Seal of God

“ The servants of God being therefore sealed in the day of expiation, we may conceive that this sealing is synchronal to the visions which appear upon opening the seventh seal; and that when the Lamb had opened six of the seals and seen the visions relating to the inside of the sixth, he looked on the backside of the seventh leaf, and then saw the four Angels holding the four winds of heaven, and another Angel ascending from the East with the seal of God. ”

“ And now, O God, I see that Thou hast for ever marked me with Thy seal, that awful seal, pregnant with blessings, which sets a man apart from other men, and whose mark is so ineffaceable that, sooner or later, it makes itself manifest even upon those who sin. ”

“ But the seal is not baptism as a ceremonial act. It is neither immersion nor sprinkling nor any other mode of lustration which marks us out as God's. The seal by which "the Lord knoweth them that are His" is His Spirit; it is the impress of His Spirit upon them. When that impress can be traced upon our souls, by Him, or by us, or by others, then we have the witness in ourselves; the Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God. ”

“ Men often have a seal of their own, with some name, symbol, or device, which designates it as theirs, and which no other one has a right to use. A seal is sometimes used by the person himself; sometimes intrusted to a high officer of state; sometimes to the secretary of a corporation; and sometimes, as a mark of special favour, to a friend. In this case it was intrusted to an angel, who was authorized to use it, and whose use of it would be sanctioned, of course, wherever he applied it, by the living God, as if he had employed it himself. ”

“ The seal is the sign or stamp of perfection, and God's name stands for His character, which is perfection. And the Sabbath of God, kept as God ordained it to be kept, holy, and in holiness, is a sign of this same thing—perfection of character. When this seal is finally placed upon God's people, it will be an evidence that His grace and His sanctifying power have done their work, and fitted them for heaven. In the world to come, all will keep the Sabbath, and will therefore have this seal or mark of sanctification, holiness, and perfection of character. ”

“ You know that the power to have and use a seal is one of the things specially conveyed by a legislature.
"God has seals," said the pastor. "One is baptism. It used to be circumcision. But, as the old royal seal is broken at the coronation of a new king, God appointed a new seal, baptism, to mark the new dispensation; as he also changed the Sab [Pg 294] bath of creation in honor of his Son's reign, and removed the memorial of his deeds of greatest renown, the Passover, for one that signifies still greater deeds, the Lord's Supper. Thus God has his seals. He attaches great importance to them. ”

“ For it just comes to this—our true guarantee that we shall come at last into the sweet security and safety of the perfect state is present likeness to the indwelling Spirit and present reception of divine grace. The seal is the pledge of security, just because it is the mark of ownership. When, by God's Spirit dwelling in us, we are led to love the things that are fair, and to long after more possession of whatever things are of good report, that is like God's hoisting His flag upon a newly-annexed territory. ”

“ It cannot be supposed that there is any special significancy in the fact that the second beast addressed the seer on the opening of the second seal, or that, so far as the symbol was concerned, there was any reason why this living creature should approach on the opening of this seal rather than on either of the others. All that seems to be designed is, that as the living creatures are intended to be emblems of the providential government of God, it was proper to represent that government as concerned in the opening of each of these four seals, indicating important events among the nations. ”

“ The fifth seal - There is no animal nor any other being to introduce this seal, nor does there appear to be any new event predicted; but the whole is intended to comfort the followers of God under their persecutions, and to encourage them to bear up under their distresses.
I saw under the altar - A symbolical vision was exhibited, in which he saw an altar; and under it the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God - martyred for their attachment to Christianity, are represented as being newly slain as victims to idolatry and superstition. The altar is upon earth, not in heaven. ”

“ The strong man—the Holy Spirit—is in his own house, and it is impossible for sin to enter in unless we by our own will consent to it. The word of God speaks of the Holy Spirit as the seal. This thought is practically illustrated by the common use of a seal in canning fruit. We may be ever so careful with fruit in getting it properly prepared for the can, but if we set it away without the seal, it will not be long until the fruit is spoiled. It requires the seal to keep the fruit from spoiling. ”

“ Let us then seek above all things to have the brand and seal of the Lord upon us; because in the day of judgment, when the severity of God is shewn, and all the tribes of the earth, even all Adam, are gathered together, when the good Shepherd calls His own flock, all those who have the brand recognise their own Shepherd, and the Shepherd takes knowledge of those who have His own seal, and gathers them together from all the nations. ”

“ Under the sixth seal, the great men and rich, are seen fleeing to the rocks for refuge from the wrath of the Lamb; and the risen saints symbolized, are in the Saviour's presence; but the infliction of the wrath of God on the wicked is not there symbolized. ”

“ His own luminous image God impressed as with a seal, even the greatest,—on man made in His likeness, that he might be ruler and lord over all things, and that all things might serve him. Wherefore God judges man to be wholly His, and His own image. ”

“ Look steadily at the seal which God sets upon His own—the union of affliction with spiritual joy—and follow Christ in the life which is marked by this character as not human only, but Divine. That is the way prescribed to us here to make our election sure. ”

“ As a man may first cut his arms or image on his seal, and then by that seal imprint it on the wax; and though it be perfectly cut on the seal, it may be imperfectly printed on the wax; so God's image is naturally perfect in his Son, and regularly or expressively perfect on the seal of his holy doctrine and laws ”

“ The scene on other Babylonian seals is that of a god attacking a humanly conceived enemy; this class comprises cylinder-seals belonging to the archaic period as Fig. 62. well as those of later date. The impression of one such archaic seal is reproduced in Fig. 63. In the centre we have the god, mounted on a bull, his left hand raised, his right hand grasping a weapon or a whip; he is trampling on a prostrate and suppliant foe, whose figure is sketched in the roughest and crudest conceivable manner. ”

