The Fragrance of Christ’s Name
by Octavius
Winslow
Because of the savor of Your good ointments Your Name is as ointment
poured forth, therefore do the virgins love You—Song of Solomon
1:3.
The preceding chapter has spoken of the Church of Christ; the present
will speak of CHRIST THE SAVIOR OF THE CHURCH. The two sacred themes are
mystically and inseparably one. Correct views of the Church will ever
be associated with correct views of Christ. Those who would exalt the
Church above Christ, can only do so at the expense of Christ Himself.
All the undue honor given to the Church, which is His Body, is so much
robbery of the dignity, authority, and glory belonging to Christ, who
is the Head.
The Church of God possesses no legislative authority, no power to enact
laws, to decree doctrines, or to institute rites; to control the conscience,
or to exact a blind submission of judgment to her interpretation of God’s
Word. “The Lord is King in Zion.” “The Lord is our Law-giver.”
But, still the Church of God is a glorious Church, exalted to great privilege,
eminence, and power in virtue of her union with Christ her Head. And we
cannot think of her as the mystical Body of Christ, and as the “Pillar
and Ground of the truth,” apart from the most exalted views of HIM
who “loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify
and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present
it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing.”
No wonder, then, that the Name of Jesus should be precious to the Church:
yes, in the experience of all His saints, fragrant as ointment poured
forth, awakening their warmest love, and inspiring their loftiest praise.
Let these two points engage our present meditation on the Name of Christ:
the Fragrance which it breathes, and the Love which it inspires.
“Your Name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins
love you.” “What is in a name?” is sometimes flippantly
and facetiously asked; and yet there is often magic in a name quite irresistible.
Great names are a power, a tower of strength; they have often mightier
weight and influence in a hero-worshiping world than even sound principles,
or holy deeds. If a man’s name is great, he possesses a great power
for evil or for good.
There are not many independent minds among men; few individuals think
for themselves: they like not the trouble of excavating the mine for the
hidden treasure, and even when the ore is provided at their hand, they
have no skill or taste to smelt, assay, and mold it for themselves. They
would rather accept other men’s thoughts than conceive thought for
themselves: they prefer to adopt the opinions of others than form their
own: and would rather follow and worship an illustrious name, than carve
their own upon some grateful heart, or upon some imperishable monument
of virtue and truth.
We have need to be on our watch against this powerful influence lest,
fascinated by the fame of some popular leader, we become the willing dupes
of a childish superstition, or the blind followers of a fatal error. Do
not take your views of Divine truth from man; draw them primarily from
God’s Word. Do not study the Bible through your system, but let your
system be taken from, and faithfully weighed with, the Bible. Our system,
be it theological or ecclesiastical, must not be allowed to give its complexion
to, or to be the interpreter of, revealed truth. But, on the contrary,
God’s Word is to suggest and mold and tint all our thoughts and opinions
and systems for eternity.
We must not set the sun by our watch, but our watch by the sun—in
other words, we must not attempt to make God’s Word dovetail with
our creed, but must test every doctrine we hold, every opinion we receive,
every principle we maintain, the hope we cherish, by the unerring standard
of revealed truth. This will give a Divine and proper complexion to our
views. If we receive the light of the sun through a tinted lens, the light
will necessarily reflect the hue of the medium through which it passes;
so, if we receive the light of God’s Word through any theological
or ecclesiastical system whatever, it will necessarily reflect the error
and imperfection, if such there be, of that system. And thus we shall
fail to receive the teaching of God as it flows pure and simple from His
Word, as light flows from the sun, and as streams from the fountain.
The Bible is our rule of faith and our only and ultimate appeal. By the
law and the testimony let every doctrine, and system, and hope for eternity
be tried. Be not, then, carried away by the learning, the influence, or
even the piety attaching to a popular name. Allow no human power the mastery
of your mind and conscience: yield yourself meekly and obediently to the
authority and teaching of Christ, accepting human guidance only so far
as it comes with a “thus says the Lord” as its divine endorsement.
Our only safeguard in a matter of such infinite moment as our future well-being,
is God’s pure Word; our only secure place, the feet of the Savior.
Sitting there as His lowly disciple, the Holy Spirit will lead our minds
into the truth, even “the truth as it is in Jesus,” as it emanates
from Jesus, as it speaks of Jesus, as it strengthens our faith in, and
inspires our love to, Jesus, and as it prepares us to go and be with Jesus
forever. But we turn from this digression, to the subject more immediately
before us.
