It is very generally understood by oil what is meant in the common use of it in life; but the holy oil for the sanctuary is of a very different nature, and merits particular attention. When we consider that the whole office of the Holy Ghost in that feature of his sovereign character, namely, the unction of the Spirit, is described by anointing, and this not only of the persons of the members of Christ's mystical body, but Christ, the glorious Head himself; when we consider Christ, really and truly so called, and literally becoming Christ, from this anointing of God the Holy Ghost, the subject of the holy oil, as typical of these blessed things, riseth in importance to our view, and demands the closest attention of every truly awakened heart. If the reader desires Scriptural information on this interesting subject, he should diligently read the Lord's directions concerning the holy oil, Exodus 30:22-38.
Concerning the office of God the Holy Ghost in his anointing character, as set forth by the holy oil of the temple, it would far exceed the limits of a work of this kind to go through the whole of the blessed Spirit's agency, in the description of it, under the various manifestations. It will be sufficient to say in general, that to this one glorious office of the Holy Ghost all the anointings we read of in the Old Testament, and the uses to which the the holy oil was appropriated, evidently pointed. It is God the Holy Ghost who is uniformly represented, in his divine influences and gifts, by the figure and emblem of the holy oil and the ointment; for as oil hath numberless operations to soften, to take off rust, to counteract poison, to give cheerfulness to the countenance, and to facilitate actions in the limbs when benumbed and grown hard; so the blessed influences of the Holy Ghost, by his divine anointings, soften our hearts, take off the rust of ignorance in our minds, expel the poison of sin and corruption, and not only raiseth up the drooping spirits, by administering to our hearts the oil of joy and gladness, but causeth us "to run the way of God's commandments when the Lord hath set our heart at liberty."
And what a blessed thought it is, that as the holy oil was poured on the head of Aaron, the great high priest of the Jewish dispensation, which ran down to the skirts of his clothing, so God the Holy Ghost anointed Jesus, our great and almighty High Priest, to whom Aaron was but the shadow, with "the oil of joy and gladness above and for his fellows;" yea, the Spirit was not given by measure unto him, for in him all fulness dwelleth? And Christ and his church being one and the same, he the glorious Head, and they his members, of "his fulness do we all receive, and grace or grace." (See Anoint See Holy Ghost. See these Scriptures, Psalms 45:7; Psalms 133:1-3; John 1:16; John 3:34)