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 José 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.
"Suffer little children to come unto me;" Christ used the child to
admonish those older grown. The Church is following in His footsteps
when it makes the child the subject of constant thought and solicitude.
It is when we deal with the child that we get the clearest conception of
the superiority of faith over reason. The foundations of character are
laid in faith and not in reason; they are laid before the reason can be
accepted as a guide. No one who exalts reason above faith can lead a
child to God, but a child can understand the love of the Saviour and the
tender care of the Heavenly Father. For this reason the Sunday school
increases in importance. Its lessons build character; its songs echo
throughout our lives.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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