The Church declares of the Name of her Beloved, that in her experience
it was as ointment poured forth. Our attention is thus invited to THE
FRAGRANCE OF THE NAME OF CHRIST. The reference to “ointment “
would to the intelligent and pious Jew, be a familiar image. His thoughts
would naturally recur to the royal coronation of Solomon, and to the sacred
anointing of the priesthood. He would think of the precious and fragrant
materials prescribed by God for its composition: the myrrh, the cinnamon,
the sweet calamus, the cassia, the oil olive. “And you shall make
it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the
apothecary; it shall be an holy anointing oil.”
All these materials were significant. The cassia was medicinal, the myrrh
was preservative, the cinnamon was fragrant, the calamus was sweet, and
the whole formed a rich unguent, like unto 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.” All this was impressively
significant of the Name of Jesus. All these properties were typical of
Him. His Name is healing, preserving, fragrant and sweet to the spiritual
taste.
A few particulars will suffice to justify this comprehensive view of what
Jesus is to a poor, believing sinner. Let us trace some of the costly
and fragrant materials of which the Name of Jesus is composed. The Divine
Name of Jesus is fragrant. His Name is God. “Unto the Son He says,
Your throne, O GOD, is forever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of Your kingdom.” He Himself claims this Divine dignity.
“I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the
Lord: who is, and who is to come—THE ALMIGHTY.” We need not,
though we might to any extent, multiply these Scripture quotations in
proof of the essential Deity of our Lord. If He was not God—God essential,
God absolute, as well might we fasten our faith to the name of Caesar,
or Napoleon, or Plato, or any other human name, as to any saving benefit
we should derive therefrom.
I would not trust my soul to a created Savior for millions of worlds.
No mere creature could save itself, and must fail, therefore, to save
me. Every angel in heaven stands by a power not his own, and all their
combined merit and strength could not keep me from falling into the bottomless
abyss. Deity, and Deity alone, must save me. How fragrant and precious,
then, is the Divine Name of Jesus. Believing soul, inhale its rich perfume!
When sin distresses you, when guilt burdens you, when sorrow saddens you,
when care corrodes you, when difficulties perplex you, when needs alarm
you, remember the Divine Name of Jesus, and all will vanish.
You trust your salvation to Deity, you hang your burden upon the arm of
Deity, you bring your sin and guilt to the merit of Deity, you make known
your need to the resources of Deity, you breathe your sorrow, grief, and
woe upon the bosom of Deity, when you hide you within the pavilion of
Christ’s Name. Rejector of the Savior’s God-head! Listen to
Jehovah’s words concerning Christ and tremble—“Pay attention
to Him, and obey all of His instructions. Do not rebel against Him, for
He will not forgive your sins. He is my representative—He bears MY
NAME.”
The Atoning Name of Jesus is fragrant. All that Jesus did on earth was
representative, substitutionary, sacrificial. His one work was to atone.
His one mission was to save. “You shall call His name JESUS, for
He shall SAVE His people from their sins.” With this harmonizes the
wondrous declaration of the Apostle, “This is a faithful saying,
and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners.” O marvellous, precious saying this! of more worth
to the soul in a dying hour than the diadem of the universe studded with
earth’s richest jewels. We can pass into eternity peacefully and
happily, hopefully and savingly in the faith of no other truth than this—“Christ
died for our sins;” “Christ died for the ungodly.” “Christ
has given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet
smelling savor.” “You were not redeemed with corruptible things
... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish
and without spot.” “By the obedience of One shall many be made
righteous.” “Who is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification
and redemption.”
Such are some of the Scripture testimonies to the sacrificial work of
Jesus. In all this truth how fragrant is HIS SAVING NAME! As a law-fulfilling,
sin-atoning; justice-satisfying Savior, His Name expresses all that the
guiltiest, the most despairing sinner needs. To those who are saved, what
fragrance breathes from the work of Him who has saved them, and called
them with a holy calling.
