our eyes; and if in addition to this, we could recall our own feelings also, and remember how often we were on the point of following Him, and doubted, and wavered, and postponed the good resolution, until its freshness had passed away; and how we then gradually became more cold and indifferent until spiritual signs and warnings ceased to influence us as they once had done;-it may be, I say, if such a history were set before us, we should find in it only too clear and faithful an image of the same inconsistency which excites our wonder in the children of Israel.

Since, then, there may haply be this resemblance, let us, in conclusion, apply to ourselves at the present season the warning our Saviour addressed to them, “The poor ye have always with you, but Me ye have not always." Of course, in their exact and literal meaning, there is no period at which these words will apply directly to ourselves. The event to

which they refer is already past. Our Lord will be always with His Church, in the way in which He is with it now. We may indeed leave Him, but on His part there will be no more change. He will never leave us as He did His disciples when He went away from them for a little while to hide Himself in the grave. If we look for Him He is always with us: with us in His house of prayer; with us in His word and sacraments; nay, with us also in the daily walk of life. For whatever be our rank and station, we have the poor and destitute around us, and so long as they are always with us, our Saviour is with us also.

But though Christ is thus always and everywhere present in His Church, still there are times at which we, in a special manner, feel His nearness to us; and under this view we may apply the warning given at Bethany to the anniversary of His passion. He will not be always with us as He has been during the forty days that are

now drawing to a close; still less shall we be able at all times to realize His presence as we can in the solemn services by which we commemorate His sufferings and death. This at least is a season in which we may set aside our usual cares, relinquish our usual pleasures, and interrupt our usual business; because they are always with us, and, whensoever we will, we may resume them but the week of our Lord's passion is not always. It is a season in which, if we have hitherto been wavering, we receive a new call to follow Christ; and if we have long since been among the number of His disciples, it is a season for making efforts of greater zeal, and devoting ourselves more entirely to His service.

Lastly, let us remember that those who heard the warning at Bethany could not have imagined its accomplishment to be near at hand; even Mary herself was in all probability ignorant of the purport of her own action: she obeyed the stirrings

of the Spirit within her, but it does not follow that she was aware of the nature of the service which she had performed. And the other disciples complained of the profusion of her gift; they did not know that she had "come aforehand to anoint for the burying"" the body of Christ; they did not know that it was the last occasion on which that solemn office could be performed. On the following Sunday other spices and ointments had been prepared, but it was too late to offer them then. During the brief interval our Lord had died, and been buried, and broken the bonds of death. His earthly ministry was at an end to those who yet wavered in their choice, no less than to those who had availed themselves of it, and to those who had rejected it, it had for ever passed away. It is a solemn thought that a change so great and fearful should have

1 Mark xiv. 8.

5 Luke xxiv. 1.

come thus unexpectedly upon them; yet our last Passion Week may come as unexpectedly upon us; and if it leave us with our purpose yet wavering, it must undoubtedly bring with it a greater and more fearful change. Let us then, like Mary, while we have yet time, do what we can in the service of Christ. Let us render unto Him with no grudging hand of our riches, our talents, and our prayers. Do not let us venture so to worship Him as those who may supply on the morrow the deficiencies of the day; the present week, nay rather the present hour, is all that we can really call our own. "Yet a little while the light is with us. And we must walk while we have yet the light, lest darkness come on us." It is true indeed (praised be God!) that death itself need no longer separate us from Christ. But it is in this life only that we can make choice of His service; those opportunities of working out our salvation will not be always with us, which are with us now.