The Anointing Teaches

"The anointing which ye recieve of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you: but as his anointing teacheth you concerning all things . . . abide ye in him"  — 1 John 2:27. R. V., marg.

Here χρῖσμα (chrisma) of the Spirit is twice used with emphasis on his teaching office — of which we have already spoken — and his conditional abiding. He will abide in us so long as we heed the injunction, "Abide in him." When the Paraclete takes up his abode in the heart, he intends to stay forever, if the conditions are favorable. Neglect will obscure his brightness, weaving a veil of increasing thickness over his face; and unrepented willful sin will cause him to leave in grief, to return no more forever. "The sixth chapter to the Hebrews may affright us all," says Rutherford, "when we hear that men may take of the gifts and common graces of the Holy Spirit, and a taste of the powers of the world to come, to hell with them." There is no state of grace this side of glory from which the soul may not finally fall. Yet permanency is the peculiarity of the anointing in the case of the persevering believer. The presence of the Comforter in the sanctuary of the heart. filling it with light, love, and joy, strongly inclines the person to persevere. so that he may freely determine to persist in faith and obedience. Of those who truly receive this anointing, in the fullness of its illumination, strength, and bliss, few ever realize its entire withdrawal. We teach no antinomian anointing when we say this.

Another peculiar office of the χρῖσμα (chrisma) is that of sole teacher of certain facts, which it alone can assuredly certify to the exclusion of all other instructors. What are these facts? Adoption into the family of God, and the remission of sins. These facts the anointing declares so authoritatively as to supercede the necessity of any other source of direct certitude. The anointing also creates the soul anew, and makes it conscious of newness of life. Sooner or later, according as the pupil of the Holy Spirit is diligent in scholarship, the anointing imparts the more abundant life, and perfects the enkindled love by exterminating lingering carnality through spiritual circumcision. Then the anointing Spirit shines on his own perfect work in the consciousness of him who now believes with the full assurance of faith. On many other questions he may wisely consult teachers and books, and above all the Book of books. Here he will find marks of the new birth, and tests of his purity by which the testimony of the anointing may be confirmed. He will find directions how to walk in white through a world of pollution without defiling his garments whiter than snow, washed in the blood of the Lamb. He will find the Bible an infallible directory to eternal life. He will find in it a highway along which all who are inspired with "the higher life" walk; on which no unclean foot ever passed, nor lions, nor ravenous beast, only the ransomed of the Lord returning to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.

— Half-Hours With St. Paul and Other Bible Readings Chapter 21.