Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1905-11-16
Calnnase
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee, D. d.

the incident Of the broken nlabnster
box the preacher In this sermon draws
lessons Of the gratitude which men
should feel for the self sacrifice Of
mothers. sisters aud wives. Tho text Is
Mark xiv, 6, "Shc hath done whit she
could"
Some people are like the Dead sea
Submergng the "cties Of the plain"
They have no outlets. They would
make all the streams Of the surround
Ing hllsides tributaries TO their rcser-
'Sors. They would gather into their
depths the waters from the fountains
beneath and from the showers over
head But, though they take in every
thing they can, they never have any
out6owlngs. They would never give
anything to anybody else unless they
were compelled so to do. Their hands
are like steel traps. They keep the
palms open only as long as they have
nothing on them. But as soon as any
thing touches their skin their open
palms ny shut and every finger be-
comes wise and every muscle as rig
id as q band of steel Their doctrine is,
"What is yours ought to be mine and
what 10 mine Is my own" Truly they
hang on to everything they can. Their
Appetites are Omnivorous. But, like
sgreat stagnant pools. they become
Aetenchful through their immobility
Nheir love Of other people is completely
circumscribed by their love of self
Eelf1sh love has even more con-
<smpuble characteristic than u nero
brutal love for self As Il rule selfish
men consider it n personal reflection on
themselves If other people are not just
as mean and selfish as they are When
any one makes a sacrifice for another
they give themselves to fault finding,
Hre always complaining and always
trying to deprecate the good which
that person hns tried to do II n man
Hike Andrew Carnegie endows Il libra
~ they raise protesting voice and
,Cry, saying: What IS the good Of Civ
ing n pile Of books to n lot of work
men who never read? Why does he
not give them n loaf Of bread instead
of printed page?" If phianthro-
Pst offers to give loaf Of bread every
smidnight TO every person who comes
for II they say What is the good of
feeding lot of dirty tramps and dead
beats? These men ought to be made
to work as l have to work." Thus
wherever We turn we find some men,
and, alas. they are many, with these
two miserable characteristics. They
srefuse to do anything for any one else,
and they find fault with all those who
are trying to do what these selfish men
ought to do.
Some Of these carping, selfish, fault
finding critics were in the home Of 81
mon the leper in the time OF Christ. as
they are In the homes of our modern
Bethanys. They never give cent to
any one II they can help it. and they
hate to see any one else give away
cent. Thus when the woman Of my
text. to show her love for Christ. en-
Tered the dining hall and broke an
alabaster box and poured the oint-
ment Of spikenard very precious upon
Christ's head they commenced to COM
plain. Absurd, absurd" they cried
'p'That ointment could have been sold
For 800 pence and given to the poor
why all this waste?" Then said Jesus
LET her alone. She hath wrought u
good work on me, for ye have the poor
with you always, and whatsoever ye
will ye may do them good, but me ye
have not always" Then Christ utter
I'd the words Of my text. "She hath
done what she could" That means to
the very best Of her power she had
hor t,.,,a fov hvtc
A Noble Sacrifice.
Genuine and significant must have
been the act of this woman OF my text
no have brought forth such an encomi-
um from the SaviOur's lips. But is
Jesus the only being who has had
woman break over his head an ala
baster box Of ointment of spikenard
very precious? Have not some Of us
been surrounded in our babyhood. in
our boyhood. in our young manhood,
on our middle age and old age, by Just
such noble self sacrificing women who
have for us literally done what they
could? yes. Yes most Of us can
answer, I'VE have. We have"
would like to call to recollection some
- WI OpH6o''Vh~, sOilS Va tiIC ScI NIttN
shat we have, received from devoted
women. who would have laid down
their lives II it had been necessary for
our welfare. They literally did all
they could to bring us to our truest
and fullest mental and physical and
spiritual development.
Where shall we begin to find these
female characters who have broken
for us their alabaster box of ointment
OF spikenard very precious: Naturally
I'VE start with that sweet face that
lowered about our cradle. When we
60 back to the dim recollections of
childhood we remember that mother as
always busy. She was either cleaning
the parlors, or making the beds. or 90
ing out to market, or busy with her
needle at big basket filled with the
weeks clean washing. We never re-
member her asleep unless she was sick
In bed under the doctors care or m
less we crawled under her covers In
the early morning when we awoke
frightened from dreaming bad dreams.
She was always busy.
Turn over the portraits in the family
album. There" You say, lis my first
picture. Mother told ME it was taken
Must short time after l was chris