After the great miracle had been performed, our Lord again retired from Judxa until the beginning of the Passover. We may suppose him to have arrived at Bethany on the evening before the Sab bath which ushered in the feast. On the following evening, that of the Sabbath day itself, a supper. was made for him in the house of one Simon, who was surnamed the Leper, as having been at one time afflicted with leprosy, though now free from it—another monument, perhaps, of the healing mercies of Christ. Simon's name is not mentionea by John, who only says, ' They made him a i supper,' whence it might be inferred that it was in Martha's house. And yet John's statement that Martha served, and Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him,' seems to indicate that it was in another person's house rather than in their own, where such an arrangement might naturally be expected. Simon was probably a relative. But what share did Mary take in the honours rendered to the Lord ? She brought a quantity of a very costly unguent, li6p011 vdp5ov MOTU* VOXUTI Foy,* in a box or vessel of alabaster, a substance very beautiful and easily cut, but very brittle, and she crushed the box in her hand, and poured its contents on his head, and, 'like the precious oint ment upon the head, which ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, and that went down to the skirts of his garments,' it bedewed his whole person, and distilled upon his feet, and she wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Then said Judas
Iscariot, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor ?' Jesus replied, Let her alone ; against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you, but me ye have not always.' He also added, Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.' This is the last mention of Mary, the sister of it.lartha, in the N. T. (Wordsworth's Greek Testa ment ; Dean Alford's Do. ; Bengelii Gnomon, etc.)—M. H.