Delaware inquirer. (Wilmington, Del.) 1859-18??, 1860-04-07

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the face, then, is to repent of our sins in the
power Of the truth. "When thou fastest, anoin
thy head and wash thy face" means, When
thou art cold and unkind, receiving no good
ness obey and love the truth, and repent Of
thy sins; 'anont thy head and wash thy face.
BY all these illustrations, we see that to hurt
the oil Is to hurt goodness, in any of its varic-
ties, forms or uses. To hurt goodness is to
hurt its effects and influence upon ourselves
and others. It is to prevent its free flow and
use, or TO adnlterate ii with evil, or to turn il
from Its proper channel.
The truly anointed of the Lord--th0se who
receive the love of God in union with the truth,
those who hurt not the oil and the wine-are
highly spoken of in the Holy Word. It is de-
clared that the Lord will save his anointed;'
that "he will exalt the born of his anointed."-
He says "With holy oil have anointed thee y
To such, il is said, he gives ''the oil of joy for
mourning
A most interesting and instructive lesson
from the union of goodness and truth is SYM
bolically taught by an act of Jacob. The mar
ratiye is as follows: "And Jacob arose early
in the morning, and took the stone which he
had put for his pillow, and set ii up for a pill
lar and poured oil upon it. AndJacob vowed
a vow, saying, off God will be with me and
keep me in this way that co. and will give
me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so /
come again to my Fathers house in peace,
then shall the Lord be my Cod and this stone,
which have set up for pillar, shall be Gods
house." Now, all who read this narrative are
ready to ask why Jacob set up the stone, and
poured oil upon it; and also why, if Jacob
should be fed and clothed and arrive at his
Fathers house in peace, that stone would be
| Gods house.
And it is certain that no one can answer
| these questions without the spiritual SENSE
| The stone denotes the divine truth. The stone
cut out ofthe mountain, which was to fill the
whole earth, was truth from the mountain of
love il was the Word from the Father By
| the stone under Jacobs head, we are taught
that he had been resting or relying upon Gods
word merely in his understanding alone; that
he had not really loved the truth. by his
arising early in the morning, we are taught
that the truth in his mind began to operate,
and shine like the dawn of morning. that he
was aroused by the power of its light. He
had had n dream while his head lay upon the
stone, and had seen a ladder reaching from
earth to heaven, and the angels of God ascend
ing and descending; and the Lord, above the
ladder, said unto him, 81 am the Lord God OF
| Abraham thy father" These wonderful things,
operating upon his mind, had aroused him to n
new state of feeling and action. lie began to
feel a love for the truth, which was before only
in his understanding. His head only had rest
| ed upon the stone pillow. Now his heart be-
gan to have faith in the divine truth. His af-
| fections as well as his understanding could be-
| gin to rely upon the Word of God. This was
signifed by his setting up the stone, and pour
ing oil upon it. by his setting up the stone as
pillar is meant that he elevated the truth in
| his mind, as really divine, ms Gods infinite
wisdom; and that he fixed il there as I! firm pill
| lar of support and trust. And by his anont-
| -. "a ;, Int hn lnVn ~
his heart; that should be the holy object of his
affections. And by his saying, I" If Goodwill be
with me and keep me in this way that go,
| and will give me bread to eat and raiment to
| put on, so that come To my fathers house IN
peace, then shall the Lord be my God, and this
stone which have set up for pillar shall be
Gods house,"-all this means, in its simple
| expression, that if God would he with him in
| his regeneration, and give him spiritual food
clothing, or goodness TO eat and righteousness
to put on, and bring him to his heavenly Faith
| er's house in peace or to the kingdom of heaven,
then the Lord would be his God; and the stone
pillar the divine truth in his soul, would be
| Gods house: and the truth would then be Gods
| house; because God is love, and love dwells in
the truth. Human minds, regencrated, are cal
| led, in the Word, temples Of the Lord. The
church is called the "body of Christ, and the
house of God" The truth, then, in filling ia
cobs regeneratcd mind, would be the habita-
| ton of love,-"Gods house
| Let us, then, follow the example of Jacob
Let us set up the truth of the Lord in our soul,
| as A pillar OF support, and the anchor of our
hope; and let us pour upon it the oil of love-
| let us give il the hearts best affections; and let
us go with the Lord all the way of our rcgene-
ration, receiving from him goodness TO eat and
righteousness to put on, till we come safely out
of all our evils and arrive in peace at our Faith
er's house of many mansions. Then the Lord
will indeed be our God, and the stone which
we had set up in our soul for pillar will be
Gods house; and he will dwell in us, in his
goodness and truth, forever.
How clearly is the way of life here pointed
out in few words, spoken in the Book 0fReve-
lation, through the symbolic Book of Nature I!
| But the oil and the stone are the leading SYM
bols; and the bringing of the oil and the stone
| together is the secret of all the success. For
oil in natural things is precisely like love in
spiritual it is the iipst and highest essence
This is the reason why oil is that substance in
nature which denotes goodness, love, or life
Oil is therefore that principle in nature into
which life from the Lord first flows and the oil
then adapts that life to the other natural sub
stances Where there is no OIL there is no life.
Take the essential oil from Nature, and You rob
| her of everything valuable. She has then no
beauty, no odor, no life the rose the orange,
the wine, everything in nature, is left without
Il charm. So it is with soul without good
ness.
The wine, then, is but the manifestation of
its own oil or essence. When we enjoy the
delicious juice and favor of the grape, the de-
light is from the essential oil that is in it.
The rich juice is but the cup which bears to us
the riches of its bosom. But, without the juice,
we could not have the delight; without the
wine, we could not have the oil. The flavor is
from the union ofthe oil and the wine
So, without truth, we can have no goodness.
Truth Is the cup which bears 1t to our soul.
Without the Son Of God, we cannot have the
Father. The Son brings the Father to ms in
his own bosom. To receive the Father, we
must receive the Son; to receive the goodness,
we must receive the truth; to receive the oil,
we must receive the wine. Therefore the Lord
says, " am the vine, and my Father is the
husbandman;" or ~ am the truth, and my
Father is the goodness"
With these divine truths before us, we should
remember, when we enjoy the fruits of the vine,
that il is the union of the.oil and the wine in
the grape that gives the delight we enjoy But
we should not let our thoughts stop there, but
pass, by correspondence, to what is still with
in the oil and the wine-to the goodness and
truth of the Lord. For the delight, after all, is
not from the natural oil and wine only, but
from the divine life and action that are in them
Oil is the actual expression, in nature, floods
goodness and wine, of his truth and it is I'M
possible for the natural to exist separate from,
or independent Of the spiritual. Weare there
fore indebted to Gods presence, in his goodness
and truth, for every delight we enjoy. But we
shonld remember, that, in all cases of excess