In this act of love done for Jesus she has erected to herself a monument as lasting as the Gospel, for the Master declared, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall this also, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.” Mary had loved wiser than she knew, but then it is just like Jesus to pay back into our hands a hundredfold more than the most liberal of us ever bestowed upon Him. The sweet story of that beautiful act of the breaking of the alabaster box will be told as long as there is a Gospel to be preached or a soul to be saved. The wonder of wonders is, that in this world of sin and suffering there are not more Marys to break alabaster boxes over the world’s burdened laborers. We now pass to notice another beautiful womanly character in White Raiment, namely, Salome. Her name means “peaceful,” and, though she developed considerable womanly ambition, her name quite describes her character. She was the wife of Zebedee, a well-to-do fisherman on the Sea of Galilee, and the mother of James and John, two of our Lord’s best loved disciples; two who, with Simon Peter, one of their business partners, constituted the inner apostolic circle. She had not only given two sons to the ministry, but she herself accompanied Jesus in His Galilean ministry, and, with others, ministered of her substance in meeting the expenses of His journeys. She must, therefore, not only have been a woman of means, but liberal in her use of it. No doubt she was a quiet, home-loving body; but she liked so well to listen to those sayings of our Lord that she was glad to leave her pleasant, comfortable Bethsaida house beside the beautiful “blue sea of the hills,” to go about hither and thither with her sons and drink in the wonderful words of Christ. Salome is best remembered as coming to our Lord, on His last memorable journey to Jerusalem, with the strange request that her two sons might sit, the one on the right hand of Jesus and the other on the left, in His kingdom. Just as in the Sanhedrin, on each side of the high priest there sat the next highest dignitaries, so here she requested the two highest places for James and John. However, perhaps, this was not a selfish ambition, since the request is made for others. Some one has said, “Plan great things for God, and expect great things from God,” and an apostle has said, “Covet earnestly the best gifts.” O, these mothers, when there are seats of honor to be given out can not only “covet,” but “earnestly” ask for great things for their sons.