And
about your laughing at me and calling me Christian, you know not what
you are saying. First, because that which is anointed is sweet and
serviceable, and far from contemptible. For what ship can be
serviceable and seaworthy, unless it be first anointed? Or what
castle or house is beautiful and serviceable when it has not been
anointed? And what man, when he enters into this life or into the
gymnasium, is not anointed with oil? And what work has either
ornament or beauty unless it be anointed and burnished? Then the air
and all that is under heaven is in a certain sort anointed by light
and spirit; and are you unwilling to be anointed with the oil of God?
Wherefore we are called Christians on this account, because we are
anointed with the oil of God.
--
Saint Theophilus of Antioch
