for a memorial of her."

At first sight the encomium might seem as extravagant as the action. Was
there, a Judas might ask, anything deserving of immortality in the
sacrifice of a few pounds? But no such measurements are admissible here.
The encomium was deserved because the act was the irrepressible
utterance of all-absorbing love--of a love so full, so rich, so rare
that even the ordinary disciples of Christ were at first not in perfect
sympathy with it. The absolute devotedness of her love found a fit
symbol in the alabaster box or vase which she had to break that the
ointment might flow out. It was not a bottle out of which she might take
the stopper and let a carefully measured quantity dribble out, reserving
the rest for other and perhaps very different uses--fit symbol of our
love to Christ; but it was a hermetically sealed casket or flask, out of
which, if she let one drop fall, the whole must go. It had to be broken;
it had to be devoted to one sole use. It could not be in part reserved
or in part diverted to other uses. Where you have such love as this,
have you not the highest thing humanity can produce? Where is it now to
be had on earth, where are we to look for this all-devoting, unreserving
love, which gathers up all its possessions and pours them out at
Christ's feet, saying, "Take all, would it were more"?

The encomium, therefore, was deserved and appropriate. In her love the
Lord would ever live: so long as she existed the remembrance of Him
could not die. No death could touch her heart with his chilly hand and
freeze the warmth of her devotion. Christ was immortal in her, and she
was therefore immortal in Him. Her love was a bond that could not be
broken, the truest spiritual union. In embalming Him, therefore, she
unconsciously embalmed herself. Her love was the amber in which He was
to be preserved, and she became inviolable as He. Her love was the
marble on which His name and worth were engraven, on which His image was
deeply sculptured, and they were to live and last together. Christ
"prolongs His days" in the love of His people. In every generation there
arise those who will not let His remembrance die out, and who to their
own necessities call out the living energy of Christ. In so doing they
unwittingly make themselves undying as He; their love of Him is the
little spark of immortality in their soul. It is that which indissolubly
and by the only genuine spiritual affinity links them to what i