ed as saying, "_The Spirit of the Lord
is upon_ Me, because He hath _anointed_ Me to preach the Gospel to the
poor," etc. In both of these passages, we are told it was _the Holy Spirit
with which Jesus was anointed_ and as in the passage in Hebrews we are
told that _it was with the oil of gladness that He was anointed_; so, of
course, the only possible conclusion is that the oil of gladness means the
Holy Spirit. What a beautiful and suggestive name it is for Him whose
fruit is, first, "love" then "joy" (Gal. v. 22). The Holy Spirit becomes a
source of boundless joy to those who receive Him; He so fills and
satisfies the soul, that the soul who receives Him does not thirst forever
(John iv. 14). No matter how great the afflictions with which the believer
receives the Word, still he will have "_the joy of the Holy Ghost_" (1
Thess. i. 6). On the Day of Pentecost, when the disciples were baptized
with the Holy Spirit, they were so filled with ecstatic joy that others
looking on them thought they were intoxicated. They said, "These men are
full of new wine." And Paul draws a comparison between abnormal
intoxication that comes through excess of wine and the wholesome
exhilaration from which there is no reaction that comes through being
filled with the Spirit (Eph. v. 18-20). When God anoints one with the Holy
Spirit, it is as if He broke a precious alabaster box of oil of gladness
above their heads until it ran down to the hem of their garments and the
whole person was suffused with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

XXI. _The Spirit of Grace._

The Holy Spirit is called "the Spirit of grace" in Heb. x. 29, "Of how
much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the
covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done
despite unto _the Spirit of grace_?" This name brings out the fact that it
is the Holy Spirit's work to administer and apply the grace of God: He
Himself is gracious, it is true, but the name means far more than that, it
means that He makes ours experimentally the manifold grace of God. It is
only by the work of the Spirit of grace in our hearts that we are enabled
to appropriate to ourselves that infinite fullness of grace that God has,
from the beginning, bestowed upon us in Jesus Christ. It is ours from the
beginning, as far as belonging to us is concerned, but it is only ours
experimentally as we claim