hance when the servants were away
from the door, and then slipped into the room where the Master was.
She got down on her knees, and began to wash his feet with her
tears, wiping them with the hairs of her head. While the feast was
going on the Pharisee saw this; and he said to himself: "Jesus must
be a bad man, if He knows who this poor woman is. Even if He did not
know, He would be unclean according to the Mosaic law"--because he
had allowed the woman to touch Him. But the Master knew what Simon
was thinking about. He put some questions to him: "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."

Then He makes the application, "I came to your house," He says, "and
you gave me no water for my feet; you gave me no kiss; and no oil
for my head. You refused me the common hospitalities of life." In
those days when one went into a gentleman's house, a servant would
be at the door with a basin of water; the guest would slip off his
sandals, and the servant would wash his feet. Then the master of the
house would salute him with a kiss instead of shaking hands as we
do. There would also be oil for his head. Christ had been invited to
Simon's house; but the Pharisee had got Him there in a patronizing
spirit. "You gave me no water, no kiss, no oil; but this woman hath
washed my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her
head: she hath not ceased to kiss my feet, and she hath anointed
them with ointment. She was forgiven much: and so she loves much."
To the poor woman herself Jesus said, "Thy sins are forgiven." They
may have risen up like a dark mountain before her; but one word from
the Saviour and they were all gone!

The spirit shown by Simon was altogether different from that of the
poor woman. Christ said that the publicans and harlots would go into
the kingdom of God before the self-righteous Pharisees! Simon, the
Pharisee, got nothing; and so there are many who go away from
religious meetings without one drop of heaven's dew, because they do
not seek for it. From the morning of the creation down to the
present time n