CLXXVIII.

THE SAME SUBJECT- continued.

St. Matthew xi. 29, 30.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

1

Note here what it is to come to Christ. It is to submit our shoulder to His easy yoke, which shall be fitted to us, and we to it, more and more. It is to learn of Him; to become His scholars, to submit to His discipline; to grow like Him, meek, gentle, patient, "ready to forgive injuries, and unwilling to offer any;" "lowly in heart," really so, not in outward appearance only. "Lowliness of mind "2 is looked for in the servant of the Lord. These are "holy and humble men of heart." 3 "He hath exalted the humble and meek." Even in our temporal troubles we shall find some consolation in our Saviour Christ. Though that "thorn in the flesh" be not removed, grace shall be given us to bear it. But it is doubtless spiritual trials, sorrows of the soul, that are chiefly meant; and all who labour under such are here invited to come; all, however heavy laden are promised rest.* Come unto me, our Saviour Christ is saying, all ye who are in difficulty or in doubt; ye the remembrance of whose sins. is grievous unto you, and the burden of them intolerable; ye who have been disappointed in life, crossed in your expectations, baffled of your hopes, bound by Satan all these years, driven almost to despair;5-Come unto me, so with divinest humanity, He calls, and I will give you rest. It is not perfect happiness, we must note, which our Saviour Christ now promises to those that come to Him. This shall be doubtless, even to the full, even to overflowing. But now He promises rest. As though one of your children were trying I Bp. Wilson.

2 Phil. ii. 3; Eph. iv. 2; 2 Tim. ii. 25.

3 Benedicite.

See Justin Martyr's account of

his own case in his Dialogue with Trypho. This piece of autobiography has been finely paraphrased by Abp. Trench.

5 Baruch ii. 18.

U

to lift some load, to carry some burden, too heavy for him to bear, and you his father, his elder brother, were to call to him and help him carry it, or at least show him how it might be most lightly borne. Or as though an unskilful workman were seeking to put together some nice piece of work and being constantly baffled, and one wiser and more experienced than he, a master of his craft, should show him how to set about it. Nor is it just rest at the last which Christ here promises to those that come to Him; like the deep sleep of the labouring man which follows a day of hard work in hay-time or in harvest; like that sleep of death which awaits us all in the quiet churchyard when the day of life is done, "where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest; " nor even that perfect rest which remaineth to the people of God. We must distinguish between what we may expect, and what we must not expect; between what is promised and what not. We are not, in this our time of trial, to look for a perfect clearing up of all the mysteries by which we are surrounded. But to feel that there is One who knoweth all things, that a wiser than I hath chosen for me, that in the end it shall be well with him that feareth God; and in the faith of this to take His easy yoke, His light burden, upon us (easy as compared with the yoke of rebellion, light as compared with the burden of unbelief) this is to rest in the Lord; to these He will give rest, rest to their souls. "Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith to all that truly turn to Him."

CLXXIX.

THE WOMAN IN THE CITY WHICH HAD BEEN A

SINNER.

St. Luke vii. 36-38.

And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to

1 Ps. xxxvii. 7.

meat. And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

It was a rare thing for our Lord to be the guest of a Pharisee. Yet when invited He would no more refuse than if he had been bidden by a Publican. This particular Pharisee does not seem to have been disposed to give Him honour due. He seems to have been undecided as to whether our Lord was even a prophet. Now the custom in the East was not to sit at table as with us, but to recline on couches; which explains how this penitent could easily approach from behind to bathe with tears His holy feet from whom she had learned that there was yet hope for such as she. She was grieved and wearied with the burthen of her sins; and had He not just been calling the heavy laden to come unto Him that they might find rest unto their souls? She, entering with the crowd, which on such occasions often stood round the invited guests, discharged in fact that office which it appears that the host on this occasion had neglected. She supplies his lack of service. A penitent sinner may read a lesson to a self-righteous Pharisee. In that country where people commonly go barefoot, or are simply shod with sandals, the custom is to supply water to bathe the feet before the banquet. Sometimes the guests, those especially who are to be made most welcome, and whom the host delights to honour, are further anointed with fragrant oil, and receive from their entertainer the kiss of peace. These attentions it seems this Pharisee had omitted on this occasion, in the case of one whom he was trying to persuade himself was no prophet; and these this penitent supplied. Her eyes were as it were fountains of water, shedding forth penitential tears, grateful to the Lord as a refreshing bath to the foot-sore traveller. Her hair, "once displayed for idle ornament," 3 is now used in default of the fine towel which 21 Sam. xxv. 41. 3 Bp. Wordsworth, Rom. vi. 19.

1 St. Matt. xi. 28-30.

Simon should have supplied, to dry those blessed feet which soon were nailed" for our advantage on the bitter cross." Her lips, once for all the world, are now only for her Lord. She kissed His feet whose cheek Simon had not cared to kiss. The precious unguent once expended on herself is devoted to the Lord's anointed. Nor does she leave behind the ornamental case that contained it, as though this would be thrown away upon the poor Jew He seemed; or, to anticipate a subtler objection, as though His service needed no such costly ornament. The ointment she provided was more precious than the oil which Simon had omitted. The feet were esteemed less honourable than the head; yet on these she bestowed the more abundant honour.1 All her faculties of mind, body, and estate, represented by the tears, the hair, the alabaster box of ointment, which had been before abused to purposes of sin, this true penitent devotes to the service of the Christ.2

CLXXX.

THE SAME SUBJECT-continued.

St. Luke vii. 39-46.

Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest

1 1 Cor. xii. 23, 24.

2 Bengel observes that our Lord noted all the circumstances of her

pious action. Ps. Ivi. 8. He noticed, though it was not till the last that He addressed her, vv. 48, 50.

me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

The touching lesson taught by this penitent was thrown away upon the Pharisee. He was one of those who had eyes and saw not. The tears of penitents have been called the wine of angels; but her penitence gave him no joy. Her devotedness never brought to his mind his own negligence. All he seems to think of is, that now he is right in his view, now his uncertainty is removed; there is no more room for doubt; this is no prophet. "The Pharisee assumes that our Lord did not know who, or of what sort, this woman was. The possibility of His knowing this and permitting it, never so much as occurred to him. It was the touching by an unclean person which constituted the defilement. This is all that the Pharisee fixes on: his offence is merely technical and ceremonial." But He who could touch the leper, and, without becoming unclean Himself, impart His own cleanliness, could accept to a like end the touch of this penitent. The acted parable is lost upon the "blind Pharisee."2 Our Lord proceeds to utter one. The Pharisee had said nothing aloud. He "spake within Himself." Our Lord, who can read the heart, “"answering" the thought of his mind, made him as it were answer his own objection. He addresses him kindly by name, desiring not so much to confute as to convert him. He courteously asks, as it were, the permission of His host to tell one of those instructive stories which are not uncommon at Eastern entertainments. And He proves thereby that He knew perfectly who and what manner of woman this had been; knew, moreover, what the Pharisee neither knew nor cared for, the reality of her repentance, the depth of her love and gratitude to her forgiving Lord, who had forgiven her all that debt.

Alford. "See how apt proud and narrow souls are to think that others should be as haughty and censorious as themselves."-Henry. Is. lxv. 5.

2 "Seest thou," He asks, "this woman?" See you not in her something more than you suppose? St. Matt. xxiii. 26; St. John ix. 39-41.