n their work of destruction.

The sealing of the servants is not making them the people of God, but
rather marking or designating them as such, just as later we find the
devotees of a corrupt apostate church specified as having the "mark of
the beast." Considerable light can be thrown upon the subject of the
sealing of God's servants and of the mark of the beast by consulting
Roman history for the origin of such expressions. The many conquests of
the Roman arms furnished so many prisoners that they became a drug in
the slave-markets of the world, and were so numerous that in many places
they outnumbered the Roman citizens ten to one. In the first century
before Christ it is said that some Sicilian estates were worked by as
many as twenty thousand slaves. "That each owner might know his own, the
poor creatures were _branded like cattle_." The "mark of the beast"
possessed by the followers of a false communion will be found to consist
of an Antichristian spirit by which they are filled with "doctrines of
devils." So, also, "the seal of the living God" consists of the giving
of the Holy Spirit, by which his people are led into all truth. See John
14:26. While Sabbatarians vainly try to prove that keeping the seventh
day is the seal of God in this dispensation, yet there is not one text
of Scripture that hints such a thing, but, on the contrary, the
Scriptures are against them. "Grieve not the _Holy Spirit_ of God
whereby _ye are sealed_ unto the day of redemption." Eph. 4:30. Again,
the Word of God says, "Now he which stablished us with you in Christ,
and hath anointed us is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the
earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." 2 Cor. 1:21, 22. The time this
sealing of the people of God takes place is thus described: "_After_
that ye believed, ye were _sealed_ with that Holy Spirit of promise."
Eph. 1:13. The winds of heaven were restrained until the work of _full
salvation_ could be firmly established in the earth. When Christ
appeared, the Roman empire was in a state of comparative quiet, and the
immense hosts of foreign invaders did not appear until the firm
establishment of Christianity, being held back by the power of God until
his work should be accomplished.

In the description of the sealing given, twelve thousand were selected
from each of the twelve tribes. Some have supposed this to have
reference solely to salvation work among the Jewish nation; but that
would be adopting the litera