Matthew 26:6-13 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,… The general verdict will be, "It is very romantic — very sentimental, and quite unnecessary." The world likes a dead level of mediocrity in the things of God. Its perpetual cry is, "Now, do be moderate!" There are not a few who would like the religious experience of the Church to be something like Norfolk scenery. When I was preaching there some time back a farmer went out with me for a walk, and just as I was inwardly thinking that it was about the most deplorable bit of country I had ever seen — as fiat as a billiard table with here and. there a ditch, he suddenly stopped, and said, "Now, sir, this is what I call a really fine view." I looked at him with astonishment; but with all simplicity he said, "I call this really a fine view; for whichever way you look there is nothing to break it. Now in Kent and many other counties wherever you look there is some big hill or tree that stops the view, but here there is nothing." This is the idea of Christian beauty which many entertain. Its charm lies in there being nothing to attract attention. In fact it has become quite a compliment now to say, "Oh, so-and-so is a fine man. He never forgets himself." The man who never forgets himself is not worthy of the name of man. A man who never forgets himself is, to say the least, a miserably selfish mortal. What Christ asks at your hands and. mine is — not a love which only sometimes makes me forget myself, but a love which will put self out of court entirely — a love which will raise me out of myself — a love which, in other words, will be superior to all calculation as to consequences. It was so with Mary. She had spent all her little earnings upon her gift. (A. G. Brown.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,WEB: Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, |
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