Through miles of pallets, thickly laid With sickness in its foulest guise, And pain, in forms to have dismayed Man's science-hardened eyes,
A woman, fragile, pale, and tall. Upon her saintly work doth move, Fair or not fair, who knows ? but all Follow her face with love.
While I bow with reverent confession before this transcendent realised vision of celestial pity, I still believe we ought not to forget that God may have, that He asks, that He requires of us that there shall he servants of His love as self-denying, as heroic, as resolute, of whom hospital never knew and poetry never sang, here in these homely houses and these prosaic streets. For the hour will come when every soul that hath done what that soul could, shall be seen on the right hand of the throne of God.^
3. It is Singular^ a7id_^CouTageous. — Mary's was a new type of ministry. The disciples had their own ways of ministering, which were more servile and stereotyped. " Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor ? " Poor blind critics ! They could see only one way in which money could be wisely expended — their eyes were holden. They needed an example like Mary's to make their scales fall. She was not indifferent to the necessities of the poor — but she was not tied down to just one way of doing good. She was original and creative, not slavishly imitative. She conceived a new way of serving Christ, and fearlessly carried out her programme. It was love — a warm heart — that made her thus inventive, and gave a note of distinction to her ministry. Love is always thoughtful and creative ; it must strike out new paths for itself, must clothe itself in new forms. Love cannot be commonplace ; it delights
' F. D. Huiitia^ton.
382 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
in innovations, surprises, singularities, felicities. It is impossible to put love in fetters, dictate its course, or rule it by convention. It stores away the vase until the opportune moment arrives for dispensing its contents — and then it confounds us with its goodness.
^ It was early in September a good many years ago. The winter storms had begun early that year. One morning, after a wild night, Grace Darling heard human voices mingling with the voices of the storm. And going out, she saw a vessel on the rocks of the farthest island. What was she that she should bestir herself at such a time ? A feeble girl, with the seeds of an early death at work on her already ! But she roused her father and pointed out the wreck. Were the human beings clinging to it to be allowed to perish ? The old man saw no help for them. He shrank from the entreaty of his daughter to go out to them. It seemed to him certain death to venture on such a sea. The brave girl leaped into the boat of the lighthouse and would go alone ; and then the old man's courage was roused. And so, on the morning of that sixth day of September, those two, risking their lives for mercy, pulled through the tempest to the wreck. Nine human beings were there, in the very grasp of death. And these nine, one by one, this brave girl and her father, going and coming, rescued and carried to the lighthouse, and nursed them till help came. 0 ! the land rang with praises of this heroic maiden. And poets sang these praises. And royal people sent for her to their houses to see her. But this was her glory in the sight of God, that she had made beautiful for ever- more, so that it shines to this day in the memory of men, the lonely and humble lot in which God had placed her.^
4. Itjis Timely. — Blessed are the ministries which are not mistimed. How oft, alas ! the kindnesses of people come too late ! Instead of acting like Mary, aforehand, too many act like Joseph and Nicodemus, who brought their sweet spices when the Saviour was in His garden grave. There is something peculiarly sad about these belated kindnesses. If we have flowers to give, why not give them to our friends ere they enter on the long sleep ? ^
^Mary anointed her Lord aforehand. Too many alabaster
boxes are sealed up and put on the top shelf at the back. They
I are reached down only at funerals. It was said concerning the
j monument erected to Burns, " He asked of his generation bread,
^ A. Macleod, Talking to the Children, 171. ' J. Pearca.
ST. MARK 383
and after he was dead they gave him a stone." George Eliot pathetically says —
Seven Grecian cities vied for Homer dead Through which the living Homer begged for bread.
After his wife's death Carlyle wrote in his diary — " Oh, if I could but see her once more, were it but for five minutes, to let her know that I always loved her through it all. She never did know it — never!" Think of it! That splendid alabaster box of a great man's love sealed up for twenty years.^
'Tis easy to be gentle when Death's silence shames our clamour, And easy to discern the best Through memory's mystic glamour. But wise it were for me and thee, Ere love is past forgiving, To take this tender lesson home — Be patient with the living.