from the mind? It was a sealing of pardon upon a heart which God had made soft, and which was the sure prelude to, yea, the beginning of, eternal glory.

But, in most cases, the sealing of the Spirit is a more gradual work. It is a work of time. The soul is placed in the school of deep experience,-is led on step by step, stage by stage. The knowledge of self and of Christ increases,-deeper views of indwelling sin are discovered,-the heart's treachery is more acutely felt,-the devices of Satan are better known, the mystery of God's gracious and providential dealings with his children more clearly unfolded and better understood, and all this, it may be, arrived at through a process of deep and painful, yet sanctified discipline of the covenantso that years may elapse before a child of the covenant attains to the full sealing of the Spirit. And yet, blessed be God, the work of regeneration is so perfect in itself,-the blotting out of all a believer's sins so complete,-and his justification so entire, that a saint of God dying in the first stages of the divine life, is safe for ever. May we not instance the thief upon the cross as an example illustrating and confirming this?

There are, then, degrees, or progressive stages of the Spirit's sealing. The first impression is made in regeneration. This is often faint, and in

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numerous cases, scarcely perceptible. Especially is it so in ordinary conversions. We mean by ordinary conversions, those that occur under the common influences of the Spirit, in the use of the stated means of grace. Where the Holy Spirit descends in an especial and extraordinary manner (as the history of the American churches, and more recently of many in our own land, testifies he sometimes does), conversions assume a more marked character and type. They are clearer, more perceptible, and undoubted. The work is of a deeper kind,-views of sin are more pungent, the law work of the soul more thorough,-and, when the soul emerges from its gloomy night of conviction into the glorious light of pardon, it seems more like the 'perfect day' of God's forgiveness. There is, in a work of grace transpiring during an especial outpouring of the Holy Spirit, a deeper impression of the seal of the Spirit upon the heart,-a clearer, and more manifest sense of pardon and acceptance than in the insulated conversions of ordinary times. Nor, is this difficult to account for. There is a greater and richer manifestation of the Holy Spirit,-this is the grand secret. He gives more of himself,-he imparts more of his anointing influences; and the larger the degree we possess of the quickening, sanctifying influences of the Spirit, the more in

proportion do we know of his sealing operation. How should this thought awaken the desire, and impart power and fervency to the prayer, for a more enlarged communication of the Holy Ghost. Ceaseless should be the cry, "Lord, fill me with the Spirit!" But, as we have remarked, in conversions occurring under the more ordinary instrumentalities, the first impression of the seal of the Spirit is often but little beneath the surface. The work of grace is feeble. It may be compared to the faint outline of a picture,—the design is there the idea of the artist is seen, but the fulness of its parts, the colouring, the light and shade are wanting to the perfection of the whole. It may be compared too, to the first streak of morning light, before it deepens into 'perfect day,' or to the gentle rising of the rivulet, ere it widens into the broad river.' Its beginnings are feeble, and yet real. The light is not less light because it is but a faint and struggling ray, nor, is the rivulet less a rivulet because its issues are feeble and almost unseen. Grace loses nothing of the greatness and glory of its character in the smallness of its degree. An infant loses nothing of its identity with its species because it is not a 'perfect man,' nor does the father disown it as his child because it is the smallest and the feeblest of his family. O no-feeble grace is still divine

grace. And he who touches but the hem, is as much saved, and shall be as surely glorified, as he whose faith removes the mountain and casts it into the sea. The first impression is as much the work of the Spirit, as any deeper one in after years. O let not the weak believer overlook or undervalue what God has done for him. That feeble life-that little strength-that faint and flickering ray-that touching but the hem- it is the blessed product of God the Eternal Spirit. Nature never taught thee thy sinfulness, thy worthlessness, thy vileness, thy nothingness,-"flesh and blood" never revealed to thee the absolute necessity of a better righteousness than thine own, nor led thee to Jesus, as thy "wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption." Then, "give glory to the Lord your God" for what he has done, praise, O praise him for the work he has wrought in you,-tell to others the wonders of his love, his grace, and his power,-profess his name before angels and men,-and be very diligent in seeking large, and yet larger supplies of that "river that maketh glad the city of God." "In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise."

But, a yet deeper impression of the seal is made, when the believer is led more fully into the realization of his sonship—when he attains to the blessed

sense of the "adoption of children." Although it is most true that, the moment a sinner believes in Jesus, he becomes actually an 'heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ,' and enters into the family as an adopted child, yet, the clear and undoubted sense of this vast mercy, may not be sealed upon his heart until after years. He may long have walked without the sweet sense of God's adopting love in his heart,-and the frame of his spirit, and the language of his soul in prayer, has been more that of the "son of the bond-woman," than the "son of the free-woman;" he has known but little of the "free spirit," the spirit of an adopted child, and he has seldom gone to God as a kind, loving, tender, and faithful Father. But, now, the divine Sealer-the Eternal Spirit of God-enters afresh, and impresses deeply upon his soul the unutterably sweet and abiding sense of his adoption. O what an impression is then left upon his heart, when all his legal fears are calmed-when all his slavish moanings are hushed-and all his bondage spirit is gone, and when, under the drawings of filial love, he approaches the throne of grace, and cries, "My Father!"-and his Father responds, "My child!" "Thou shalt call me, My Father; and shalt not turn away from me," Jer. iii. 19. "In whom also, after that be

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