Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-10-02
(By William T. Ellis)

1t is almost uncanny the way this
Book, called the Bible, sheds a new
light on the latest problems of the
present time. Nowadays we have the
woman question perpleXing every
body, dividing thinkers into two
camps, and between them both the
cause of woman is made to suffer In
such a day as this the Sunday Schools
have allotted, for the study of mill
lions, a story which reveals wildly
the greatest gift and essential power
of woman.
In shining distinctness it is pointed
out that the chief qualification of
woman is her spiritual intuition. She
is endowed with the ability to perceive
the real values of life Her capacity
and loyalty in love are but variations
of her ability to penetrate to the core
of all things involving spiritual values.
In this sense of relative worth,
which transcends all arithmetic, for
y it is the divine mathematics OF love,
woman is lowered above man. BY
the exercise of her powers of spir-
itual intuition she is to attain her
highest service in the world.
IhS GNdSiihSS IiaL ANAAhNAOBNS 'Ae
World
This story is one of the sweetest
in the repertory of the common peo-
. pie. The scene is laid at a large
family dinner in the town of Bethany,
suburb OF Jerusalem, where Jesus
and His disciples were guests The
event OF the occasion, which alone
made the dinner noteworthy, was the
action Of Mary Of Bethany, sister of
Lazarus, who broke an alabaster Ves-
sci of pure nard-a superlatiVe per-
fume, worth a working mans wages
for a year-upon the feet and head
of the Master. who had restored her
4 brother TO life, and who had been
teacher and friend to her family.
This was the very extravaganza of
devotion. The guests gasped at the
royal offering which filed the house
Nwhere they sat. The amounting was
a consummate token of lavish loyalty
better understood in the per-
fume-loving Orient, than in our
western land. Yet the fragrance of
that offering has for nineteen hun
dred years been sweetening this old
earth of ours.
The thrifty, practical and un-
sentimental guests were scandalized
sfch extravaganza. They We're
ispleased that the Guest of Honor
hould countenance such waste, and
heir diSapproval of Mary became in
tantly clear to both her eyes and
her ears. Chief among these pru-
dent and protesting ones was that
3lleeper of the money bags, Judas
Iscariot, who thought always in
terms of lucre, and who straightway,
with appraising eye, began to esti-
mate the possible uses of the money
- presented by the gift. Outwardly
talked of giving it to the poor;
illy he wanted it in his own money
Lgs, where his avaricious fingers
buiG clutch it.
Poor Mary was shocked, embar-
lssed and hurt at the reception
lhich her act was accorded by the
ther guests. A sensitive, spiritual
personality, she quailed before this
hostile criticism. Her one thought
had been of. her Lord. She was of
those who do not weigh and calcu-
fate consequences. To her it was
clear that her Master was worthy
of her best; and that the highest use
OF any possession of hers was to en-
ploy ii in the service of love. She
! knew instantly-and wondered why
the truth was not plain to everybody
that when great loyalties call
nothing else matters.
a Gentleman to the Rescue
True Gentleman that He ever was,
Jesus came promptly to the rescue
of Mary, bewildered by the carping
criticisms of these small-souled dis
ciples. only for an instant was she
permitted to suffer embarrassment or
rebuke; then she became covered
with the embarrassment of eulogy.
Jesus not only received her offer
ing with gratituda-and nobody in