world is hard and rude; the world is blind and stupid; the world
often fails to know its best friends and its truest benefactors; but
there is no crust of stupidity so crass and dense but that through it
there will pass the penetrating shafts of light that ray from the
face of a man who walks in fellowship with Jesus. The whole nation of
old was honoured with these sacred names. They were a kingdom of
priests; and the divine Voice said of the nation, 'Touch not Mine
anointed, and do My prophets no harm!' How much more are all
Christian men, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, made prophets,
priests, and kings to God! Alas for the difference between what they
ought to be and what they are!

And then, do not forget also that when the Scriptures speak of
Christian men as being anointed, it really speaks of them as being
Messiahs. 'Christ' means _anointed_, does it not? 'Messiah' means
_anointed_. And when we read in such a passage as that of my text,
'Ye have an unction from the Holy One,' we cannot but feel that the
words point in the same direction as the great words of our Master
Himself, 'As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.' By
authority derived, no doubt, and in a subordinate and secondary
sense, of course, we are Messiahs, anointed with that Spirit which
was given to Him, not by measure, and which has passed from Him to
us. 'If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.'

So, dear brethren, all these things being certainly so, what are we
to say about the present state of Christendom? What are we to say
about the present state of English Christianity, Church and Dissent
alike? Is Pentecost a vanished glory, then? Has that 'rushing mighty
wind' blown itself out, and a dead calm followed? Has that leaping
fire died down into grey ashes? Has the great river that burst out