sional, exceptional tribute she had paid Him; it was solitary,
never to be repeated. Against my burial she has kept this unguent; for
me ye have not always. Would you blame Mary for spending this, were I
lying in my tomb? Would you call it too costly a tribute, were it the
last? Well, it is the last.[3] Such is our Lord's justification of her
action. Was Mary herself conscious that this was a parting tribute? It
is possible that her love and womanly instinct had revealed to her the
nearness of that death of which Jesus Himself so often spoke, but which
the disciples refused to think of. She may have felt that this was the
last time she would have an opportunity of expressing her devotion.
Drawn to Him with unutterable tenderness, with admiration, gratitude,
anxiety mingling in her heart, she hastens to spend upon Him her
costliest. Passing away from _her_ world she knows He is; buried so far
as she was concerned she knew Him to be if He was to keep the Passover
at Jerusalem in the midst of His enemies. Had the others felt with her,
none could have grudged her the last consolation of this utterance of
her love, or have grudged Him the consolation of receiving it. For this
made Him strong to die, this among other motives--the knowledge that His
love and sacrifice were not in vain, that He had won human hearts, and
that in their affection He would survive. This is His true embalming.
This it is that forbids that His flesh see corruption, that His earthly
manifestation die out and be forgotten. To die before He had attached to
Himself friends as passionate in their devotion as Mary would have been
premature. The recollection of His work might have been lost. But when
He had won men like John and women like Mary, He could die assured that
His name would never be lost from earth. The breaking of the alabaster
box, the pouring out of Mary's soul in adoration of her Lord--this was
the signal that all was ripe for His departure, this the proof that His
manifestation had done its work. The love of His own had come to
maturity and burst thus into flower. Jesus therefore recognises in this
act His true embalming.

And it is probably from this point of view that we may most readily see
the appropriateness of that singular commendation and promise which our
Lord, according to the other gospels, added: "Verily I say unto you,
wherever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this
also that she hath done shall be spoken