of your sins. Remember what earnest applications you made to your Savior, and what kind answers, in due time, you received. Remember what comfort you felt, when you could call him your Savior and friend, and could appropriate the evidences and tokens of his love. Remember your former zeal for his service, and your professed dedication to him. Has your zeal languished, and your love waxed cold? Remember, how you have received and heard-how you have resolved aud promised; and hold fast and repent. If sinners treat with indifference the calls and invitations of the Savior; yet who would expect this from you? Did you not promise, that you would be holiness to the Lord, and that all your works, like the first fruits, should be consecrated to him? What iniquity have ye found in him, that you should depart from him and walk after vanity? I beseech you by the mercies of Christ, by your own experience of his mercies, and by the promises, which you have made, that you present yourselves living sacrifices holy and acceptable which is your reasonable service.

Now the Lord establish hearts unblameable in holiness before God, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

SERMON XIV.

Avarice and Dishonesty covered with the Pretext of Prudence and Charity.

MATTHEW xxvi. 8.

To what purpose is this waste?

A SERIOUS question, one would at first suppose, importing a prudent concern, lest the bounties of heaven be misapplied or thrown away. And certainly the blessings, which God bestows, ought to be received with thankfulness, and used with discretion. In the present case, however, the complaint was without foundation: It proceeded wholly from dishonesty and avarice; not from benevolence and gratitude. The occasion of it was a costly offering which a godly woman made in honor of the Savior.

As Jesus was sitting at table in the house of a friend, named Simon, there came a woman with a box of precious ointment, which she poured on Jesus' head, in testimony of her esteem of him, love to him, and faith in him. There were others at the table; but him she distinguished from all the rest by this peculiar token of regard. If the disciples right

ly calculated the value of the ointment, when they said, "It might have been sold for three hundred pence," it was certainly a precious offering; for three hundred Roman pence were in value equal to about ten pounds sterling. Precious as it was, Jesus, whose frugality never suffered the fragments of a meal to be lost, did not consider this as a waste of property; for he justified the woman's conduct against those who complained of it: " Why trouble ye the woman? She hath wrought a good work upon

me."

In the eastern countries it was a custom for a people, at entertainments, to pour fragrant oils on such guests as they designed to honor. To this usage there is an allusion in the fortyfifth Psalm; "God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows:" And in the twentythird Psalm; "Thou preparest my table, thou anointest my head with oil, my_cup runneth over.”

By pouring this ointment on Jesus, the woman expressed her sense of his high dignity, as the Son of God, the promised Redeemer, who was anointed to preach the gospel to the poor, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and to set at liberty them who are bound.” Honor paid to this Savior is here called "a good work."

Neither institution, nor custom requires of us the particular offering made by this woman. And as Christ is no longer on earth, we cannot directly address him with the ceremony which she used. There are other ways, however, in which we may honor him with as much significance, and to as good acceptance, as she did. Our profession of his gospel, obedience to his precepts, imitation of his virtues, zeal in his cause, support of his worship, attendance on his ordinances, liberality to his friends,

forgiveness of enemies, and peaceableness toward all men, will be like ointment and perfume to rejoice his heart. The savor of our graces and good' works will be more precious to him than ointment poured forth.

When the woman poured the rich oil on Christ's head," the disciples, seeing what was done, had · indignation." Mark says, "There were some who had indignation." John mentions only Judas as complaining of the waste. Judas probably was the first, who objected, and his brethren, some or all of them, soon fell in with him. Judas was a plausible creature, and by his art and address he had gained great influence among the disciples. His duplicity he covered with such a fair outside, that they all were carried away with his dissimulation. They trusted him with the stewardship of the family, and probably thought it unnecessary to reckon with him. They had full confidence of his virtue and fidelity. When Christ warned them that there was a traitor among them, none suspected Judas, each sooner suspected himself.

On the present occasion, his influence was suffi cient to raise among his brethren a clamor against a good woman for the honor which she paid to the Savior.

There are many, besides this hypocritical disciple, who deem every thing wasted and lost, which is applied to the honor of Christ's name, and laid out in the support of his religion. It is in the Christian, as it was in the prophetic age; there are some who say, "When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn; and the sabbath that we may set forth wheat?" They call the worship of God contemptible, and they say, "What a weariness is it ?" They withhold the offerings of God's house, or bring the torn and the lame for sacrifice. They

either forsake the assembling of themselves together, or draw nigh to God with their mouth, and honor him with their lips, when their heart is far from him. What are these better than the disciple, who pronounced it a waste to honor Christ with sweet ointment?

But the man, it seems, had thought of a better way to dispose of the ointment. "It might have been sold for much, and given to the poor." A very plausible suggestion. The poor, besure, ought to be kindly remembered. What is bestowed on them in Christ's name, he accepts as given to himself. Beneficence to them he has injoined by his precepts, and recommended by his example. When he said to Judas, in reference to his intended treachery, "What thou dost, do quickly," the other disciples supposed, that he commanded Judas to buy something for the passover, or give something to the poor. It hence appears, that Christ often gave alms, and that Judas was usually his almoner. Our Lord, though he supplied not his own wants by miracles, yet sometimes wrought miracles to feed the hungry. The disciples, therefore, would naturally suppose, that alms given to the poor was property well bestowed. Now when Judas insinuated, that it had been better to sell this ointment for the benefit of the poor, than to waste it on Christ's head, no wonder if some of his honest brethren were deceived by the argument,

The truth is, the poor are intitled to our attention; and so is the honor of Christ's religion. Each is to have its place, and neither of them to exclude the other. Christ condemns the pharisees, because, when they tythed mint, anise and cummin, they neglected justice, mercy and the love of God, "These," says he, "ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."