles," on whom the Spirit of God was poured out.

In the same way must we judge and reason of the present condition of the heathen world. If they perish, it will not be because they have not believed in a Saviour of whom they have not heard, but because "they not having the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." That is, they have a natural conscience, a light which God has left in every human being, and IN THE ABSENCE OF REVELATION, by that light must they be judged at the last day! The inquiry will not be whether they have done that * 1 Pet. i. 11, 12. Rom. ii. 14, 15.

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