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Consecration
the priest’s right ear, thumb and toe. And, finally, oil was put upon the blood. Note the emblems and the order. I t was not oil, and no blood; it was oil and blood. And it was not oil and then blood; it was first blood and then oil. In other words, there was first the sign of ownership through redemp tion, and after this there was the sign of acceptance for priestly service and empowering for that service. But once more, the one who believes in Christ has gone through this process. The believer is sprinkled with precious blood, and he is anointed with holy oil, for we have been bought with a price, even with the precious blood of Christ, and we have all been baptized by one Spirit into one body. Having observed these preliminary conditions, I came at last, that Sabbath day, to the thought of consecration itself. And here I met with a great surprise. I had, as I thought, a fairly clear conception of what consecration was. It was go ing to a consecration meeting and there joining with others in giving one’s self to God. Or, if that was not enough, it was shutting one’s self into one s room, and there making resolutions and taking vows to put away this and that and to take on this and that and so forever be the servant of God. But I had glanced at the margin of my Bible and had seen opposite the word “consecrate the three words, fill their hands,” and what filling the hands had to do with conse cration I did not know. Thus it was that I read the context of the passage and came to the 29th chapter, the 22nd-24th verses. And thus it was that I learned what true consecra tion meant, and what it must ever mean. This was what I found. Moses, after clothing and anointing Aaron and Aaron’s sons, took the inward parts of the ram and its right shoulder, and also a loaf of bread, a cake of oiled bread, and a wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread, and laid all of these in the hands of Aaron and Aaron s sons. Then Aaron and his sons stood and waved these in the presence of the Lord. And as they did this—nothing more and nothing less—
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