"The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."-PAUL. A HOMILY ON The Box of Spikenard. "For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial."-Matt. xxvi. 12. T is a rare and difficult thing in this world to escape misconstruction and reproach. No matter how simple an action may be, how obvious its intention, or how pure the motive in which it originates, we may count ourselves happy if it passes without censure or suspicion from some quarter or other, when even Mary the sister of Lazarus cannot anoint the head of her great and adorable benefactor, but there is a Judas to rail at her extravagance, and others of the disciples to sympathize with his indignation at the waste. St. John, indeed, in his account of the transaction, speaks of Judas only as the murmurer; but that the feeling was not VOL. XIV. B |