Spirit bestowed on Him at His Ascension, when on Hist coronation day all the angels of God were bidden to worship Him; and the song was sung-"Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows."*

It is impossible to contemplate these things as they are in our Lord, without inquiring what part we, His Church and people, have in them.

It is certain that we also are anointed, and with the same oil of the Holy Ghost. "He which stablisheth us together with you in Christ," writes St. Paul," and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." And St. John declares-" Ye have an unction" a chrism, an anointing "from the Holy One."‡ The connection with sealing in the first passage indicates that this anointing comes to us in the laying on of Apostles' hands.§ And its result in us, as in Him, is priesthood and kingship. "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood" is St. Peter's word to the Church.|| "Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests" is the ascription to the Lamb of His redeemed ones. For our anointing is that of His Ascension, not that of His Baptism. The oil which at Pentecost flowed down to the skirts of His garment was that which had just before been poured on His head :**" being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the

*Heb. i. 3-9.
§ Comp. Eph. i. 13
Rev. v. 10.

† 2 Cor. i. 21, 22. with Acts xix. 1-9. Comp. i. 6.

+ I John ii. 20. || 1 Pet. ii. 9. ** Psalm cxxxiii.

promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." It does anoint the Church to be the prophetess of God with Him; but this because priest and prophet are no longer distinct offices, and coincide in all.

The oil of this anointing is, we say, the Holy Ghost. Not that it is the first time that the Spirit has visited us, and made us the subject of His operations. But when He came before, He came under the symbol of water, not of oil. Water is for cleansing, for drink, for fertilizing. Of the first we read-" He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost."* Of the second-"We have all been made to drink into one Spirit" "If any man thirst, let him come to Me, and drink. This spake He of the Spirit, which they who believed on Him should receive." Of the third"the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given us." In all it is as the Spirit of Jesus the Saviour that the Comforter comes to us. But anointing is for knowledge and discernment, for glory and strength. "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." "The anointing which ye have received abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him."§ The Church is "anointed" as Jesus was "with the Holy Ghost and with power," that she may go about doing good as He did. This is the work of the Spirit of Christ, the Minister of God. He comes as oil, not to make the new creature, but to "enrich it in all utterance and in all

*Tit. iii. 5.

† 1 Cor. xii. 13; John vii. 37-39. Rom. v. 5; Heb. vi. 7. § 1 John ii. 20-27.

knowledge so that it may come behind in no gift whereby God's work may be done. And so chrism is used at the Laying on of Hands, but water in Baptism. We receive baptism first, and afterwards chrism. We begin with the Lord as Jesus, and then follow on to know Him as Christ.

It is well that we should so follow on, and not stop short at the name Jesus. But let us never lose hold of that Name, with all that it imports or we shall fail to reach the Christ. It is those who love righteousness and hate wickedness, as saved by Him, who shall be anointed with the oil of gladness with Him as His fellows. Our witness to the Church at large is that she is wanting in the oil: let us see that we lack not the water. Apostles, as their ministering draws to its close, set the water by the threshold of the churches to say this to us. On the verge of being called to go up to Mount Zion, it speaks to us as of old-"Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation."

SECOND SUNDAY AFTER CIRCUMCISION.

The Youth of Jesus.

Luke ii. 41-52.

This is the key

"IN stature grows the Holy Child." note of all that is special in to-day's services. The Gospel ends by telling us that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. And it gives us some glimpses into the surroundings amid which this growth took place, and by which it was favoured.

The first of these glimpses is afforded by the scene among the Doctors of the Law in the Temple. There is a not uncommon misunderstanding of this transaction, which supposes that the boy Jesus was, from the height of His superior wisdom, instructing the Masters in Israel. The language of the narrative lends no countenance to such a view. He was found "in the Temple, sitting among the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers." The learned in the Law of Moses sate there to teach, to catechize, and to give any information which might be asked for. Jesus gladly availed Himself of the opportunity, and was among them as other learners, He grew in wisdom as in stature because He availed Himself of every opportunity of being taught. He had already come to the consciousness of Who He was, and knew that He must be about His Father's business. But that business was then to learn.

Not till eighteen more years had passed over His head was He to stand forth as a Teacher sent from God, speaking the very words of God because God gave not His Spirit by measure unto Him.* Now He was learning. He came to those who sate in Moses' seat, assured that the knowledge they dispensed was the very truth of God. The Father had so ordered it, in shaping the circumstances of the earthly life of His Son. He had prepared a body for Him,—a nation and a church in which the true God was worshipped, and His genuine laws known. Thus the forms of truth surrounded Him from His infancy; and the best food the world had then received, the writings of Moses and the Prophets, nourished His budding life. From hence He learnt His Father's mind and will. "I have more understanding than all my teachers," He could indeed say: but He went on—“ for Thy testimonies are My meditation." And again—“ I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts."

Herein we see one of the means of the growth in wisdom of the Holy Child. Another, and one at least not less important, is hinted at in the words, "He went down with His parents and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." That the nation into which God's Son incarnate was born should be worshippers of the true God was highly necessary. But what a needs-be there also was for purity in the family life in which His early years were spent! That the Father chose and fashioned Israel to be His people, we are sure; we are not less sure that He chose and fashioned Mary of Nazareth to be His mother.