Whatever may be the advanced pilgrimage, the matured experience of the
Christian, he never can release himself from the first principles of Divine
truth. We close our spiritual course as we began it, with a believing
reliance upon the simple elements of the Gospel. The foundation truth
of the Gospel—that Jesus Christ saves sinners, which gave us comfort
and peace and hope when we first fled to the cross, is just the truth
which sustains and cheers us when we come to die. We terminate our spiritual
life as we commenced it—clinging as poor, empty, and worthless sinners
to Jesus, the Savior and Friend of sinners; the last believing look we
have of Christ on earth, is the first look we had of Him when He drew
us to Himself and told us our sins were all forgiven, and then filled
our hearts with His love.
Embracing alone the first principles of the Gospel, resting only in the
single, simple, yet sublime declaration that Jesus was sacrificed for,
invites and receives, sinners—casts out none who come to Him, but
saves them to the uttermost—some of the greatest saints and most
eminent divines that ever lived have—either in the near expectation
of their departure, or in the actual passage of death—experienced
the sweetest peace and richest comfort and most assured hope. We might
here cite the case of Bishop Butler, the mightiest of reasoners, who,
when he came to die, could find no comfort but from the text quoted by
his chaplain, “He who comes unto Me, I will not cast out.”
Writing to a minister, the late Robert Hall (one of the most learned divines
and eloquent preachers of any age), thus testifies to this truth—“I
have been attacked with a violent fever, and in my own apprehension for
about two days was on the borders of eternity. I never before felt my
mind so calm and happy. Filled with the most overwhelming sense of my
own unworthiness, my mind was supported merely by a faith in Christ crucified.
I would not for the world have parted with that text, ‘The blood
of Christ cleanses from all sin.’ I never before saw such a beauty
and grandeur in the way of salvation by the death of Christ as on that
occasion. I am fully persuaded the Evangelical doctrines alone are able
to support the mind in the near view of death and eternity.” What
a sacred and precious fragrance of Jesus and His finished work flows from
this testimony!
“Like the sweet South
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odor.”
But we must limit our illustration of this truth. There were SEVERAL INGREDIENTS,
as we have shown, in the sacred ointment that consecrated, all united
in imparting to it its efficacy and perfume. There is everything we need
in Jesus to endear His name to our hearts. He is our Prophet—teaching
us the will of the Father. He is our Priest—offering up Himself as
our atoning Victim. He is our King—erecting His throne in our hearts,
and subduing us to Himself as His loving and obedient subjects. How fragrant,
too, His Name as our Friend—loving us at all times. As our Brother—bone
of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, born for our adversity. As our Great
High Priest—touched with the feeling of our infirmities, tempted
in all points as we are and in our sorrows, griefs, and trials encircling
us with the many-folded robe of His tender, loving sympathy.
A few PRACTICAL INFERENCES must close our meditation upon this delightful
theme. Remember that the Name of Jesus is as ointment poured forth. The
box must be broken, opened, distributed. It was when the loving woman
broke the alabaster box that the precious ointment—which was at once
the expression of her love and the anointing of her Lord—filled all
the house with its odor.
Why is it that the Name of Jesus has no sweetness, no charm, no fragrance
to unbelievers? Because the Holy Spirit has not broken the box and poured
out the ointment upon their hearts! It is not enough to hear of Christ,
to read of Christ, to assent to Christ—we must have Christ in us
the hope of glory.
We may be enchanted with the box, admire its shape, be charmed with its
carving, and yet experience nothing of its precious and priceless contents.
In other words, we may be captivated with the elegance of a book, and
be enchanted with the eloquence of a sermon, and be drawn in affection
to the preacher setting forth the Lord Jesus Christ; and yet His Name
may not be to our souls as ointment poured forth—a name above every
name. The precious ointment must become a part of our spiritual being.
But WHEN is the Name of Jesus really as ointment poured forth? It was
partially opened to the Old Testament saints who saw Christ’s day
and were glad. Four thousand years before the great sacrifice upon the
cross was made, its fragrance floated upon the sin tainted atmosphere
of Eden. In the first promise of salvation to man the ointment was poured
forth. This it was too, which imparted such a sweet smelling savor to
the offerings and sacrifices under the law, and so deep a significance
to the types, and shadows, and symbols of the Mosaic dispensation. Christ
was the meaning, the sweetness and the substance of all. And yet how partial
was the unfolding! “Why ask you ask My name, seeing it is secret?”
