April 17The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you — 1 John 2:27.
The blessing and power of the Lord accompanied David's anointing in some manner—just how, we may not understand—enabling him to progress in knowledge, etc., and fitting and preparing him for the duties of the office to which he had been anointed. May we not consider as an antitype to this, the anointing which comes upon the Church from the time of her acceptance with the Lord? Ours is not a physical anointing, nor are the blessings conferred of a temporal character; it is as New Creatures that we grow in grace and knowledge and love, and as New Creatures that, by and by, we shall be perfected in the First Resurrection and come to the Throne with our Lord and Master as our Head—Z '03, 223 (R 3225). It never entered the minds of the ancients that the Anointed would consist of a company, but to the Gospel Church this mystery has been made clear, and their position in this anointed company remains secure to the faithful. The holy heart and mind begotten in them at their consecration was the earnest of their inheritance, the immutable pledge of God's faithfulness to the faithful—P '30, 31. Parallel passages: Psa. 18:50; 20:6; 23:5; 45:7; Heb. 1:9; Psa. 89:20-23; Isa. 11:2, 3; 61:1-3; Dan. 9:24; Matt. 3:16, 17; Acts 4:27; 10:38; 2 Cor. 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27; 1 Cor. 12:12, 13; 15:23. Hymns: 1, 21, 90, 14, 165, 217, 218. Poems of Dawn, 42: Full Consecration. Tower Reading: Z '14, 297 (R 5549). Questions: What has this text meant to me this week? How? With what results? |
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FULL CONSECRATION
O SACRED union with the Perfect Mind!
Transcendent bliss, which Thou alone canst give,
How blest are they this Pearl of price who find,
And, dead to earth, have learned in Thee to live!
And thus, while dead to human hopes I lie,
Lost, and forever lost, to all but Thee,
My happy soul, since it has learned to die,
Has found new life in Thine infinity.
With joy we learn this lesson of the cross,
And tread the toilsome way which Jesus trod;
And counting present life and all things loss,
We find in death to self the life of God.
O SACRED union with the Perfect Mind!
Transcendent bliss, which Thou alone canst give,
How blest are they this Pearl of price who find,
And, dead to earth, have learned in Thee to live!
And thus, while dead to human hopes I lie,
Lost, and forever lost, to all but Thee,
My happy soul, since it has learned to die,
Has found new life in Thine infinity.
With joy we learn this lesson of the cross,
And tread the toilsome way which Jesus trod;
And counting present life and all things loss,
We find in death to self the life of God.
