I once had some valuable papers, and I was told to put them into a deed-box and take it to the bank. When I reached the bank, the manager said, "Have you sealed the box?" "No," I answered. "We prefer to have it sealed," he said. So I got sealing-wax, and made the seal upon the cord; then the hot wax was stamped with my name. That seal showed that all that was in that box was my very own.

Now, God sets His seal upon every believer. His seal, the Holy Spirit, is upon every forgiven person. He means to say by this, "Thou art my very own." "In whom, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise," He tells us through the apostle Paul in Eph. 1:13.

There is a very solemn word found in the Bible:it is this:"Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Rom. 8:9). It has alarmed many a soul which is really trusting in the precious blood of the Lamb slain for us. Many a trembling Christian has said to me, "How am I to know that I have the Spirit of God?" and I have answered, "Because the Word of God says so." An aged servant of God, now gone to his rest, answered that question better, I think. He wrote something like this:"Have you love for the Lord Jesus? If you have, where did it come from? It never came from your cold heart. You would have no love for Christ but by the Holy Spirit. 'The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us' " (Rom. 5:5). That is how we know, experimentally, as well as by the written Word of God. The Comforter dwells in the children of God, and the warm glow of love is there, where all was once cold and dead.

Would you know yourself to be sealed by the Holy Spirit of God as His very own child till the redemption of the body at the coming of the Lord? You have only to believe Him, and be obedient to Him, that, together with the written Word of God, He may witness to your own spirit that you are a child of God, that you belong to Him, "sealed as His own, unto the day of redemption." Disobedience, self-will, worldliness, a prayerless spirit, etc., would prevent this witness of the Holy Spirit in your heart, therefore see to it that you walk faithfully and humbly before God. Adapted from J. J. J.