Evening , November 29, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Spices for the anointing oil.” — Exodus 35:8

This anointing oil was used often under the law, and what it represents is of primary importance under the gospel. The Holy Spirit, who anoints us for all holy service, is indispensable to us if we would serve the Lord acceptably. Without his aid our religious services are but a vain sacrifice, and our inward experience is a dead thing. Whenever our ministry is without divine direction, what miserable stuff it becomes! And all the prayers, praises, meditations, and efforts of private Christians are not one bit superior. A holy anointing is the soul and life of piety; its absence the most grievous of all calamities. To go before the Lord without anointing is as though some common Levite had thrust himself into the priest’s office–his ministry would rather have been sin than service. May we never venture into holy exercises without sacred anointing. It drops upon us from Christ, our glorious Head; from his anointing we who are no more than the skirts of his garments share in spiritual power. Choice spices were combined with the rarest art of the apothecary to form the anointing oil, to show forth to us how rich are all the influences of the Holy Spirit. All good things are found in the divine Comforter. Matchless comfort, infallible instruction, immortal infusion of life, spiritual energy, and divine sanctification all lie combined  with other excellent elements in that sacred eye-salve, the heavenly anointing oil of the Holy Spirit. It imparts a delightful fragrance to the character and person of the man upon whom it is poured. Nothing like it can be found in all the treasuries of the rich, or the secrets of the wise. It is not to be imitated. It comes alone from God, and it is freely given, through Jesus Christ, to every waiting soul. Let us seek it, for we may have it, may have it this very evening. O Lord, anoint your servants.