July 21

Shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints. — IIES. vi. 10.

For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. — MATT. xxvi. 11.

"THE poor shall never cease out of the land." Opportunities to relieve the needy will never be wanting: but the opportunity to anoint Christ for his burial came but once in the history of the world. A few days later he was to be nailed to the cross. The Christ as we have him on that day in the house of Simon, under the shadow of Calvary, will never in this way come precisely over this same path of sorrow again. As he there is, he will not always be with them. This sort of anointing was possible only then. It was Mary's great opportunity, and with what an enthusiasm of self-forgetting zeal did she seize upon and improve it! The poorest offerings of love, of grateful love, are well pleasing to our Saviour. With our bodies no less than with our spirits, with our mite no less than with our millions we can acceptably glorify him.

We belong to Christ. This is our only comfort, living and dying. Ourselves we must consecrate to him as a living sacrifice. But do not fail to break the alabaster box, else the sweet-scented spikenard will not anoint his body, nor its pleasant fragrance fill his house.

B. B. Bowman

In them thou mayst be clothed and fed,

And visited and cheered,

And in their accents of distress,

Our Saviour's voice is heard.

PHILIP DODDRIDGE.