VIL. 1 HIs CONDUCT WAS THE OCCASION OF SHAME AMD OONTEITION. “ When he thought thereon, he wept.” Thought, reflection, especially upon the words of Jesus, are fitted to bring the misguided soul to itself. It is the haste and hurry of men’s lives which often hinder true repentance and reformation. “ They that lack time to mourn lack time to mend.” ‘These tears were the turning-point, and the earnest and the beginning of better things. Another evangelist relates to us at length the restoration of Peter to favour, and his new commission of service. But the simple words with which this narrative closes furnish the key to what follows, to the rest of Peter’s life. Judas’s sin led him to remorse; Peter’s sin led hing to repentance. The root of the difference lay in the two men’s distinct and opposed characters. Judas’s principle was love of self; Peter’s was love of Christ. The recovery, which was possible for the one, was therefore morally impossible for the other.
Arpiication. 1. A warning against self-confidence. 2. A suggestion as to the spirit in which to encounter temptation: Watch and pray; look to Jesus! 8 An encouragement to true penitenta.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers, $—9.—-The precious spikenard ; or, the impulse of the absolute, The house of Simon the leper was a familiar resort to Jesus. It is Mary the sister of Lazarus who now approaches him as he reclines at meat. Let us look at—
I, Herz aor oF pevorion. The nard or spikenard was an unguent of the East. It was “ genuine” and costly. Probably it had been kept against that day. She now entered, probably at first unperceived, and, breaking the neck of the alabaster cruse, poured the precious nard upon the Saviour’s person (John says his feet; Matthew and Mark, his head; probably both received the anointing). John adda, “ And wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.” The offering was: 1. Sudden. It was given ere any one could interfere. The breaking of the cruse may also have pointed to the quick, spontaneous impulse which prompted. The woman who had come forward so unexpectedly, at once retired again before the tumult and anger her act had occasioned. 2. Jt sprang fiom secret sources of reverence
oH, XIV. 1—72.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 261
wnd love. The disciples could not comprehend it. They were not consulted. It expressed her own feeling unshared with any other. 3. It was oblivious of cost. The price put upon it by the disciples—three hundred denarii—was about ten pounds of our money, but of greater actual value at that time. Mary belonged to a respectable family, and could probably afford the gift, although its purchase would tax her personal means. Of that she does not think. It is freely given, poured out without care or stint upon him for whom it had been designed.
II. THe oBITICISM TO WHICH IT EXPOSED. The disciples ‘‘had indignation among themselves.” It presently broke forth in reproaches and murmurs. The action was stigmatized as purposeless “ waste.” Another use it might have served, viz. the relief of the poor, was mentioned. This judgment was partly honest, partly knavish; wholly ignorant and wrong. “ What is not outwardly useful may be highly proper; ” and men ought to be very careful in pronouncing upon religious offerings. A higher platform of principle is often affected by those who are really less spiritual,
Ui. Curist’s vinpication. ‘‘ Why trouble ye her?” They had no business to interfere. 1. The act was commended. “A good [noble, beautiful] work.” He saw the inward character of it. In his sight alone was it justified. 2. Jt was defended as more opportune and urgent than almsgiving. “Ye have the poor always with you, . . - but me ye have not always, She hath done what she could: she hath anointed my body aforehand for the burying.” Many and mingled feelings prompted the offering—gratitude for the restoration of Lazarus, adoration of the character of Jesus, recognition of him as “ the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” as the Lord of life and death, etc.; but may not the foremost motive have been the reverent one which sought to do honour to One about todie? She who sat at the feet of Jesus divined his teaching more deeply than his professed followers. How are we to characterize this emotion which over- came her? It was deep, pure, unselfish, overwhelming. May it not fitly be termed “the impulse of the absolute”? It is the essence of religion. Thus the devout soul responds to the infinite sacrifice. Martyrs, apostles, missionaries, have felt its power. It obeyed a higher reason than the rudimentary religious experience of the apostles could compre- hend. When the “length, and breadth, and depth, and height” of the passion of Jesus sre perceived, no gift can fully express the sense of worship and obligation that arises. The highest sentiments of human nature are appealed to, and all the resources of our life are at his service, at the same time that we are profoundly conscious how far short they fall of his deserts or the claim he has upon us. It isa transaction, when it takes place, which others cannot judge; it is between the soul and its Lord.—M,
Vers. 4, 5.—The spirit that betrays. IL Sxurisuness. An exaggeration of the natural principle of self-love. Judas, as chief representative of this spirit, shows the virtues of his great vice, and naturally enough becomes keeper of the bag, containing the earthward dependence of the band. He looks at everything from this point of view. Already his thrift or prudence has degenerated into avarice, the more quickly owing to the grace which he resisted. The money value of the offering ia at once appraised, the spiritual worth being wholly discounted.