Emblems of the Holy Spirit: The Seal

I. THE SEAL IMPRESSES.

A gentleman in Ireland had a seal made for me. “D. L. M.” is on one side, and on the other, “God is love.” If I want to stamp “God is love” I would not make much headway if the wax was hard and cold. Many people go to meetings, and it is as hard to make an impression on them as to press a seal on hard wax. But let the wax be warmed up and an impression is made. If we are willing, every one of us may be sealed for the day of redemption.

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the Word of Truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise a (Eph. i: 13).

2. THE SEAL SEC1 RES.

I don’t believe that any man or woman has assurance, who has not been sealed by the Holy Ghost for the day of redemption.

One purpose of sealing is for safety. Every summer the Connecticut river is full of logs that are floated down from the mountains up north. If I should take one of those logs out of the river, I might be put into prison, because every log is stamped with the seal of the owner. So the seal of the Spirit is upon every- child of God; they are sealed for the day of redemption.

“Grieve 1 1 ► 1 the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Eph. iv 29-30).

People ask how they grieve the Spirit of God. Bitterness in the heart grieves the Spirit of God, and so does a corrupt communication that proceeds out of your mouth. We must be pure in thought, and in word, and in deed, or we will grieve the Holy Spirit. When a man’s heart is right, it does not take long for God to impress upon him the seal, which, I believe, is the love of God; He seals us in that way.

If your heart is full of love you will have all the fruit of the Spirit. Some one has said that all the fruit of the Spirit may be expressed in terms of love as follows:

Joy is love exulting.
Peace is love in repose.
Longsuffenng is love untiring.
Gentleness is love in society.
Goodness is love in action.
Faith is love on the battlefield.
Meekness is love in school.
Temperance is love in training.

Restored from a scan of the 1900 edition, with page headers and numbers removed and words rejoined across line breaks. Scan-derived text, still being proofread; compare the original scan before quoting.