THE THREEFOLD GIFT
‘And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.’
Let us put ourselves in the place of the Magi. What gold have we to give? What frankincense? What myrrh? Of these shall our offerings be.
I. The offering of wealth.—Gold may be taken as representing our substance, our goods, our material wealth. It may be taken as the symbol of what we have to give in alms or charity. But it stands for more: for talents, for power, for ability, for whatever may be turned to account in the Lord’s service. All work, all material, have their worth in gold. This first oblation, then, represents the offering of that which is external to us.
II. The offering of the soul.—Next in order comes the frankincense; of what is that the symbol? It is a substance which, once kindled, sends up sweet clouds to the sky. It is the symbol of religious thought directing itself lovingly and longingly towards God. As the gold stands for what is outward, so the frankincense typifies what is inward. There is the life of contemplation, as well as the life of action, and in every full character these run together.
III. The offering of penitence.—What more remains? The last offering, completing the rest—the offering of the myrrh. This stands evermore for sorrows. There is one thing which we can all give to God. To lay our sorrows upon Him; to offer to Him the pain, the heart-sickness, the penitence; to lift the hands to Him when the iron enters the soul; that is to make to Him the offering of the myrrh which symbolises the sorrow of the world.
The Rev. Morgan Dix.
Illustration
‘The claims of our Lord upon a Christian include His sovereign right to all we are, and to all we possess. We “are not our own.” If “the life be more than meat,” and if it be not our own, how can we claim as our own that which is, under the most prevalent conditions of possession, the resultant or product of life? If the Psalmist could say, “It is God that girdeth me with strength,” surely the Christian may say the same; and if acquisition be amongst the results of the exercise of God-given strength, then these results are traceable to their Source, and, finally, they belong to Him. No man may reasonably or justly claim a higher authority over his wealth than the authority to administer it. Even this authority is to be subject to the still higher authority of the moral governor of the universe. “God in all things is to be glorified.” ’