Teach him how beautiful is Holiness, —
I had not feared thee. But to yield my breath,
Life's Purpose unfulfilled ! — This is thy sting, 0 Death ! ^
2. " That which this woman hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." Mary had been attacked and needed defence. It was not the first time that her actions had been criticised. Before, it had been her own sister who found fault, now it was Judas Iscariot, backed up by some other or others of the disciples ; but both times it was the same kind of censure, though passed on her by very different persons, and with very different intentions. There was plausibility enough in what they alleged to disturb a mind in the least degree scrupulous. What sort of devotion is this, which leaves a sister to serve alone ? which lays out on ointments and perfumes, offered to Him who needs them not, a sum of money which might go a good way in feeding the hungry or clothing the naked ? Who can say that there is nothing in such a remonstrance ? But He that searches the hearts interfered, — as He never fails to do sooner or later, on behalf of His humble and meek ones, — and spoke out words of wisdom and power which have settled the matter for ever to her and to the whole Church. Twice He spoke : once to the traitor and once to those whom the traitor was misleading. To Judas apart, Do <Aom "let her alone.
^ Sir Noel Paton.
ST. MARK 375
Against the day of my burying hath she kept this " ; by His manner and look as well as His words, speaking to what was in His betrayer's conscience, and startling him, it may be, with the thought, " Surely this thing is known." To the rest, " Let her alone : why trouble ye her ? she hath wrought a good work on me " : to all, " For ye have the poor always with you, and whensoever ye will ye can do them good : but me ye have not always."
He whom no praise can reach, is aye Men's least attempts approving:
Whom Justice makes All-merciful, Omniscience makes All-loving.
Yes, they have caught the way of God
To whom Self lies displayed In such clear vision as to cast
O'er others' faults a shade.
A bright horizon out to sea
Obscures the distant ships: — Eough hearts look smooth and beautiful
In Charity's Eclipse.^
3. What, then, is the lesson or true import of this so much commended example ? What but this ? — do for Christ just what is closest at hand, and be sure that t£us you will meet all His remotest or most unknown times and occasions. Or, better still, follow without question the impulse of love to Christ's own person; for this, when really full and sovereign, will make your conduct chime, as it were, naturally with all God's future.
It is on personality that religion rests. This is why Jesus Christ, building Christianity upon Himself, commended Mary's act of loving self-devotion. Had He merely taught the philosophy of religion — had He simply inculcated, however persuasively, the principles of theism and morality, warning men against vice and painting bright pictures of virtue — He would have been no more than one of those many teachers who have enlightened but not saved the world. But He was more than a teacher, more than a philosopher ; He was a
^ F. W. Faber.
376 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
living and loving Person, the magnet of the human eoul^ drawing men irresistibly to Himself.
^ St. Paul says, " To me to live is Christ." There are those who affect to think that so long as the principles and moral ideas of religion are well understood and clearly enforced, and the general tone of society has a colouring of Christianity, the person of Christ may be allowed, without much loss, to fall into the background. Such a belief seems to take little account of the actual facts of human life, or of the way in which experience shows that character is usually influenced and developed. Philosophy, after all, is not enough to save men; what they know to be right, it does not follow (as even the Eoman poet saw) that they will straightway go and do; for persons, far more than principles or ideas, move us both to good and to evil. " Ideas," says George Eliot, " are often poor ghosts ; our sun- filled eyes cannot discern them; they pass athwart us in their vapour, and cannot make themselves felt. But sometimes they are made flesh; they breathe upon us with warm breath, they touch us with soft, responsive hand, they look at us with sad, sincere eyes, and speak to us in appealing tones; they are clothed in a living human soul, with all its conflicts, its faith, and its love. Then their presence is a power, then they shake iis like a passion, and we are drawn after them with gentle compulsion, as flame is drawn to flame." What men need to help them is the force of personality, the example of wife or husband or friend, the sight and touch of another person, human like themselves, yet still hoping, still aspirings still rising on the stepping-stones of a dead past. Persons, not principles, count for most in the great struggle.^