Sentiment
"There came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head." -- Mark 14:3
Men of practical mind who witnessed this incident protested, saying, "Why this waste?" It seemed all too sentimental to them.
Some people never do anything for the sake of sentiment. They pride themselves on being practical. If left to them, they would turn the whole earth into a cornfield. No room would be allowed for a flower garden. To be sure the cornfield has its place, but without some flower gardens this would be a dreary-looking earth. We can’t run the world on sentiment, but without it human society would be intolerable.
There may be such a thing as being too sentimental, but I am sorry for people who have no sentiment in their nature. I do not see how such people get any thrill out of life. They must be a misery to themselves. Certainly they do not make happy companions. Without sentiment the heart becomes cold and hard.
Sentiment is by no means a useless thing. It is a very necessary thing. It is the poetry that mingles with the prose of everyday life. Sentiment makes much easier the hard, prosaic, practical parts of life. The man who has a heart that responds to the tender and beautiful is the man best prepared for life’s sterner duties.
Sentiment is not weakness. Sentiment is power. Sentiment is inspiration. It is the inspiration that lies back of the noblest deeds of self-sacrifice and love. The noblest and most useful things ever done in the world have been inspired by a sentimental motive.
People who speak disparagingly of sentiment little understand its value and meaning. "Very precious" indeed is the "alabaster box" of sentiment.