But the full outflow of this precious ointment was reserved for the solemn
scene of CALVARY. We travel back to His agony and bloody sweat, His cross
and passion, in the garden and on Calvary, when the nails cruelly penetrated
His hands and feet, when the soldiers rudely pierced His side; when the
thorn-crown bound His sacred temples, when the Father bruised and put
Him to grief. Then was the sacred casket broken—then did the precious
ointment pour forth its rich perfume, wafted to the remotest part of earth,
and filled the temple of heaven with its fragrance.
O what must have been the wonder—swelling into transport and then
bursting into song—when angels and the spirits of the glorified caught
the first breath of that precious perfume as it rose from Calvary and
ascended into heaven! Around the throne of glory it circled, and Jehovah
Himself was well pleased with the sweet smelling savor of that sacrifice,
which had harmonized all His attributes and glorified His name in the
full salvation of His Church!
The fragrance of this ointment is poured forth when the PULPIT lifts high
the Lamb of God, and sets forth the glory, the grace, the love of the
Lord Jesus. That is the most fragrant sanctuary, that the holiest atmosphere,
and that the richest temple-service, where Christ crucified is the most
simply and fully preached. It may be with severe simplicity of ritual,
in a crude structure, with but little human talent: nevertheless, Christ
is preached, the box of ointment is opened, and the sacred house is filled
with the odor thereof.
O how great and blessed the privilege of a ministry which sets forth a
full Christ for empty sinners, accompanied with the unction of the Spirit,
and enfolds our whole being with the fragrance of His Name. I ask not
where, nor how, nor by whom. It is enough that “Christ is preached,
and I therein do rejoice; yes, and will rejoice.”
This ointment is ‘poured forth’ at the Communion of the LORD’S
SUPPER, when the disciples of Jesus meet in His Name, to remember and
commemorate His dying love. Happy, holy season this! Here, if ever, all
other names fade for the while from memory, and all our thoughts and affections
and desires concentrate upon that one Name, which is above every name—the
Name of Jesus, our Redeemer Lord. Approach this sacred banquet, desiring
only to meet Jesus. Come to these solemn symbols, these precious memorials
of His dying love, looking only to Jesus. Draw near in faith, expecting
to meet and to receive a blessing directly from Jesus.
It is not your name in this ordinance you remember, nor your love you
celebrate, nor your worthiness you present; but the Name, the love, the
worthiness of JESUS! Hesitate not, then, to take your place at the feast,
losing your sins, your sorrows, your trials, your needs, yourself in the
sweet fragrance of this “ointment,” as with a cloud it envelopes
you.
This “ointment” is “poured forth” in Christian communion
and FELLOWSHIP of the Lord’s people. “Then those who feared
the Lord spoke often one to another.” This is the true idea of the
“communion of saints,” speaking often one to another of Jesus.
Christian fellowship is one of the sweetest privileges, one of the most
heaven-helpful engagements of the saints on earth. How the ointment flows,
how the fragrance diffuses, how the spirit revives, how the heart burns
when Christians meet to talk of Jesus.
Jesus Himself draws near and communes with them. “Where two or three
are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
And where Jesus is, there is heaven. Aim in every circle to promote the
communion of saints—not restricting it to your own peculiar sect,
but embracing all of every sect upon whom this fragrant ointment rests.
Let not the communion of saints be a cold, lifeless article of your religious
belief, but a vital, influential element of your Christian life. See how
the holy Apostle panted for Christian fellowship—“I long to
see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end you
may be established; that is, that I stay be comforted together with you,
by the mutual faith both of you and I.” So let us speak often one
to another of Jesus.
“Forgotten be each worldly theme,
When Christians meet together thus
We only wish to speak of Him
Who lived and died and reigns for us.”
“We’ll talk of all He did and said
And suffered for us here below,
The path He marked for us to tread,
And what He’s doing for us now.”
“Thus, as the moments pass away,
We’ll love and wonder and adore,
And hasten on the glorious day
When we shall meet to part no more.”
Seek to be a sweet savor of Christ in every place. Be not ashamed of Him.
The alabaster box must be opened. The ointment must be poured forth. Christ
must be confessed before the world. There is no diffusive, reviving, healthful
influence, where the Name of Jesus is either basely denied, or timidly
concealed. We must not be ashamed of our Lord and Master on the one hand,
nor, on the other, consulting our personal ease and indolence, selfishly
withhold Him from our fellow sinners.
