And wherever a tear had fallen down, And jewels befitting a monarch's crown A.D. 30. MOUNT OF THE A VISION OF THE FUTURE.-A German writer represents a good man as coming, after his death, to the gates of heaven, and welcomed to its glories. An angel was commissioned to be his conductor and teacher. First he took him to a point where he could see the most fearful representation of sin when it had brought forth death. It was a fearful place peopled with everything hateful, loathsome, and wretched. His guide bade him look still farther down the dismal vault, and farther still, where were objects more anguished, and loathsome, and haggard with wasting woe. He bade him concentrate his vision on an object more hideous aud disgusting than he ever could have imagined. "That," said his conductor, "in the ages of eternity would have been you, had you not repented and believed. Behold the woe and degradation from which you have been saved by the compassion of your Saviour!" His guide then took him to a point from which could be seen the glories of the redeemed. He saw the highest ranks of angels, he heard their songs and hallelujahs, and was ravished. He was directed to look far beyond all these, and there he beheld an object more beautiful than the highest saint who had been longest in heaven, more blissful than seraph or archangel. He heard music ineffably more sweet than any which flowed from the harps of the angels nearest the throne. The excess of glory overpowered him. Then said his conductor, "That beautiful and enraptured being is YOURSELF many ages hence. Behold the glory and the bliss to which you are exalted through the salvation of the Redeemer." "Think you the notes of holy song On Milton's tuneful ear have died? "Oh, no! we live our lives again, All warmly touched or coldly done. Man's works shall follow on. LIBRARY.-Joseph Cook's "Monday Lectures, Transcendentalism," "The final permanence of moral character." Plutarch's "Delay of Divine Justice," Dr. Peabody's edition. "Col. Hungerford's Daughter, pp. 131-132. The poem, "The Doomed Man." Lowell's Poems, "The Weigher." CHAPTER XXVI. 1. And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, 2. Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. 3. Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4. And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him. 5. But they said, not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people. A.D. 30. vs. 1-5, Tues., vs. 6-13, was on 6. Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, 7. 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. 8. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? 6, 7. MARY AT THE FEAST. "Her eyes are homes of silent prayer, Nor other thought her mind admits But, he was dead, and there he sits, And he that brought him back is there."-Tennyson. 8. TO WHAT PURPOSE IS THIS WASTE?-" The German poet is often cited for his remark that the Cow of Isis is to some the divine symbol of knowledge, to others but the milch cow, only regarded for the pounds of butter she will yield."-Jacox. SWINE AT THE LION'S FEAST.-"When Dr. Jonas Justus told Dr. Martin Luther of a certain potent landholder who said to Duke John Frederic, when commending to him the Gospel of Christ, Sir, the Gospel pays no interest,'-'Have you no grains?' was Luther's interrogative comment, citing the swine at the lion's feast, when invited to feast on recondite dainties. Even so, said Dr. Martin, there are inveterate worldlings who, when invited to the spiritual feast of fat things well refined, 'turn up their snouts, and ask for guilders. Offer a cow nutmeg, and she will reject it for old hay."— Jacox. 9. For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. 10. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman ? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. 11. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. 12. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. 13. 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. VALUING THE SUN.-" They who would think the sun a useful creature if he would come down from the sky and light their fires, will gravely reprehend such wasteful extravagance" as bringing more than enough, as did the Israelites for the Tabernacle, and as the sun is doing all the time. So Carlyle, in his estimate of the "uses of Dante," declines to say much about "uses." "We will not estimate the sun by the quantity of gaslight it saves us."― Jacox. LIBRARY.-Jacox's "Secular Annotations," Vol. I., pp. 309-313, adds other illustrations to those above quoted from that essay. 7-13.-"This woman's giving up her alabaster box of precious nard reminds us of the burning of the magical books at Ephesus when the sorcerers turned away from their arts and came to Christ for pardon."-C. S. Robinson. "No shattered box of ointment We ever need regret, For out of disappointment "The discord that involveth Some startling change of key, ALABASTER BOXES OF HUMAN SYMPATHY.- -"Do not keep the alabaster boxes of your love and tenderness sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak approving, cheering words while their ears can hear them and while their hearts 14. Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, 15. And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. 16. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him. 17. Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover ? 18. And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples. A.D. 30. THE PLOTTING, Tuesday, April 4. THE PASSOVER, Thursday Evening, April 6. PASSION WEEK. JERUSALEM. 19. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the passover. 20. Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. 21. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall be tray me. can be thrilled and made happier by them; the kind things you mean to say when they are gone, say before they go. The flowers you mean to send for their coffins, send to brighten and sweeten their homes before they leave them. If my friends have alabaster boxes laid away, full of fragrant perfumes of sympathy and affection, which they intend to break over my dead body, I would rather they would bring them out in my weary and troubled hours and open them, that I may be refreshed and cheered by them while I need them. I would rather have a plain coffin, without a flower, a funeral without an eulogy, than a life without the sweetness of love and sympathy. Let us learn to anoint our friends beforehand for their burial. Post-mortem kindness does not cheer the burdened spirit. Flowers on the coffin cast no fragrance backward over the weary way." -Anon. On a slip circulated by Lewis Merriam of Greenfield, Mass. REFERENCE.-14. "Judas." See on verses 47-49, and xxvii. 3. 21. ONE OF YOU SHALL BETRAY ME. LIBRARY.-Shakespeare's account of Brutus killing Cæsar, his most intimate friend. "For Brutus, as you know, was Cæsar's angel! This was the most unkindest cut of all; For when the noble Cæsar saw HIM stab, Ingratitude, more strong than traitor's arms, Quite vanquished him; then burst his mighty heart." |
