PRACTICAL THOUGHTS ON SCRIPTURE SUBJECTS.
By John Nevins Andrews
This, according to Solomon, is better than precious ointment. Eccl. vii, 1. It is even better than great riches. Prov. xxii, 1. The most precious ointment was that with which the tabernacle was anointed by Moses. It was composed of the most fragrant spices, exceedingly expensive, and of the choicest character. Ex. xxx, 22–38. With this, also, the priests were anointed. Very precious, also, was that used by Mary in anointing Jesus for his burial. John xii, 30; also of that prepared by Nicodemus and the holy women who prepared our Lord for his burial. John xix, 38–40; Mark xvi, 1; Luke xxiii, 56; xxiv, 1. A good name is better than precious ointment, or better than great riches. It is compared with these because of some points of resemblance. 1. Value. 2. The elements composing each. 3. How obtained, or prepared. Men prize riches as representing all earthly good, and as being that whereby anything that earth has is to be purchased. Gold and silver and the most precious things stand as the elements that represent riches. These can only be obtained by the most diligent, pains-taking, wisely-directed efforts. The precious ointment was very costly. Its elements were those of the most fragrant and desirable character. They were crushed to fine powder in order that they might be compounded, and that their fragrance might be given forth. A good name is more valuable than these. But it is not the name of great statesmen, eloquent orators, or mighty conquerors, that Solomon thus commends. No, indeed. These names are stained with pride, selfishness, cruelty, and vileness. That good name which the Holy Spirit so highly commends, is a name fragrant with humility, self-sacrifice, patience, purity, and love of God and of our fellow-men. It is the new name given to the real Christian. It is the name which the book of life shall reveal, at the last day, to him who has overcome. Such a name is more precious than great riches. Rather it is itself infinite riches, for he who has it shall inherit all things. It is a fragrant name; for all the graces of the Holy Spirit are compounded to form it. The compounding process is painful and crushing; but without this there would be no fragrance, or next to none. The lives of such men as Moses, Job, and262Paul, show how God compounds these sweet spices by the crushing process, and how tender, pitiful, and loving, after all, is that hand that smites. This good name does not represent earthly greatness, but heavenly goodness. To this let me add one most impressive caution out of the word of God. “A single dead fly will ruin the most precious pot of ointment, so a little folly him that is had in reputation for wisdom and honor.” Eccl. x, 1. Not to imitate but to shun her example. When Lot and his wife went forth from Sodom on the morning of its destruction they left behind their entire earthly substance. Lot and his wife each believed the warning to flee to be a warning from Heaven. Each set out to make escape from the devoted city. But now observe the difference. Lot had one grand, controlling purpose; obedience to God and escape from ruin. His wife was a double-minded person, unstable in all her ways. She believed the warning, but she also loved her treasures in Sodom. Zoar had attractions; so had Sodom. These two conflicting desires drew her in opposite directions. She set out for Zoar and urged her course in that direction so long as she could. Meanwhile the strong feelings that drew her back toward Sodom became so intense that she turned to look back. In a moment she is changed to a pillar of salt. And thus she perishes midway between Sodom and Zoar, sharing neither the deliverance of her household nor the fate of common sinners, but left to stand upon the plain, an awful example to all double-minded professors. What anguish must have filled the heart of Lot when he found that his wife was not with him. But his singleness of purpose contrasts wonderfully with the double-mindedness of his wife. He did not look back even when his wife had become a pillar of salt. The ruin of Lot’s wife was the result of her previous mistaken religious experience. Had she cultivated the same singleness of purpose as her husband, she would have endured the test as well as he. Her ruin was made sure by her failure to live with singleness of heart for God. Alas! how many now in our ranks are just in the case of Lot’s wife the decisive test will soon show. The most wonderful display of miraculous power is that whereby a sinner, covered with guilt and pollution, and deeply stained with transgression, is transformed into an innocent, sinless being, fit for the society of the heavenly angels. If this most incredible change can be wrought by the transforming, regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, let us never doubt that such things as are recorded in the Scriptures of the mighty works of God, have been really wrought. Commanding the light to shine out of darkness is nothing to the work of illuminating the dark mind of the sinner with the indwelling light of the Holy Spirit. But with many persons the work of conversion, or changing a sinful man to render him a Christian, is a very small matter. The transgressor, stained with inward guilt and covered with transgression, has the sinless robe of Christ thrown over him, and lo! he is a Christian, fitted to enter the presence of God. Pride, selfishness, dishonesty, envy, and hatred, may have place in his heart, but in the sight of God he is humble, unselfish, meek, honest, and forgiving, because these excellent qualities that dwell in their perfection in Christ, are all imputed to him. The robe of Christ’s perfect righteousness is put upon the shoulders of the sinner, and, thus arrayed, he passes the inspection of the day of Judgment. Surely, such a doctrine is an awful delusion, a fatal mistake. Christ’s humility will never hide the guilt of our pride. Our pride itself must be put away, or we shall be stubble in the day of God. The saints are to be clothed in white raiment when they appear before the throne, but it is raiment that they have washed in Jesus’ blood. It is raiment that had been stained and is now spotless because of the cleansing process to which it has been subjected. Nor is the Christian to be clean with reference to his raiment only. He is to be clean within and without . God desires truth in the inward parts. The man himself must be purged with hyssop (a bitter herb representing repentance,) till he is clean in the sight of the all-seeing Judge. He is to be washed till he is whiter than snow. His heart is to be rendered pure, his hands are to be made clean, himself to be without spot, or stain, that he may be found unblamable and unreprovable when he shall appear in the Judgment. If such be the character and the extent of the work of preparation, no wonder Peter exhorts us to be diligent, that we may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless. Even when this has been made the business of life, it will not be a light thing to pass the inspection of the Judge of all the earth. “If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?”