Spurgeon: November PM
* 11/29/PM
"Spices for anointing oil."
--Exodus 35:8
Much use was made of this anointing oil under the law, and
that which it represents is of primary importance under the
gospel. The Holy Spirit, who anoints us for all holy service, is
indispensable to us if we would serve the Lord acceptably.
Without His aid our religious services are but a vain oblation,
and our inward experience is a dead thing. Whenever our ministry
is without unction, what miserable stuff it becomes! nor are the
prayers, praises, meditations, and efforts of private Christians
one jot superior. A holy anointing is the soul and life of
piety, its absence the most grievous of all calamities. To go
before the Lord without anointing is as though some common
Levite had thrust himself into the priest's office--his
ministrations would rather have been sins than services. May we
never venture upon hallowed exercises without sacred anointings.
They drop upon us from our glorious Head; from His anointing we
who are as the skirts of His garments partake of a plenteous
unction. Choice spices were compounded with rarest art of the
apothecary to form the anointing oil, to show forth to us how
rich are all the influences of the Holy Spirit. All good things
are found in the divine Comforter. Matchless consolation,
infallible instruction, immortal quickening, spiritual energy,
and divine sanctification all lie compounded with other
excellencies in that sacred eye-slave, the heavenly anointing
oil of the Holy Spirit. It imparts a delightful fragrance to the
character and person of the man upon whom it is poured. Nothing
like it can be found in all the treasuries of the rich, or the
secrets of the wise. It is not to be imitated. It comes alone
from God, and it is freely given, through Jesus Christ, to every
waiting soul. Let us seek it, for we may have it, may have it
this very evening. O Lord, anoint Thy servants.