23. Christ died once, and was buried once, nevertheless He daily desires that ointment should be poured upon His feet. Now what are these feet of Christ whereon we pour ointment? The feet of Christ are they of whom He saith Himself, _Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me_. These feet that woman in the Gospel tends[208], and washes with her tears, when the lowest have their sins remitted, their faults washed away, their pardon granted. These feet he kisses who loves even the lowest of the holy congregation. These feet he anoints with ointment, who imparts even to the weaker brethren the graces of His meekness. In these the martyrs, in these the Apostles, in these the Lord Jesus Himself declares that He is honoured. Sidenote: Micah vi. 3, 4. Sidenote: Ib. 5. and Num. xxiii. 2. Sidenote: Exod. xiv. 29. Sidenote: Ib. xvi. 4. Sidenote: Num. xiii. 24. Sidenote: Ib. xxi. 24. Sidenote: Joshua viii. 23. Sidenote: Ib. 29. Sidenote: Josh. x. 26. Sidenote: Micah vi. 8. 24. Thou seest what instruction the Lord imparts, how by His example He stimulates thee to devotion; for He instructs by His censure. And He thus accuses the Jews, _O My people, what have I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against Me. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants_; adding, _and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Remember what Balak_ devised against thee, he, that is, who sought the aid of enchantments, but I suffered him not to hurt thee. Truly thou wert oppressed while sojourning in foreign lands, thou wert laden with heavy burthens: I sent Moses Aaron and Miriam before thy face, and he who had spoiled the strangers was himself despoiled. Thou, who hadst lost thine own goods gainedst others, thou wert delivered from the enemies that surrounded thee, and in the midst of the waters thou sawest in safety the death of thine enemies, for the same wave which had separated and carried thee forward flowed back again and drowned the Egyptians. When thou wert in want of food while journeying through the wilderness, did I not _rain bread from heaven_ for thee, and scatter food around thee, whereon thou wentest? Did I not subdue all thy enemies and bring thee into the region of the cluster of grapes? Did I not deliver up to thee Sihon (which means ‘proud’) king of the Amorites (that is, chief of them that provoked thee); did I not also deliver to thee alive the king of Ai, whom, subject to the sentence of the ancient curse, thou nailedst to the wood and hangedst upon a tree? What shall I say of the slaughter of the hosts of the five kings, who strove to exclude thee from the promised land? _And what doth the Lord require of thee, o man_, for all these things, _but to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?_ Sidenote: 2 Sam. xii. 7.