Delaware inquirer. (Wilmington, Del.) 1859-18??, 1860-04-07
NEW JERUSALEM SERMON.
BY REV. Abel SILVER.

Rev. vi o: See that thou hurt not the oil and tile wine
How merciful and kind is our heavenly Father
towards US Infinite indeed is his compass
sionate care. In how many thousand ways
does he caution us against hurting ourselves
He watches over us with the tenderest interest.
He keeps around us his protecting angels and
extends to us the immediate influence of his
Spirit lie spreads out before US the book OF
Nature, filling il with prompters to caution and
care He comes to us in his Holy Word, and
whispers in accents of the tenderest mercy
All his commandments are in the voice of love:
they forbid only the things that will hurt us,
and require only those that will bless us. And
particularly in our text does he come with Il
most merciiu adm0niton; and, if we are care
full TO regard it, the highest possible blessings
will be ours.
"See that thou hurt not the oil and the wine.'
All the evils that have ever fallen upon our
race came by hurting the oil and the wine' for
the oil denotes goodness; and the wine, truth.
But the oil is the primary essence. without
the oil there can be no wine II we take all
the essential oil from the grape, we take all
its flavor; we take all that is good The oil is
as the life of the wiue. So goodness is the life
of truth.
God, therefore, makes very prominent use
of oil throughout the Holy Word. On the most
important occasions, oil is used to teach that
the heart must be in the work; that goodness
must be there love of God, love of right, must
be there, or ali will fail. Kings and priests,
on taking their office, were therefore anointed,
not only upon their heads, but also upon their
clothing. And how appropriate and cmphat-
ic the instruction Oil is so soft and so SMOOTH
II is so gentle in its flow, and so soothing in its
effects. It is, indeed, n most striking symbol
of love, kindness, goodness, gentleness, mercy.
Oil upon the heads of kings and priests
teaches that their heads and their hearts should
be one, or that they should be both true and
| good It denotes that all their wisdom and
| Judgment, all their government and teaching,
should be tempered with mercy-shouid now
| from love and goodwill Oil upon their gar
ments denotes that this justice and mercy
should characterize their whole Department.
| all their acts of life
How important, then, with these views,
would be the amounting ceremony How for
| chilly should we be struck with its beauty and
its use, should the priest or governor, on being
| indicted into his office, solemnly and consci-
| entiously receive the amounting; thus making a
most sacred pledge to God and the world that
he would teach or govern the people in love
and goodwill, and would walk before them in
| the spirit of Gods love and the power of his
truth Were this solemn responsibility felt by
priests and rulers, what change would soon
come over all our land Truth and love from
God, in union, teaching and governingthe peo-
ple,-such teaching, such government, and
such example, truly understood, felt, and car
red out, by all the ministers and rulers of the
earth, would gradually bring the whole world
into heavenly peace and order.
But not only were kings and priest amounted
but also implements of war. Now, in the spir-
final sense of the Word, all wars commanded
by The Lord are combats against the evils and
filses Of humanity, and all the implements Of
defence used denote truths They therefore
anointed the sword, the spear, the shield, and
the buckler, to teach that we must have good
ness with the truth; that, how much truth So
ever we might have, it would never be success
full without love. The sword Of the spirit must
be anonted with the oil of love. The colo
truth of the head alone will never conquer al
evil of the soul: the i'll must be united will
II. We must first love the truth; we must oil
the sword. ar il will have no good effect
Therefore il is written. Arise, we precious
anoint the bucklern We are never equipped
for Gods battles without our heart and sou
are in the work. As the natural sword, with
ont mercy, would be bathed in crime; so thu
truth without goodness, is looked upon as i'm
pure II is therefore written, THE shield o
I Saul is polluted, not being anointed with OIL
Separate from goodness, no efforts are pure
The shield must he anointed The love of Coo
+ must be in all the armor of the soldiers o
Christ.
And not only in battles against evils, but al
so in acts of worship, oil was to be used
They anointed their alters. After denotes wor
ship. Affairs were of stone. Stone denote
, truth. BY oil upon the altar, then, we ar
! taught that our heart must be in our worship
Love to God and the neighbor must be there
! the love of the truth OF the Word must be there
The heart must be given to God. The will
must yield to the truth The oil must be up
l on the altar.
{ The Lord, in Matthew, commands us, whe
: we fast to anoint our head and wash our face
: To fast spiritually is to be in cold, dark STATE
: receiving no heavenly food. In that state W
$ are to anoint our head; that is, we are to brin
e our affections into the truth of the Word, G
! yield our will to the light of the truth; we al
e TO anoint our head.
e "When thou fastest anoint thy head nm
i wash thy face" The face denotes all the a
i fections of the soul. To wash denotes regent
t. ration; to cleanse from sin. This cleansing