The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-10-26
THE AMOUNTING
OF JESUS
Sunday School Lesson for Oct. 80, 1910
Specially Arranged for This Paper

Golden Text-"she hath done what she
could. MARK 14:S.
Time-Saturday, April l. A. D. 50, the
day before the Triumphal Procession.
Place-House of Simon the leper. at
Bethany, on the Mount Of Olives.
The place Of the supper was Beth
any, in the house Of Simon the leper,
We have met this family twice before
this in their home. One picture OF
them Is presented to us in Luke 10:
38-42. Here we see Martha busily
preparing the meal for Jesus enter
tainment; a busy and anxious house
keeper. This was In the autumn pre-
vious to the present occasion.
The second picture Is presented to
us by John I'll: 20-44). Since the first
picture their brother Lazarus had
died, and been restored by Jesus; and
although Martha is even more busy
than before, yet she is restful and
peaceful In her work. She Is not
numbered with her business, nor an
cry with Mary, nor casting reflections
on Jesus. She has learned something
in the day of sorrow and darkness,
She has not lost any Of her power to
serve, but the manner of her service
has been transformed. Thus the two
sisters each gained something of the
virtues of the other.
At the present feast Mary and Mar
tina were each serving in the way
natural to them. Lazarus sat at the
table as a guest with Jesus in whose
honor the feast was given. Simon was
at the head of the table. AS was Gus.
tomary in the Orient the villagers
were attracted to look upon the scene,
and see the distinguished guests.
1t is a great blessing to have such
a home as is presented to us at Beth.
any, as a living picture to be held up
before all the homes in the world,
where Jesus takes little children in
his arms and blesses them. The star
of Bethlehem for morals and religion,
for the millennium, stands over the
home where Jesus is.
There came unto him a woman. This
woman was Mary, the sister of Mar
tina and Lazarus. Having an alabaster
box, rather, "A cruise or flask. OF very
precious ointment, a liquid perfume,
more like an oil, as oil Of roses, than
the thicker compositions We commonly
know as ointment. 1t was so strong
that it filled the whole house with It's
odor. Very precious. Horace offers
to give a cask Of wine for a very small
box OF it. Compare the altar Of roses,
made at Ghazipoor in Hindustan, and
which requires 100000 full-grown
roses to produce one ounce, and which
sells when pure, in the English ware
houses, as high as 800 an ounce, OF
$1,000 for as much as Mary's pound
Of Spikenard.
Amounting the head of a rabbi al
such feasts was not an unusual honor;
but amounting the feet was unusual,
and expressed the tenderest, must
humble, most r~everential, unutterable
affection. Mary not only anointed
Jesus, but she took "woman's chief
ornament" and devoted 1t to wiping
the travel-stained feet of her teacher.
She devoted the best she had to even
the least honorable service for him.
John says that "the house was filled
with the odor," as indeed the church
and the world have been filled with
the odor Of this loving deed.
When his disciples saw 1t, they had
indignation. John tells us that Judas
Iscariot was the leader and the
mouthpiece of the indignation against
Mary. The plausible arguments Of a
positive man, wearing a mask Of vir,
tue, and speaking in behalf Of some
Of the very principles their Master had
enforced, had brought some Of the
disciples into more or less sympathy
with his feeling Of indignation. 1t
Is easy to see how it might seem q
useless waste, as some now imagine
that the money spent upon great
churches, and on foreign missions,
might better be given to the poor.
She hath wrought a good work upon
me. The Greek adjective implies
something more than good" a noble,
an honorable work. "The spirit which
offers precious things, simply because
they are precious, . . . is a good
and just feeling, and as well-pleas'
ing to God and honorable to men,
as it Is beyond all dispute necessary
to the production of any great work in
the kind with which we are at present
concerned" "Costliness is an external
sign of love and obedience" 1T is not
the. church we want, but the sacrifice;
not the emotion of admiration, but
the act of alteration; not the gift, but
the giving"
The act was even better than her
thought. 1t. was her last tribute OF
affection. Jesus was at a crisis OF
his life when 1t was of the. utmost
value to him to know that he had won
a place in a human heart"
This story has been told in every
known tongue, and is now being re
lated in more than four hundred DIFF
ferent languages to every great nation
on the earth. No monuments, not
ever the pyramids, are as enduring
Mary Is still + uring out the precious
nard in an endless living stream, the
fragrance thereof still is filling human
hearts and lives all over the world
lilo Ahe1 "hpinp dead chn vat cDnak