“ The Seal of the Prophets, and that theirs is the last Dispensation, which Mankind shall ever receive from God, has ventured to suppose the Possibility of a Man's attaining to the true Knowledge of God, and Things necessary to Salvation, and all other Things, both Spiritual and Natural, belonging either to this World, or that to come, without the Help of any outward Instruction. ”

“ Seal of the United States of America MDCCLXXVI.
On the other side of the said Great Seal should be the following Device. Pharaoh sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his head and a Sword in his hand passing through the divided Waters of the Red Sea in pursuit of the Israelites; Rays from a pillar of Fire in the Cloud, expressive of the divine Presence and Command, beaming on Moses who stands on the Shore and extending his hand over the Sea causes it to overwhelm Pharaoh.
Motto Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God. ”

“ "Sire—I have received an order, under your majesty's seal, to put to death all the protestants in my province. I have too much respect for your majesty, not to believe the letter a forgery; but if (which God forbid) the order should be genuine, I have too much respect for your majesty to obey it." ”

“ He gives not holy things to the dogs [18] ; but where He discerns the good conscience, there He gives the Seal of salvation, that wondrous Seal, which devils tremble at, and Angels recognise; that the one may be driven to flight, and the others may watch around it as kindred to themselves. ”

“ In answering these questions, it can hardly be denied that if we are to look upon the seventh Seal as standing independent and alone, its contents have not the significance which we seem entitled to expect. ”

“ To seal us to this day is to prepare us and to set us apart from it, to fix such a mark on us as in that day shall distinguish us from others and make it fully appear to whom we belong. When a man sets his seal to a paper, he thereby declares his approbation of it and acknowledges it to be his own deed. Those who bear the seal of the Spirit will be approved by Christ and acknowledged for His own in the day of resurrection. A seal stamps its own image on the wax. The Spirit stamps on the soul the image of Himself. This seal is said to be the earnest of our inheritance. ”

“ Lo here we have the King-es seal; What, lourdain, art thou wood?" The porter weened it had been so, And lightly did off his hood. "Welcome be my lord's seal," said he, "For that shall ye come in." He opened the gate right shortelie, An evil open-ing for him. "Now are we in," said Adam Bell, "Thereof we are full fain, But Christ he knoweth, that harrowed hell, How we shall come out again." "Had we the keys," said Clym of the Clough, "Right well then should we speed; Then might we come out well enough When we see time and need." ”

“ The Lord puts a seal upon His own, that everybody may know them. The sealing in your case is the Spirit producing in you likeness to the Lord. The holier you become, the seal is the more distinct and plain, the more evident to every passer-by, for then will men take knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus.—Andrew Bonar. ”

“ The ‘earnest’ consists of ‘the Spirit in our hearts,’ and the same explanation might have been appended to both the preceding clauses, for the ‘anointing’ is the anointing of the Spirit, and the ‘seal’ is the seal of the Spirit. ”

“ No sign of all their loveliness avows;
If, set upon Life's consecrated brows,
Thy seal remains invisible to me,
And I, unmindful of the inner plea,
No other interest than self espouse,
Then stab my soul awake with conscious sin ”

“ These seals are chiefly designed to show that during the period in which Christ is carrying forward his conquest unto [pg 130] victory, both trial and suffering in this world form part of the divine purpose of discipline for his people which cannot be escaped from but should be endured with patience and hope. The last three seals relate to the things of the spiritual life, of which three is the symbol, and point forward to the future and great reward in the world to come which is about to be realized by those who are faithful. ”

“ Then the earth is guarded from harm, and the faithful are sealed; and in words of the sublimest pathos, the end of pain and sorrow is proclaimed, and the promise that the redeemed shall be fed and led forth by fountains of living waters. And then, at the very moment of calm and peace, the seventh seal is opened,—and nothing follows! the very angels of heaven seem to stand with closed eyes, compressed lips, and beating heart, waiting for what shall be. ”

“ And, further, that divine seal is the earnest, inasmuch as itself is part of the whole. The truest and the loftiest conception that we can form of heaven is as being the perfecting of the religious experience of earth. ”

“ The seal is, indeed, so intimately associated with the early history of civilization, that it is probable that its origin goes back to the very institution of the right of private property. Its early history is full of interest. If we turn to any of the literatures of the Old World—whether it be the Egyptian or Babylonian, the 8Hebraic or Assyrian, the Greek or Roman, it is the same; we find in each and all of them abundant passages concerning the importance of the seal and the various uses that it was put to. ”

“ It is then we bless the quiet messengers that come from afar to tell us of their well-being—when, the seal, with its loving device, is pressed to trembling lips, and the well-known hand recalls the form of the absent one so vividly. ”

“ The opening of the seals by Christ indicates his purpose of revealing the hidden contents of the book which he had taken from the right hand of God (ch. 5:7) , and the number of the seals (seven) shows the completeness of the series. The order of the seals is progressive, but they have no definite or categorical time-relation; they regard only the ceaseless swing of the ages ever sweeping on toward the final consummation. The underlying divine purpose of testing men by moral struggle is apparent [pg 124] throughout ”

“ Under which of the seven seals does this day begin?
“And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake, ... for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Rev. 6:12-17.
3. What signs were to appear under this seal?
“The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” Verses 12, 13.
Note.—For dates and fulfilment of these signs, see readings on pages 311, 319. ”