Editorial November 16, 1912 Issue

"ANOINTED OF GOD."

John B. Willis

In his last long heart-to-heart talk with his disciples, Jesus said to them, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, . . . that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." In these pregnant words the Master both outlined and initiated the reign of true individualism, that ideal democracy in which every man is to find his freedom, his quickening, and his efficiency. He is instructed what to do, and he is given assurance of the divine sustenance and support in the doing.

With the Jew, the chosen one had been looked upon as the rare one, the "anointed of God." Endowed with "the Spirit of the Lord," he was to rule in wisdom and lead with might. The term was strongly flavored with the oriental sense of distinction, of exclusiveness and exaltation, so that it brought to Jewish thought only the heroes of their history. Hence, in calling all his followers to the exercise of his own prerogatives and powers, Jesus instituted a new order which spoke as had no other event for the dignity and the privilege not of the few, but of all mankind. He expressed his own responsiveness to this divine order when in his native Nazareth he found in the Scriptures the place where it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted." Having closed the book, he said to his neighbors about him, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears," thus daringly identifying himself before men with the divinely royal figure prophetically portrayed by Isaiah, and accepting the responsibility for humanity's spiritual leadership. And now, in these last moments with his nearest followers, he was speaking to each of them and to the spiritually aspiring of all time, in the spirit of the 45th Psalm, "Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness."

This personal call and appeal of the Master, this divine authorization, enduement, and commission, is voiced anew in Christian Science, and men are realizing that it bases and cements the democracy of good. It is that recognition of our spiritual selfhood, and obligation which impels one, in the hush of humility, to repeat those wondrous words, "He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal life broken-hearted," and to let them frame his thought of life and duty anew. This is the greatest, most inspiring experience that can come to any man. Said one recently, "If you will but tell me what to do, I can go at it with enthusiasm; I am an inspired man and my success is assured." This is the need of all, an awakening to their place and privilege, as "the sons of God," to the possibility of spiritual sovereignty, achieved through what they know of God, what they are in Truth; and this need is being met through Christian Science in that correction of consciousness, that anointing of God, which is for each individual the appearing of Christ, our Saviour, "who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."

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