The first thing most people do when they pick up a rose is smell it. Since only about one-fourth of all roses give off an aroma, the admirer is often disappointed in his attempt to savor the rose's fragrance. However, if the rose does have a scent, it could be one of over twenty-five distinct odors known to be possessed by roses, ranging from the sweet, heavy fragrance of "Mister Lincoln," to the fresh spicy scent of "Double Delight," or the luxurious, pleasing smell of tangerine and Mandarin orange found in the lovely rose, "Fragrant Cloud."

These various sweet-smelling roses remind one of the Scripture that describes the incense God instructed Moses to make for use in the tabernacle. Exodus 30:34-38 says this incense was composed of "sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight: and thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy."

C. H. Mackintosh comments on these verses as follows: "This surpassing precious perfume presents to us the unmeasured and unmeasurable perfections of Christ. There was no special quantity of each ingredient prescribed, because the graces that dwell in Christ, the beauties and excellencies that are concentrated in His adorable Person, are without limit. Naught save the infinite mind of deity could scan the infinite perfections of Him in whom all the fullness of God dwelleth.

"But not only was there no prescribed quantity of the ingredients, we also read, 'Of each shall there be a like weight.' Every feature of moral excellence found its due place and proper proportions in Christ. No one quality ever displaced or interfered with another; all was 'tempered together, pure and holy,' and emitted an odor so fragrant that none but God could fully appreciate it.

"'Thou shalt beat some of it very small.' There is uncommon depth and power in the expression 'very small.' It teaches us that every little movement in the life of Christ, every minute circumstance, every act, every word, every look, every feature, every trait, every expression, emits an odor produced by an equal proportion—'a like weight' of all the divine graces that compose His character. The smaller the perfume was beaten, the more its rare, exquisite quality was manifested.

"'As for the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord' (v. 37). This fragrant perfume was designed exclusively for Jehovah. Its place was 'before the testimony' (v. 36). There is that in Jesus which only God could appreciate. True, every believing heart can draw nigh to His matchless Person and more than satisfy its deepest and most intense longings. Still, after all God's redeemed have inhaled His fragrance to the utmost of their capacity, after angels have gazed on the peerless glories of the Man Christ Jesus as earnestly as their vision is capable of—there will be that in Him which God alone can fathom and enjoy. None could fully trace the exquisitely minute parts of that holy perfume 'beaten very small,' nor could earth afford a proper sphere in which to emit its divine and heavenly odor."