There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.  But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?  For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.  When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.  For ye have the poor always with you, but me ye have not always.  For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.  Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever 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.

Eight verses devoted to an alabaster box of ointment!  This is more space than was given to many incidents seemingly more important, and at the very crisis of His career, too.  But who will estimate the value of this narrative?

Judas complained that it was an inexcusable waste of money—­Judas, the thief, as Mark calls him, pretended concern about the poor.  The poor have received immeasurably more from the use made of this ointment than they would have received had it been sold and the proceeds distributed then.  It was an expression of love, and love is the treasury box from which the poor can always draw.  That box of ointment has spread its fragrance over nineteen hundred years.  Give a man bread and he hungers again; give him clothing and his clothing will wear out; but give him an ideal—­something to look up to through life—­and it will be with him through every waking hour lifting him to a higher plane and filling his life with the beauty and the bounty of service.  The money spent for a loaf of bread may stay the pangs of hunger for a few brief hours, but the same amount invested in the “bread of life” will give one an inexhaustible feast.  A drink of water refreshes for the moment; the same amount invested in the “water of life” may make of one a spring overflowing with blessings.

A Bible costs a few cents and yet upon it may be built a life that is worth millions to the human race.  It was a Bible that made William Ewart Gladstone for a generation the world’s greatest Christian statesman; it was a Bible that made Jose Rodrigues for a quarter of a century the greatest moral force in Brazil.  The Bible has given us great leaders in the United States.  It is the Bible that has sent missionaries throughout the world to plant in little communities everywhere the teachings of the greatest of sentimentalists—­and, at the same time, the most practical of philosophers.  Christ has taught us the true value of those things which touch the heart and, through the heart, move the world.