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in every place ; in the " golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints." ^
3. In Scripture anointing with oil is employed as an emblem of the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit. "Ye have an unction from the Holy One." "The anointing which ye have received from him abideth in you." It is not only that there is the hope of o, future salvation possessed by the believer, but the joy of a 'present salvation begun even now — not only the " earnest of the Spirit," as the evidence that the inheritance is purchased, but the purifying presence of the Spirit consciously preparing him for its sacred delights and occupations. Christ is said to have been *' anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows," but all His fellows, every man in His own order, are partakers of it.
III.
Enkichment.
" My cup runneth over."
When seated at His table, He puts a cup into my hand — the cup of blessing, the cup of salvation ; and it is not merely full but overflowing. He can afford to fill it ; for the " Fountain of Jacob," the source of blessing, is inexhaustible. This overflowing cup represents His abundant goodness. The year is crowned with the goodness of God ; the earth is full of it ; but this is " the goodness of his house" the goodness which He has laid up for them that fear Him ; and wrought for them that trust in Him before the sons of men. It comprehends blessings of all sorts, all gifts of His holy and loving heart, fitted to contribute to our well- being and joy.
^ If God were recognized at all times as the Giver and the Gift, every natural meal would be truly sacramental in all degrees, being recognized as the expression of Divine love in visible form, the natural clothing and continent of spirit and life. All truth would be realized as Divine truth, all labour as God's working through His children, all needful rest and recreation as God's Sabbath ; every day the Lord's Day ; every dwelling a Bethel, and every man the Temple of the Lord in whom Christ dwells.^ ^ J. Culross, God's Shepherd Care, 131. * J. W. Farquhar.
484 ENTERTAINMENT, ENRICHMENT
1. Our cup of natural blessings is overflowing. We see this —
(1) In the leauty of creation as opposed to mere utility. The sad philosopher of antiquity confessed: "He hath made every- thing beautiful in his time"; and the poet of to-day rejoices: " All things have more than barren use." Some modern cynics have roundly abused nature and tried hard to show the seamy side of the rainbow, but the loveliness and grandeur of things are too much for them, and the poet's vocation is not yet gone. Our natural belief also in the spirituality and transcendence of the beautiful and sublime is too profound to be uprooted by the utilitarian, however ingeniously he may argue on the material and physiological. Everywhere we see nature passing beyond utility into that delightful something we call beauty, glory, grandeur. Sounds harmonize into music ; colours glow until the round world seems a broad, unwasting iris ; cries blend into songs ; the earth breaks into blossoms ; the sky kindles into stars.
Nature never did betray The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege. Through all the years of this our life, to lead Prom joy to joy: for she can so inform I The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, Kash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all The dreary intercourse of daily life, Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold Is full of blessings.!
(2) In the abundance of creation as opposed to mere sujfficiency. "Thou preparest a table before me." And how richly is that table furnished ! We have a school of political economists which is tormented by the dread of population outstripping the means of subsistence, and is ever warning society against the awful peril. What confusions of heart and understanding do all these ominous vaticinations betray, seeing we dwell in a world so rich and elastic !
^ However the utilitarian may urge his sordid story, we cannot look at the superb dome of many-coloured glass above us,
^ Wordsworth.
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or ponder the vast panorama of earth and sea, full of pictures, poems, and symphonies which human art at best only darkly mirrors, without feeling that life inherits riches far beyond all material uses. The gorgeous garniture of the universe, at which the mere physicist stumbles, and which generations of meta- physicians fail to explain, is simply the overflow of our royal cup.^
^ At one period of his life John Stuart Mill was distressed by the apprehension of the exhaustibility of musical combinations, but he came to see that the possibilities of original harmony are practically infinite. It would be a blessing if that school of economists with which Mill is identified could be brought to perceive that the possibilities of the world on every side are practically infinite.^
2. Our cup of social blessings is overflowing. God setteth the solitary in families. He has constituted society that the joy of life might be full. See the precious clusters which through this gracious arrangement are pressed into our cup !