Samuel Ridout

The natural man has no place here: it were blasphemy to link the sweet savor of Christ with the unregenerate; they are enemies, whom God must cast out from His presence. Mere imitations of the excellence of our Lord, as heartless profession, will meet with His scathing rebuke (Amos 6:6). And does it not apply to the "flesh" in the saint? Wherever strife, pride, vainglory are allowed, they are but dead flies in the apothecary's ointment (Ecc. 10:1), which mar all its fragrance. How God's great lesson is impressed throughout His entire word, "The flesh profiteth, nothing;" _"_Christ is all." His fragrance will pervade all heaven, and "all the mind in heaven is one." Let His name be in the hearts of His blood-bought people here "as ointment poured forth" (Cant. 1:3). This is the "ointment and perfume" which "rejoice the heart" (Prov. 27:9). Our Priest and King has passed into the sanctuary, into those ivory palaces where joy and gladness abound: "All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia;" they are His by right of all that He has done. "Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows" (Ps. 45:7-8).