DISCOURSE XII.

THE ANOINTING OIL.

EXODUS XXx. 22-25.

Moreover the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels, and of cassia five hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil-olive an hin: and thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil.

WE can easily imagine different parties of pedestrians about to explore the mountainous regions of Switzerland, or of any other portion of the globe where hill and dale prevail, and the scenery of nature is diversified into beautiful variety. With equal ease we can understand also how the prospects of each party or of particular individuals of them, will be more or less extensive, and more or less interesting and attractive, according to their several positions in the mountain-heights, and the natural or acquired tastes of the parties concerned. In the view of one perhaps there shall be a widely extended

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plain, bestrewed with towns and villages, intersected with rivers, and replete with all the appliances of art and all the consequent conveniences of civilized and refined society. Another's eye shall rest upon uncultivated nature in its wildest aspect of craggy rock, and mountain torrent, and deserted solitudes; whilst a third shall be contemplating a transition scene where the hand of human industry and toil is turning the aspect of barrenness into one of fertility, and about to fill the desert's stillness with the cheerful sounds of domestic life, and the lowings and hummings of inferior creatures. Who will not see that the experiences and intelligence of the respective parties must vary according to their several localities and means of information? Should one, we would ask, who had but commenced his ascent, be incredulous of his report who stands upon some fair eminence far above him? Or should he who has gained the loftiest standing in the mountain contemn or mock his feebler fellow-traveller in the vale below? We trow not: but rather as each passes the other on their upward way, should the hand and salutation of a brother be extended to the less advanced, and all should consent to mutual accommodation and offices of good-will, until the various parties form but one assembly, and all together stand upon that clear and elevated site whence all alike shall look down upon common toils accomplished; and gaze around them, over a scene replete with every beauty and grateful to every sense.

Now, the scene we have imagined to exist in nature, is equally applicable to our attainments in grace: for, are there not, confessedly, diversities of gifts and differences of administration in the church of Christ? and will there not also consequently be found corresponding

variations of character and of knowledge in Christian believers? We read of babes, of little children, young men, and fathers in the gospel-faith: must not these respectively occupy their relative and several positions in the mountain of holiness? and will not the views of all accord with their ages, means of acquirement, and the light, whether dimmed with cloud or radiant without admixture of earthly vapour, which falls upon them from a common source? We are persuaded, that would we bear this similitude in recollection, it would go very far towards abating the swellings of our arrogancy towards any who differ from us in minor things: and we should not in proud disdain forget that we once stood where now the humblest stand. Then, too, we think, it would often stop the lips of accusers in their utterance of unkind charges against their brethren; and in the place of assuming any particular statements to be novel, visionary, or incredible, there would be a mild and candid hearing of our report, and then a diligent perusal of the holy Word to see whether the things declared were so or not? If you are high in the ascents of Zion, humbly and teachably let me listen to your announcements: if I be but a single step in advance of you, then do not you contemn me because I tell you something which you cannot see. Variations in grace and knowledge; differences in the government of professedly Christian communities, and those differences extending also to outward forms and modes of worship, are perfectly compatible with a rightness of heart with God. Indeed, the Spirit's diversified and multitudinous gifts, are, in a manner, necessary, for the evolution and perfection of Christian principle. He divideth to every man severally as he will, and the gifts so dispersed among individuals are again re-gathered and presented

in holy activity and cheerful obedience to Jesus Christ as the sole redeeming Head and Lord of the universal church. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garments. As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. Ps. exxxiii. All the true followers of Christ will realize that life on the glorious summit of immortality.

The relevancy of the foregoing remarks to our present subject will be apparent as we proceed in our discussion. The various ingredients compounded in the holy anointing oil were myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia: these several gums or spices were mixed with each other by pure oil-olive: altogether they formed a rich aromatic unguent, or ointment, after the method commonly used in the east by makers of fine perfumes. As it was designed to anoint or hallow the tabernacle of the congregation, the ark of the testimony, the table of shewbread and all its vessels, the candlestick and all its vessels, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt-offering and all its vessels, the laver and its foot; and then moreover Aaron and his sons, to consecrate them to the priest's office, a large quantity was required: and we believe the weight of the sacred admixture, as named in our text, was about one hundred and twenty pounds troy.

To this holy anointing oil, thus prepared by Moses at the Divine command, we attach a literal, a prophetical,

and a mystical or spiritual import. Literally, it applies unto Aaron and to the ministrations of the ancient tabernacle; prophetically, it applies to Jesus Christ and to the various offices which he condescends to sustain on behalf of his people; and spiritually, it applies unto his people themselves as partakers with their anointed Head and Lord of the grace of life and the priestly-royalty of his everlasting kingdom.

It is a well known circumstance, that priests and kings were always appointed to their respective offices of old, by the pouring of a sacred unguent upon their persons: they thus became hallowed, or set apart to God's more especial service and glory. That they should fail in the performance of any required duty, or act unworthily in the discharge of their solemn functions, was no fault of their outward consecration to Jehovah's honour: it argued rather the imperfection of the holiest human character, and evinced the necessity there existed for an Intercessor with God, in whom the prophetical, the priestly, and the kingly offices should blend and be combined in glorious and unwonted excellency and purity. That wondrous Intercessor we find in Jesus Christ: and therefore when he came, as the Messenger of the covenant whom our souls delight in; the Teacher and Revealer of the Father's will; the Prophet to instruct mankind in all the principles and duties of a Christian life; the Priest to atone for all committed sin, and all anticipated guilt; and the King to reign first in a kingdom of righteousness, and peace, and joy within us, and eventually to sit in glorious majesty upon a visible throne of empire and dominion, we see him anointed by the Holy Ghost, and that sacred ointment poured upon him so plentifully, that, as in the previous Aaronic type, it truly descends unto