Christ had warned the disciples against the mock -- holiness of the Pharisees. A poor widow cast two mites, all her wealth, into the treasury of the Temple. He made use of this incident to impress them again with the truth, so often and so variously illustrated by him, that it is the heart which fixes the character of pious actions; that the greatest gifts are valueless without pure motives; the smallest, worthy, with them. The same principle was set forth in his saying that great and small acts were alike in moral worth, if done in his name. [679]

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Footnotes:

[679] Cf. p. 288.