Directions followed for making the holy ointment with which the tabernacle and its appurtenances were to be anointed. The chief component is the olive oil, which, being mingled with certain fragrant and medicinal qualities, typifies the unction of the Holy One who sanctifies by His presence the true Tabernacle of God.
Then the Incense or Holy Perfume is described. The making of this, and also of the ointment, was a sacred commission, invested with a charge of unusual solemnity; and the reason is evident, for the one typifies the essential personality of the Divine Son, and the other that of the Divine Spirit. None but the omniscient can comprehend all that is here signified; and it behooves us to have much care and reverence in considering these things, where the essential nature of Divine Being is presented. The command is given that whosoever should make any imitation of the incense should be cut off from his people, because what experience has seen, prophecy has foreseen—that there is nothing so attractive to a certain class of mind as this very occupation of composing counterfeit Christs. We can no more comprehend the nature of our Lord than we can comprehend infinitude; and all we can do is to accept what is presented in the scriptures for our reverent contemplation, and not essay to go beyond with our shallow reasonings and carnal speculations. But the pedant will rush in where angels fear to tread. He undertakes to explain the whole mystery of godliness. Has he not measured the Infinite with his three-foot rule? Has he not litmus paper in one hand and a pair of small compasses in the other? How deftly does he apply the terms of arithmetic to the Eternal!
Having thus analyzed he commences to reconstruct; but just here is where his efforts are outwardly least satisfactory. He makes something that is like the original—so like indeed that many can see no difference—but there is a difference. The difference is that which generally exists between what God makes and what man counterfeits, the difference between diamond and paste, between gold and pinchbeck.
The system of the pedant is by no means a new thing. It is as old at least as Arius the Libyan, whom stout old Athanasius withstood. Arius was indeed the very high priest of pedants. He analyzed and reconstructed till he presented the church with a Christ so like the real Christ that many till this day cannot tell the difference. But it was not the same. To use his own pedantic language, it was homoiousian but not homoousian. Arius however was undoubtedly a man singularly devout, venerable, and learned. That is not the case always with the learned pedant; but, to compensate for the absence of these three qualities he has “l'audace, encore l'audace, et toujours l'audace” that is usually sufficient to found and lead a new school on.
Now the peremptory command given against this class of offense takes no cognizance as to whether the imitation is a good or a bad one of the original; the command is against making the attempt at all. I have always thought, besides, that in respect of these speculations on the personality of our Lord, it is not so much a question as to whether they be correct or incorrect. The sin is in entering into such speculations at all, nor is the least part of the offense the peculiarity in this, that it compels the minds of multitudes of persons to enter into the same profane sphere of thought, and turns themes of a delicacy and solemnity too great for speech into the faction cries of vulgar controversy.
All this, however, should not hinder us from reverently contemplating what the scripture has revealed, whether by type or abstract statement. The boundary line between devotion and profanity is not passed so long as we keep within what God has been pleased to disclose. In the components of the ointment and perfume before us, for instance, we can perceive the elements of light-giving (in the olive oil); elements which express an inward origin (as the myrrh), an inward shield (as the cinnamon), an outward characteristic (as the cassia). The calamus then is the pith of a reed. This ointment was not to be put on “man's flesh.” The mere fleshly nature, how innocent soever it may be, cannot receive the Spirit of God.
In the incense there is expressed a reference to grace (stacte, Cant. 5:13, etc.) inward richness (galbanum), and fragrance (onycha—while the word itself comes from a root signifying “a lion"). The frankincense is expressive amongst other things of purity. All these elements were to be salted together (lit., Exodus 30:3535And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy: (Exodus 30:35)).
This incense was to be “beaten very small,” and burned on the golden altar. It is the highest expression of worship. Its substance is deliberately consumed in the service of God, and before His face. What ardor and devotion are here signified? And in this as all else is our Lord an example for His disciples. The martyr of Prague gave it expression when he said, “This body in flames, I give to Thee!” “If they had not been flesh and blood,” says “old Fuller,” speaking of the martyrs, “they could not have been burnt; and if they had been no more than flesh and blood, they would not have been burnt.” He speaks too of “The Forgotten Martyrs” “God's calendar is, more complete than man's best martyrologies, and their names are written in the book of life who on earth are wholly forgotten.” Nor is it only of those who have died in material fires that I speak. It may be that this kind of worship is going on around us every day far more than we know of—where one immolates the whole body, soul and spirit like the old apostle, who said with as much grandeur as simplicity, “I am now ready to be offered.” This immolation is a submissive and passive attitude, “ready to be offered.” It is not meant of course that there can be any justification for men in wantonly inviting death. Indeed the sacrifice is not so much carried out by death as terminated by death. The distortion of this principle may be seen in those who are misled into taking away their own lives, as did the warriors of Otho when he died, or that Burmese who of late burnt himself before his god; their action we know to be wrong. Yet we may well desire the devotion that impelled it.
“ Beaten very small!” And every blow that falls upon it only causes it to yield some fresh fragrance. This was its sole retaliation, like that noble tree which, when wounded, yielded its goodly balm. Every blow that fell on Him, and every crushing humiliation, brought out more and more the fragrant beauties of His nature.
Burnt with fire! And as the scorching flames consume it, it only becomes more and more transformed into a burning and shining light. Consumed it seems to the outward sight; but the eyes of Faith, Love, and Hope can see that it has not perished, but that it is by the sufferance of these fires transformed, spiritualized, and etherealized, and that it ascends odorous with the beauties of its holy perfume into the bosom of the Father.