2021 Memorial Day w/Real Southern Woman
Channel: REAL SOUTHERN WOMAN, COLLARD VALLEY COOK
Date: 2021-05-31

An email contact for towel boa: Sandy at:  sandynuzzo@ gmail.com 
A Sermon on Nov 27th in 1850 by Charles Haddon Spurgeon 
A Woman's Memorial 
"Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her."—Matthew 26:13 

These readings were pulled out of the sermon referenced above and we are studying his first point of 3. 

     I. First, then, my friends, LET US OBSERVE THE WOMAN HERSELF. 

     And now my prayer is that we may be endued this morning with the same spirit as that which prompted the woman, when she broke her alabaster box upon the head of Christ. There must be something wonderful about this story, or else Christ would not have linked it with his gospel, for so hath he done. So long as this gospel lives shall this story of the woman be told; and when this story of the woman ceases to exist, then the gospel must cease to exist also, for they are co-eternal. As long as this gospel is preached, and wherever it is proclaimed, the story of this woman is to go with it. Our Lord's prediction goes on to be verified, while the memorial of this woman fills the church with its fragrance. There must be something, therefore, remarkable in it: let us pause, and look, and learn, and God give us grace to imitate. 

     I shall want you first attentively to observe the woman; secondly, I shall invite you to look into the face of her loving Lord, and to listen to what he says about her; and then I shall close with an earnest suggestion that each one of us look to himself, for surely this is meant for our profit, and is not of any private interpretation. 

I. First, then, my friends, LET US OBSERVE THE WOMAN HERSELF. 

I think, in the first place, this act was done from the impulse of a loving heart, and this is what made it so remarkable. How unlike this woman, who went out of all order, because her heart told her to do so, and she obeyed from her heart. This, I think, is the first part of the woman's act that won a deserved recognition. 

The second recognition is—what this woman did was done purely to Christ, and for Christ. Why did she not take this costly perfumed ointment, and sell it, and give the money to the poor? You will do your acts in religion far better if you can always cultivate the desire to do them all for Christ. 

There is yet a third thing. This woman did an extraordinary thing for Christ. Not content with doing what other people had done, nor wishful to find a prior example, she ventured to expose her passionate attachment though she might have known that some would call her mad, and all would think her foolish and wasteful, yet she did it—an extraordinary thing—for the love she bear her Lord. 

If we did but hear our hearts, and heed the promptings of the Spirit within, there might be fifty schemes for the promotion of the cause of Christ started in as many days, and all those fifty, through the Holy Spirit's blessing might be useful to the souls of men. 

I wish all of us were ready to do some extraordinary thing for Christ—willing to be laughed at, to be called fanatics, to be hooted and scandalized because we went out of the common way and were not content with doing what everybody else could do or approve to be done. 

And here let me remark, that Jesus Christ certainly deserves to be served after an extraordinary manner. Were there ever a people that had such a leader or such a lover as we have in the person of Christ? 

Ah! if we did but think of his glory, and of what he deserves—if we did but think of his sufferings, and of what he merits at our hands, surely, we should do something out of the common; we should break our alabaster box and pour the pound of ointment on his head again. 

I have but one more reason to add. It seems to me that Jesus praised this woman, and handed down this memorial, because her act was so beautifully expressive. There was more virtue in it than you could see. 

Not only admiration for her, but kindness to us, moved our Lord, when he resolved henceforth to illustrate the gospel, wherever it is published, with this portrait of saintly love, in one instant breaking the delicate vase, and bursting the tender heart. Why, that woman meant to say to Christ, "Dear Lord, I give myself away." She went home; she brought out the most precious thing she had; if she had had anything worth ten thousand times as much she would have brought that; in fact, she did really bring him all.  

Edited by Tammy Nichols for easy reading on 05.31.21