ANOINTING BEFOREHAND FOR BURIAL.
By J. Russell Miller
When Mary broke the alabaster vase, and anointed her Lord, he said, “She is come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying.” A great many people would have kept the vase sealed up till he was dead, and would then have brought it out and broken it, to anoint the cold body, as it lay all gashed and wounded, wrapped in the burial garments. But Mary did not wait till he was dead. She brought out her ointment when he could enjoy its sweet perfume, and when his sore and weary feet could feel the delicious refreshment which it gave. A husband covered his wife’s coffin with flowers, and built a magnificent monument over her grave when she was dead, and spoke in glowing words of her noble sacrifices. But it was whispered that he had not been very kind to her when living. A daughter showed great sorrow at her mother’s funeral, and never could say enough in praise of her; but it was known that she had thrust many a thorn into her pillow while she was living. Do not keep all the alabaster boxes of your love and tenderness sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak approving, cheering words while their ears can hear them, and while their hearts can be thrilled by them. The things you mean to say when they are gone, say before they go. The flowers you mean to send for their coffins, send to brighten their homes before they leave them. If my friends have alabaster boxes laid away full of perfumes of sympathy and affection, which they intend to break over my dead body, I would rather they would bring them out in my weary hours, and open them, that I may be refreshed and cheered by them while I need them. I would rather have a bare coffin without a flower, and a funeral without a eulogy, than a life without the sweetness of love and sympathy. Let us anoint our friends beforehand for their burial. Postmortem kindnesses do not cheer the burdened spirit. Flowers on the coffin cast no fragrance backward over the weary days.—By Rev. J. Russell Miller, in “Evangelist.”