So this water will cleanse, it will satisfy and refresh, it will be
productive and will fertilise, and 'everything shall live
whithersoever that river cometh.'

IV. Then, lastly, we have the oil of the Spirit.

'Ye have an unction,' says St. John in our last text, 'from the Holy
One.' I need not remind you, I suppose, of how in the old system,
prophets, priests, and kings were anointed with consecrating oil, as
a symbol of their calling, and of their fitness for their special
offices. The reason for the use of such a symbol, I presume, would
lie in the invigorating and in the supposed, and possibly real,
health-giving effect of the use of oil in those climates. Whatever
may have been the reason for the use of oil in official anointings,
the meaning of the act was plain. It was a preparation for a specific
and distinct service. And so, when we read of the oil of the Spirit,
we are to think that it is that which fits us for being prophets,
priests, and kings, and which calls us to, because it fits us for,
these functions.

You are anointed to be prophets that you may make known Him who has
loved and saved you, and may go about the world evidently inspired to
show forth His praise, and make His name glorious. That anointing
calls and fits you to be priests, mediators between God and man,
bringing God to men, and by pleading and persuasion, and the
presentation of the truth, drawing men to God. That unction calls and
fits you to be kings, exercising authority over the little monarchy
of your own natures, and over the men round you, who will bow in
submission whenever they come in contact with a man all evidently
aflame with the love of Jesus Christ, and filled with His Spirit. The