South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-10-03
SEVEN MINUTE SERMON
ON THE GOLDEN TEXT
BY OUR OWN PREACHER

ial. Mark Hill.
Golden Text: She hath done what
she could. Mark 14:S.
y LOVE OFFERING FOR JESUS.
!. our best gifts should be given
TO Jesus. our lesson story is a very
beautiful picture OF love manifested
towards Jesus. and although the love
offering poured upon his head was
most expensive it was a beautiful way.
I IN that day, for this woman TO mani
fest her love TO the Saviour who had
/ done SO much for her Judas objected
| because 50 much money was spent
upon the precious ointment which
Mary poured on Jesus head saying
1t could have been given TO the poor
and other Judases, from then till now
nave made similar objections when
money had been spent simply as a love
OIIering for Jesus. As a matter of
tact money spent with the sole pur-
pose of expressing our love to Jesus
is paying investment. Valuable as
material things are spiritual senti-
ment IS more valuable and no gift
is too precious to express our love TO
Jesus Christ who has done so much
for us. While love offerings rejoice
the heart of the worlds redeemer they
also stir up the best sentiment in
human hearts and strike notes of
gladness on the harp Of a thousand
strings which cannot be produced in
any other way. Mary's example there
fore, all through the centuries, has
been productive of the noblest form
of Christian giving and has been the
creator of sterling Christian char
acter. Money spent to build churches,
TO pay faithful ministers. or invested
in forms of praise TO Jesus Christ, is
well placed and increases the sum
total of human happiness better than
money spent in any other way.
.. Jesus Is well pleased when we
manifest our love for him. We judge
of the pleasure which Jesus derived
from Mary's love Offering, not only
by what he said. but by our own ex-
perience under similar circumstances.
When our loved ones remember us
with precious tokens of love Il stirs
our hearts with the sweetest kind of
pleasure. When on our birthdays, or
wedding days, or Christmas days, or
Easter Sundays or any other ami
versary our friends send us tokens
of love and esteem. the experience
derived is very blessed. Gifts of
money from parents, To the children,
merely as a matter Of inheritance, do
not begin to stir the same holy feel
ingS of thankfulneSS as do purely love
offerings II is not the intrinsic value
OF a gift that gives most pleasure. but
the sentiment back of the gift. Any
gift therefore, which suggests the
kindly feelings of the giVeT is a preci-
Gus possession. This is one way by
which we may know that Jesus is
well pleased when we make an offer
ing with no other object but TO please
him. But besides this when Judas,
and some of the other disciples OBJ
jected 10 Marys costly present Jesus
let them know that the gift was well
pleasing to him.
3. Money spent in love offerings is
well spent There is nothing in the
world like love. Love makes the
world so round" love is the fulfilling
of the law" love is light, love is the
chief bond between man and man and
between man and his creator The
love of parents for children, and chill
dren for their parents, is the sweetest
as well as the most potent bond in
the family. In like manner a church
whose members are animated with
love one for another. and who take
pains 10 manifest this love, make ii
the chief institution on earth for pro-
noting human happiness. The insti-
tuition called a church where the
sweet perfume of the oil of love is
not constantly burning upon its affairs,
is not a Christian church. whatever
else it may be The very heart of
christianity is love. Christ said that
we should even love our enemies in
almost the same breath in which he
said we should love our neighbors as
we love ourselves. He said over and
over again, that our whole duty was
summed up in manifested love for
God and for our neighbOrs. Hence
money spent with no other object than
promoting love one another is well
spent.
4. Feeding hungry hearts is as es-
sential as feeding hungry bodies. We
cannot say too much about clothing
the naked and feeding the hungry, we
cannot be too much interested in the
physical. social, and material welfare
of our fellow men, but there are a
large number Of people who draw the
line at ministering to physical needs.
and by SO doing they miss the best
methods for increasing the happiness
of men, women, and children. To
feed hungry hearts is even a greater
achievement than to feed hungry
mouths. great as that work is. We
are apt to overlook that by far the
greatest factor in increasing human
happiness is in ministering 20 human
sentiment. 1t is true that our environ
ment has much to do with making