The ointment on our right hand must betray us. The world and the saints
must take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus. Every hour we
occupy, every service we engage in, every relation we sustain should be
redolent of the ointment poured forth. We must seek to bring souls to
Christ. Life should be one continuous sacred fragrance. But to this end
we must be more with Jesus the Anointed One. The spiritual verdure that
clothes us, the divine fruit that enriches us, and the holy fragrance
our personal religion sheds around us, emanates from Christ!
We must know our union with Christ. We must walk with Christ. We must
abide in Christ. We must open the conservatory of the soul and let the
Divine Sun shine in upon the flowers. We must throw wide every avenue
of the heart that the ointment may penetrate, yes even saturate, our entire
being—blending Jesus with every sorrow, entwining Him with every
joy, and associating Him with every service. Thus will our “garments
smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the very palace;” and
we shall go forth to duty, to suffering, and to toil, perfuming the moral
atmosphere in which we move with the odoriferous influence of His precious
Name.
This ointment possesses a marvellous soothing, softening virtue in seasons
of sorrow. Never is the Name of Jesus as the “Brother born for adversity,”
more precious to the believing heart than in the time of adversity. It
would seem as if Jesus bore a title appropriate to every condition of
the believer’s life. It pleased the Father that in Him, as the Mediator
of His Church, ALL fulness should dwell—all fulness for all circumstances.
But especially does His life of sorrow fit Him to be “the Consolation
of Israel.” Born in adversity—Sharon’s Rose bruised and
crushed by God, by man, and by Satan—how well was Jesus fitted by
the discipline through which He passed, to enfold His suffering Church
within the robe of human sympathy.
You are, perhaps, smarting under the severe chastening of your Heavenly
Father. The vase is shattered, and the flower that lent to life its sweetest
perfume, lies smitten and trailing in the dust, and the hand of God is
heavy upon you. But think of the Name of Jesus, what it involves. Think
of it as containing all, and infinitely more, than you have lost. Recall
the sweetness of a wife’s fond love, of a husband’s faithful
protection, of a child’s tender devotion, of a friend’s soothing
sympathy, of a minister’s unvarying kindness: yes, the sweetness
of every earthly good you once possessed, but possess no longer.
Then remember that all this is in Christ; that all this affection, all
this counsel, all this care, all this sympathy, and all this pleasantness
distilled from Him, the infinite Spring-head of all blessing! O what a
mercy that, when the rivulet is dried, and the stream is gone, and the
cloud shades the pleasant picture that adorned with its presence and brightened
with its smile our home-circle, Christ remains a sufficient substitute
for all—all of which combined could never have been an all-satisfying
substitute for Him.
Accept, then, the fragrant sympathy of Christ. No being in the universe
is so near to you, loves or compassionates you so deeply in your present
calamity as Christ does. Deem it not hard that He has dealt with you thus.
He has but transferred the flower from your bosom to His own—transplanting
it to a sunnier and holier climate. Jealous of your love, He would have
your undivided heart, and absorb your whole being in Himself. And O how
honored and blest you now are! You shall experimentally know more of Christ,
see more clearly His surpassing glory, drink more deeply His fathomless
love, and experience more fully His tender sympathy than in all the past
of your experience.
It is only in the school of adversity that we really know what the Lord
Jesus is. How much we learn from Him and of Him in one trial! Until the
trial brought us sobbing upon His heart, how little we knew what that
heart contained. Welcome, then, the grief that lifts you nearer to God,
and that increases your acquaintance with, and your peace and joy in,
the Lord Jesus.
Equally salutary is this sacred “ointment” in its influence
upon the intellectual powers of the soul. It enlightens and quickens the
mind. The human intellect is dark, stunted, and scentless, until it knows
Christ; and until it knows Christ by the teaching of the Spirit (that
anointing that teaches us of all things)—it does not know God. We
may put it simply thus. Christ is the true Revealer of God—God is
the great Object of man’s knowledge—therefore, we must know
Jesus properly and savingly to know God. Thus he who becomes a humble
and earnest student at Christ’s feet, however limited his intellectual
powers; really knows more of the wisdom and power and goodness of God,
than the most learned astronomer, the profoundest philosopher, or the
wisest sage, whose research has been limited by the range of creation.
Thus the study of Christ strengthens the intellect, while the knowledge
of God thus gained enriches, sanctifies, and ennobles it.
