THE GIFT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3994, 30 September 1930, Page 79

THE GIFT.

By the Rev. D. Gardner Miller

Have you ever picked up an old book, or taken from a drawer a delicate piece of work sewn by fingers long since still, and found that a faint and charming perfume still clung to them and awoke memories in your heart - ' In the book were some faded rose leaves; the fragile sewing had been, long ago, laid beside old lavender. As you sit and let your memories take possession of your mind, you hear again the voice of a loved one and old scenes are lived over again. The treasured thing in your hand speaks to you in the perfume that steals from it. It was a gift to you, and it reminds you that the past can always live again in the aroma of fragrant memories. Such thoughts came to me as I pondered over one of the loveliest stories in literature. It is the story in the New Testament of a woman who gave a gift to Christ—a gift of perfume. One writer, who saw the inwardness of things, when writing many years afterwards, remembered a beautiful feature that somehow escaped other chroniclers. He said: “The whole house was filled with the odour of the ointment.” He remembered that stealing through the whole house was the subtle, delicate perfume that the woman had anointed the Lord with.

Every time John entered that house, after Christ had ascended to the Father, he saw the scene again and felt, in thought, the aroma everywhere. Jesus, who saw deeper and felt deeper, said that this lovely thing that had been done to Him would always be associated with the preaching of the Gospel as a memorial of her.

That was nearly 2000 years ago—and is the story and the gift forgotten? No, it is one of the most precious memories of mankind. Every time you read this beautiful story you find that the fragrance of it never stales. A million times over has it been told, and a million times over had it spoken to the heart of a love and a gift and a memory that somehow puts to shame our hard selfishness.

The giver of the gift was Mary of Bethany. It is one of the pious speculations of scholars that Mary of Bethany and Mary of Magdala are' one and the same—a speculation that has always attracted me. The gift was an alabaster flask containing a pound of ointment scented with nard—a most costly perfume brought from the mountain slopes of North India.

The custom of anointing the dead is of Greek origin—the flask being broken, the ointment poured on the head and the broken flask left in the coffin. Jesus was deeply moved at the gift. His death was near—and He knew it—and this simple and beautiful act on the part of Mary filled Him with joy. It was an immortal gift. One of the company grumbled at what he deemed to be waste. How little did he realise —and many like him even in our day—that

YOU CAN’T PUT A PRICE ON LOVE. When the heart gives it scorns to count the cost. When love expresses itself it strips itself. Money and the equivalent of money are as dross when the emotions are deeply stirred. The gift of love ii beyond price. Thank God, there are some things money can’t buy. Money can buy a house, but it can’t buy a home. Money can buy a book, but it can’t buy an inspiration. Money can buy a kiss, but it can’t buy love. Love is a costly thing, but it pays its own cost. Love is self-giving to the uttermost.

No greater example of self-giving is known than that of God Himself. The gift of His love is Eternal Life, and the Atonement is the price He paid for it. “ Ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ.” When measured by that Redemptive Gift, any response on our part when construed in terms of money is revolting. The gift of the perfumed ointment was love's perfect way of expressing a return for a gift secured from Christ which Mary felt was so wonderful that her very best and choicest possession seemed all too inadequate. It was a gift to express the joy of A CHANGED LIFE. I • believe that many months earlier Mary’s life had been made new by Jesus. That holds good .even if you do not see eye to eye with me in my opinion that Mary of Bethany and Mary of Magdala arc one and the same, for, surely, if they are different persons, the wonderful incident in her home life when Jesus restored her brother to her and her sister Martha must have wrought a wonderful change in her life. In any case there must have been a moment in her life when she saw in Jesus the Lover of her soul. And now that with her woman’s quick and sure intuition she feels that His end is drawfing near, what more beautiful way could she show her gratitude for the joy He had brought into her life than by profferring her most cherished possession! If Mary did that, what have we done?

What gift have we given in return for the gift of abundant life and the joy of sins forgiven Far too many of us are held in bondage by wretched self-esteem. Until we can say “ None of self and all of Thee,” we cannot hope to understand the inner meaning of Mary’s fragrant gift.