himself. As before he was the seal attesting us, so now he is
the oil sanctifying us--the same gift described by different symbols.
And as it was the Aaron who had been the first anointed who was
qualified to anoint others, so with our great High Priest. It is he
within the veil who gives the Spirit unto his own, that he may qualify
them to be "an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people
for God's own possession" (1 Peter 2: 9, R. V.). "But ye have an
anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things" (1 John 2: 20).
Christ in the New Testament is constantly called "the Holy One." And
because the Spirit was sent to communicate him to the people, they are
made partakers of his knowledge as well as of his holiness. If it
should be said that this unction of which John speaks is miraculous,
the divine illumination of evangelists and prophets who were
commissioned to be the vehicles of inspired Scripture, we must call
attention to other passages which connect the knowledge of God with the
Holy Ghost. "For who among men knoweth the things of a man save the
spirit of a man which {90} is in him; even so the things of God none
knoweth save the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2: 11, R. V.). The horse and
his rider may see the same magnificent piece of statuary in the park;
the one may be delighted with it as a work of human genius, but upon
the dull eye of the other it makes no impression, and for the reason
that it takes a human mind to appreciate the work of the human mind.
Likewise only the Spirit of God can know and make known the thoughts
and teachings and revelations of God. This seems to be the meaning of
John in his discourse concerning the divine unction: "But the anointing
which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any
man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things" (1
John 2: 27).

In nothing does the enduement of the Spirit more distinctly manifest
itself than in the fine discernment of revealed truth which it imparts.
As in service, the contrast between working in the power of the Spirit
and in the energy of the flesh is easily discernible, even more clearly
in knowledge and teaching is the contrast between the tuition of
learning and the intuition of the Spirit. While we should not
undervalue the former, it is striking to note how the Bible puts the
weightier emphasis on the latter; so that really the unspiritual hearer
is to be accounted less blameworth