Would you quiet and sooth your heart? Bring it in close contact with Christ’s
human sympathy. Would you enlarge and enrich your mind? Bring it into
believing contact with Christ’s Divine person. O to know Jesus, that
most excellent and superlative knowledge! With Paul we may well count
all things but loss for its possession. To know Him as the Savior, to
know Him as our Friend, to know Him as our Brother, to know Him as our
Advocate, to know Him as our Portion, is endless life and glory. “This
is life eternal, that they might know You the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom You have sent.”
My reader, when death approaches what will all your human learning and
science avail you, without a saving knowledge of Christ? What if you fathom
all mysteries but the great mystery of God’s love in Jesus, and understand
all knowledge but the knowledge that you are saved? In that very hour
all your worldly, self-righteous, and erroneous thoughts perish. But a
spiritual knowledge of the Savior will stand by you at that awful moment,
sustain and comfort you, and light your soul’s pathway to glory.
It is the fragrance of this ointment which imparts such sacred and divinely
acceptable perfume to the believer’s PRAYERS. What, O suppliant,
bending before the mercy-seat, gives such touching eloquence and such
irresistible power to the devout breathings of your heart, to the faint
and faltering utterances of your lips, filling the temple above with their
fragrance? It is the power of Jesus’ atoning merit, investing with
its incense-cloud every petition you send up to heaven. “Whatever”
(says the Savior) “you ask in My Name that will I do, that the Father
may be glorified in the Son. If you will ask anything in My Name, that
will I do.”
O for more faith in the power of prayer offered in the Name of Jesus!
Not for your merit, O suppliant, will God grant this request, nor for
your demerit will He deny it—but He will do it all for Christ’s
sake. Approach then, sad heart, the mercy-seat. You wave in faith the
true censer, whose much incense is offered with the prayers of all saints
upon the golden altar which is before the throne, when you ask your blessing
and present your petition and make your confession of sin, in the Name
of Jesus, which wafts it to heaven as the sweetest perfume.
You need no interceding ‘virgin Mary’, no praying dead saint,
no suppliant angel, no human merit, of your own. Jesus supplies it all.
“Jesus alone shall bear my cries
Up to His Father’s throne
He, dearest Lord, perfumes my sighs,
And sweetens every groan.”
“Petitions now and praise may rise,
And saints their offerings bring
The Priest, with His own sacrifice,
Presents them to the King.”
So powerful is this “ointment,” IT IMPARTS AN UNDYING FRAGRANCE
TO ALL IT TOUCHES. A sphere the most obscure, a craft the most lowly,
a service the most feeble that is associated with Christ, becomes sacred
and ennobled. One touch of Christ sanctifies and immortalizes all. O how
the sacred perfume lives! Years have passed away, time’s many chequered,
changeful scenes have transpired, and yet the remembrance of that holy
life smells sweet and blossoms from the dust. Through some living character
it aided to form—or some eminent intellect it taught to shoot—or
some Christian work it indirectly started—or in some printed narrative
which records its history, the fragrance of that one life devoted to God
still lives, and will live forever.
What holy fragrance, too, breathes from pious books penned centuries ago!
And why? Because the holy men who wrote them were baptized in the perfume
of Christ’s Name. Of Him they wrote, to Him they still bear witness,
and every page is redolent of the sweetness of His truth. Who can turn
over the pages of Charnock, and Caryl, and Traill, and Rutherford, and
Leighton, and Bunyan, and a host of others, and not feel how precious
and undying is the fragrance that flows from Christ through the writings
of His servants long since gathered unto Him, who set forth the glories
of His person, the perfection of His work, the greatness of His love,
and the preciousness of His Word. Would that the pulpit and the press—the
preaching and the literature of the nation—were more deeply imbued
with the fragrance of this divine ointment—with the principles, and
precepts, and spirit of Christ’s holy Gospel! Of this we are thoroughly
persuaded, that the influence of this anointing is the only safe-guard
of the nation’s pulpit, and the only conservative element of the
nation’s sacred literature.
One or two words of CAUTION. Be watchful against that which would mar
the sweet savor of this holy ointment, and change its perfume into a pestilent
odor. There are many decomposing influences destructive of this sacred
confection, against which we must be prayerfully vigilant. Inbred corruption,
unholy selfishness, morbid irritability, an uncharitable spirit, an unsanctified
temper, levity of manner, tampering with error, sporting with sin, trifling
with sin, needless exposure to temptation, are as “dead flies which
spoil the ointment,” and cause it to send forth an sickly savor.
