Mishnah. The tractate Menachoth closes with these words: 'Alike as regards burnt -
offerings of beasts and those of fowls (those of the poor) and the meat -offering, we find
the expression "for a sweet savour," to teach us, that to offer much or to offer little is the
same, provided only that a person direct mind and heart towards God.'
Would that to all time its lesson had been cherished, not theoretically, but practically, by
the Church! How much richer would have been her 'treasury:' twice blessed in gift and
givers. But so is not legend written. If it had been a story invented for a purpose or
adorned with the tinsel of embellishment, the Saviour and the widow would not have so
parted - to meet and to speak not on earth, but in heaven. She would have worshipped,
and He spoken or done some great thing. Their silence was a tryst for heaven.
4. One other event of solemn joyous import remains to be recorded on that day. 39 But
so closely is it connected with what the Lord afterwards spoke, that the two cannot be
separated. It is narrated only by St. John, who, as before explained,40 tells it as one of a
series of progressive manifestations of the Christ: first in His Entry into the City, and
then in the Temple - successively, to the Greeks, by the Voice from Heaven, and before
the people.
39. St. John xii. 20-50.
40. See ch. vi.
Precious as each part and verse here is, when taken by itself, there is some difficulty in
combining them , and in showing their connection, and its meaning. But here we ought
not to forget, that we have, in the Gospel-narrative, only the briefest acco unt - as it
were, headings, summaries, outlines, rather than a report. Nor do we know the
surrounding circumstances. The words which Christ spoke after the request of the
Greeks to be admitted to His Presence may bear some special reference also to the
state of the disciples, and their unreadiness to enter into and share His predicted
sufferings. And this may again be connected with Christ's prediction and Discourse
about 'the last things.'41 For the position of the narrative in St. John's Gospel seems to
imply that it was the last event of the day - nay, the conclusion of Christ's public
Ministry. If this be so, words and admonitions, otherwise somewhat mysterious in their
connection, would acquire a new meaning.
41. St. Matt. xxiv.
It was then, as we sup pose, the evening of a long weary day of teaching. As the sun
had been hastening towards its setting in red, He had spoken of that other sun -setting,
with the sky all aglow in judgement, and of the darkness that was to follow - but also of
the better Light would arise in it. And in those Temple -porches they had been hearing
Him - seeing Him in His wonder -working yesterday, hearing Him in His wonder-
speaking that day - those 'men of other tongues.' They were 'Proselytes,' Greeks by
birth, who had groped their way to the proch of Judaism, just as the first streaks of light
were falling within upon his altar. They must have been stirred in their inmost being; felt,
that it was just for such as they, and to them that He spoke; that this was what in the
Old Testa ment they had guessed, anticipated, dimly hoped for, if they had not seen it -
its grand faith, its grander hope, its grandest reality. Not one by one, and almost by