1 O. F. S. P. Jenkins.
PSALM cxxxiii. I 131
that is other than its own, the severed limb or dissected organ loses its whole reality and worth, and becomes mere dead matter.
^ In the last year of his life, the Bishop wrote to Dr. Guinness Eogers, one of the best known of the leaders of English Noncon- formity : " To me it is the most painful proof of our inadequate hold on the principles of Christianity that the profession of those principles should be a cause of disunion and bitter feeling. Attempts to remedy this fail because they conceive unity as something external and structural. When we look at the de- velopment of the world, we see increasingly varied opinions kept within useful limits by a general sense of the common welfare. I can conceive of a Christian commonwealth, consisting of bodies of believers each with opinions of their own about matters of organization, understanding one another, and respecting one another, yet conscious of a common purpose, which transcends all human methods. An Italian friend of mine quoted in a letter a saying of a Greek Bishop — that our systems were necessary protections against the storms of the world, but though the walls might be thick below, they all opened to the same heaven." ^
11.
The Eealization of Unity.
1. The Psalmist gives us two figures. Both are peculiar, and perhaps difficult for us to understand; but both are very ex- pressive to the Eastern mind. They are the figures of the oil and the dew. Brotherly unity is like " the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard ; that came down upon the skirt of his garments." Brotherly unity is like " the dew of Hermon, that cometh down upon the mountains of Zion." Evidently in each of these figures the pervading, spreading, and beautifying influence of the sympathetic spirit is represented. God Himself pours on men the sacred anointing of His Divine Spirit and the dew of His quickening influences. When His servants are knit together, as they should be, they impart to one another the spiritual gifts received from above. When Christians are truly one as brethren, God's grace will fructify through each to all.
* Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton, ii. 472.
132 UNITY
(1) Like the 'precious oil. — Easterns perfumed themselves with fragrant oils, much as we do now with scented spirits ; and the idea of the ointment spoken of would come home better to us if it were called " scent." The fragrant oil used to prepare the high priest for his solemn duties was made by special injunction from God, and the smell of it was strong and delightful. Poured on Aaron's head, it ran down his face and neck, touched the collar of his robe, and spread its fragrance to its very edge, and the whole place was filled and sanctified with the delightful Divine odours. So, pour down on any family, or Church, the sweet- smelling oil of unity, peacefulness, mutual bearing and forbearing, and brotherly love, and it will flow down over the whole body, adorning every member, and making every one a centre of frag- rance and a fount of blessing.
The emblem is felicitous by reason of the preciousness, the fragrance and the manifold uses of oil ; but these are to be taken into account only in a subordinate degree, if at all. The one point of comparison is the flow of the oil from the priestly head on to the beard and thence to the garments. It is doubtful whether ver. 2 refers to the oil or to the beard of the high priest. The latter reference is preferred by many, but the former is more accordant with the parallelism, and with the use of the word " flows down," which can scarcely be twice used in regard to oil and dew, the main subjects in the figures, and be taken in an entirely different reference in the intervening clause.
^ Luther says, " In that He saith ' from the head,' He showeth the nature of true concord. For like as the ointment ran down from the head of Aaron, the high priest, upon his beard, and so descended unto the borders of his garments, even so true concord in doctrine and brotherly love floweth as a precious ointment, by the unity of the Spirit, from Christ, the High Priest and Head of the Church, unto all the members of the same. For by the beard and extreme parts of the garment He signifieth, that as far as the Church reacheth, so far spreadeth the unity which floweth from Christ her head."
(2) Like the dew of Hermon. — In this figure the same idea is preserved. The dew touches first the head, the high hill of Hermon, but it descends to the lesser hills of Zion, and spreads its refreshing influences over mountain-side and vale. Dew is the
PSALM cxxxiii. I 133
emblem of Divine grace and blessing, so it may well be used as a figure for the special grace of brotherly unity. Wherever that gracious dew falls, the dry families, the dry churches of Zion, are surely nourished and refreshed.
^ How can the dew of Hermon in the far north fall on the mountains of Zion ? Some commentators, as Delitzsch, try to make out that " an abundant dew in Jerusalem might rightly be accounted for by the influence of the cold current of air sweep- ing down from the north over Hermon." But that is a violent supposition ; and there is no need to demand meteorological accuracy from a poet. It is the one dew which falls on both mountains; and since Hermon towers high above the height of Zion, and is visited with singular abundance of the nightly bless- ing, it is no inadmissible poetic licence to say that the loftier hill transmits it to the lesser. Such community of blessing is the result of fraternal concord, whereby the high serve the lowly, and no man grudgingly keeps anything to himself, but all share in the good of each. Dew, like oil, is fitted for this symbolic use, by reason of qualities which, though they do not come prominently into view, need not be wholly excluded. It refreshes the thirsty ground and quickens vegetation ; so fraternal concord, falling gently on men's spirits, and linking distant ones together by a mysterious chain of transmitted good, will help to revive failing strength and refresh parched places.^