Let us then, as the Lord’s anointed, as the royal priesthood upon
whose head the golden oil has been poured—bear it holily, employ
it usefully, and in its sacred fragrance walk humbly with our God.
A second caution is—beware of mixing up with this Divine ointment,
anything of your own miserable invention, or of sinfully attempting its
imitation. God gave especial instructions respecting this point: “Whoever
compounds any like it, shall even be cut off from the people.” God’s
work is perfect—Christ’s salvation is complete—the Savior’s
sacrifice is finished, and needs no creature merit, or human ceremonial
to perfect its efficacy, or heighten its splendor. Jesus is the one and
only Savior of sinners—“Neither is there salvation in any other,
for there is no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must
be saved.” Away, then, with all your vain, contemptible, and sinful
attempts to add to the virtue, fragrance, and worth of this Divine and
precious ointment by self-righteous doings, dead duties, and worldly ritual
of your own. Attempt to improve God’s works in creation if you will—add
warmth to the sun-beam, glow to the stars, beauty to the lily, fragrance
to the violet, luster to the diamond, and let your littleness and folly
be manifest, but lay no unhallowed hand upon the Ark of salvation, mix
no human ingredient with the anointing of God, tamper not with the fragrance,
preciousness, and efficacy of the name of Jesus, lest you perish in your
sin, and your crime be written in eternal misery, lamentation, and woe.
Deep and lasting is the love to Jesus which the fragrance of this ointment
inspires. “Therefore do the virgins love You.” When the Holy
Spirit opens up this glorious Gospel, (the Divine and precious box which
contains the ‘ointment’) and reveals the Name of Jesus to the
heart, love admiring, love adoring, love obeying, love serving, love sacrificing,
love assimilating will bear the whole being onward by its all-commanding
and irresistible force! Would you love the Savior with a more intense
and influential affection? Inhale much of the fragrance of His Name, and
ask for more copious effusion upon your soul of this Divine and precious
ointment. Seek in every service and in every trial, and in every duty,
with David, to be “anointed with FRESH Oil.”
UNCONVERTED SINNER! You may think lightly of the Name of Jesus now. You
may hate and despise it. It may have no music in your ear, or sweetness
to your soul. But remember that the day is coming—how fast it speeds!—when,
“at the Name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, of things in heaven
and things on earth and things under the earth, and when every tongue
shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
In that last great day your knee shall bow, either in adoring love or
in trembling submission —yes, even yours! Bow your heart to Him now,
that it may be well with you in that solemn day.
And what, we ask, in conclusion, is that which makes your sick-room so
sweet, and your dying-bed so pleasant? It is Christ’s precious name
poured forth! Death, so dreaded by others, will come to you, around whose
pillow glory streams down from Immanuel’s land, wearing a countenance
of beauty and a robe of fragrance, supremely, unutterably glorious and
precious.
The departing believer views death through Christ, the lovely and the
all-conquering One; and so death looks lovely, pleasant, and harmless.
Oh! then, as, perhaps, never before, the Holy Spirit will unseal this
sacred box of ointment, and the NAME OF JESUS, when every other name has
faded, will cling to your memory and heart, you blest saint, departing
now amid its life-sustaining and heaven wafting fragrance. “Unto
You Therefore Who Believe He Is Precious.”
“There is A NAME I love to hear;
I love to sing its worth
It sounds like music in my ear,
The sweetest name on earth.
“It tells me of a Savior’s love,
Who died to set me free
It tells me of His precious blood-
The sinner’s perfect plea.
“It tells me of a Father’s smile
Beaming upon His child
It cheers me through this little while,
Through desert, waste, and wild.
“It tells me what my Father has
In store for every day;
And though I tread a darksome path,
Yields sunshine all the way.
“It tells of One whose loving heart
Can feel my smallest woe;
Who in each sorrow bears a part
That none can bear below.
“It bids my trembling soul rejoice,
And dries each rising tear
It tells me, in a ‘still small voice,’
To trust and not to fear.
“Jesus! the name I love so well,
The name I love to hear!
No saint on earth its worth can tell
No heart conceive how dear.
“This name shall shed its fragrance still
Along this thorny road;
Shall sweetly smooth the rugged hill
That leads me up to God!
“And there, with all the blood-bought throng,
From sin and sorrow free,
I’ll sing the new eternal song
Of Jesus’ love to me!”