II. A plain lesson here, as to the great purpose for which the Divine
Spirit has been lodged in the heart of humanity.
I find that in the two words of my text, 'the Holy Spirit,' and 'ye were
thereby sealed unto the day of redemption.' If the central
characteristic which it imports us to know and to keep in mind is that
implied by the name, 'the Holy Spirit' then, of course, the great work
that He has to perform upon earth is to make men like Himself. And that
is further confirmed by the emblem of the seal which is here; for the
seal comes in contact with the thing sealed, and leaves the impression
of its own likeness there. And whatever else--and there is a great deal
else that I cannot touch now--may be included in that great thought of
the sealing by the Divine Spirit, these things are inseparably connected
with, and suggested by it, viz. the actual contact of the Spirit of God
with our spirits, which is expressed, as you may remember, in the other
metaphors of being baptized in and anointed with, and yet more
important, the result purposed by that contact being mainly to make us
holy.
Now, I pray you to think of how different that is from all other notions
of inspiration that the world has ever known, and how different it is
from a great many ideas that have had influence within the Christian
Church. People say there are not any miracles now, and say we are worse
off than when there used to be. That Divine Spirit does not come to give
gifts of healing, interpretations of tongues, and all the other abnormal
and temporary results which attended the first manifestations. These,
when they were given, were but means to an end, and the end subsists
whilst the means are swept away. It is better to be made good than to be
filled with all manner of miraculous power. 'In this rejoice, not that
the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names
are written in heaven.' All the rest is transient. It is gone; let it
go, we are not a bit the poorer for want of it. This remains--not
tongues, nor gifts of healing, nor any other of these miraculous and
extraordinary and external powers--but the continual operation of a
divine influence, moulding men into its own likeness.
Christianity is intensely ethical, and it sets forth, as the ultimate
result of all its machinery, changing men into the likeness of God.
Holiness is that for which Christ died, that for which the Divine Spirit
works. Unless we Christian people recognise the true perspective of the
Spirit's gifts, and put at the base the extraordinary, and higher than
these, but still subordinate, the intellectual, and on top of all the
spiritual and moral, we do not understand the meaning of the central
gift and possible blessing of Christianity, to make us holy, or, if you
do not like the theological word, let us put it into still plainer and
more modern English, to make you and me good men and women, like God.
That is the mightiest work of that Divine Spirit.