lence from without stamp an image upon
them, but He does as men do with a seal, warms the wax first, and
then, with a gentle, firm touch, leaves the likeness there. So,
brother! learn this lesson: if you wish to be good, lie under the
contact of the Spirit of righteousness, and see that your heart is
warm.

Still further, note that this aggregate of Christian character, in
likeness and correspondence, is the true sign that we belong to God.
The seal is the mark of ownership, is it not? Where the broad arrow
has been impressed, everybody knows that that is royal property. And
so this seal of God's Divine Spirit, in its effects upon my
character, is the one token to myself and to other people that I
belong to God, and that He belongs to me. Or, to put it into plain
English, the best reason for any man's being regarded as a Christian
is his possession of the likeness and correspondence to God which
that Divine Spirit gives. Likeness and correspondence, I say, for the
one class of results is the more open for the observation of the
world, and the other class is of the more value for ourselves. I
believe that Christian people ought to have, and are meant by that
Divine Spirit dwelling in them to have, a consciousness that they are
Christians and God's children, for their own peace and rest and joy.
But you cannot use that in demonstration to other people; you may be
as sure of it as you will, in your inmost hearts, but it is no sign
to anybody else. And, on the other hand, there may be much of outward
virtue and beauty of character which may lead other people to say
about a man: '_That_ is a good Christian man, at any rate,' and yet
there may be in the heart an all but absolute absence of any joyful
assurance that we are Christ's, and that He belongs to us. So the two
facts must go together. Correspondence, the spirit of sonship which
meets His taking us as sons, the faith which clasps the promise, the
reception which welcomes bestowment, must be stamped upon the inward
life. For the outward life there must be the manifest impress of
righteousness upon my actions, if there is to be any real seal and
token that I belong to Him. God writes His own name upon the men that
are His. All their goodness, their gentleness, patience, hatred of
evil, energy and strenuousness in service, submission in suffering,
with whatsoever other radiance of human virtue may belong to them,
are really 'His mark!'

There is no other worth talking