us! Are we willing to give our Lord the best of what
we have--to consecrate time, talents, strength, life, to His service?
Not as many, to give Him the mere dregs and sweepings of existence--the
wrecks of a "worn and withered love"--but, like Mary, anxious to take
every opportunity and occasion of testifying the depth of obligation
under which we are laid to Him? Let us not say--"My sphere is lowly, my
means are limited, my best offerings would be inadequate." Such,
doubtless, were the very feelings of that humble, diffident, yet loving
one, as she crept noiselessly to where her pilgrim-Lord reclined, and
lavished on His weary limbs the costliest treasure she possessed.
Hundreds of more imposing deeds--more princely and munificent
offerings--may have been left unrecorded by the Evangelists; but
"wherever this Gospel shall be preached, in the whole world, there shall
also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her."[24]

Would that love to "that same Jesus" were with all of us more paramount
than it is! "Lovest thou Me _more than these_" is His own searching test
and requirement. Is it so?--Do we love Him more than self or sin--more
than friends or home--more than any earthly object or earthly good; and
are we willing, if need be, to make a sacrifice for His glory and for
the honour of His cause? Happy for us if it be so. There will be a joy
in the very consciousness of making the effort, feeble and unworthy as
it may be, for His sake, and in acknowledgment of the great love
wherewith He hath loved us.

"Thrice blest, whose lives are faithful prayers,
Whose loves in higher Love endure;
Whose souls possess themselves so pure,
Or is there blessedness like theirs?"

Let it be our privilege and delight to give Him our pound of spikenard,
whatever that may be; and if we can give no other, let us offer the
fragrant perfume of holy hearts and holy lives. _That_ religion is
always best which reveals itself by its effects--by kindness,
gentleness, amiability, unselfishness, flowing from a principle of
grateful love to Him who, though unseen, has been to us as to the family
of Bethany--Friend, and Help, and Guide, and Portion. Mary's honour was
great to anoint her Lord, but the lowliest and humblest of His people
may do the same. We may have no aromatic offering, neither "gold, nor
frankincense, nor myrrh;" but My son, My daughter, "give Me thine
heart." "The sacrifices of God are a bro