salvation,' and that power
keeps us and that final salvation becomes ours, 'through faith.'

II. Now, secondly, turn to the other emblem, that 'earnest' which
consists in like manner 'of the Spirit.'

The 'earnest,' of course, is a small portion of purchase-money, or
wages, or contract-money, which is given at the making of a bargain,
as an assurance that the whole amount will be paid in due time. And,
says the Apostle, this seal is also an earnest. It not only makes
certain God's ownership and guarantees the security of those on whom
it is impressed, but it also points onwards to the future, and at
once guarantees that, and to a large extent reveals the nature of it.
So, then, we have here two thoughts on which I touch.

The Christian character and experience are the earnest of the
inheritance, in the sense of being its guarantee, inasmuch as the
experiences of the Christian life here are plainly immortal. The
Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the objective and
external proof of a future life. The facts of the Christian life, its
aspirations, its communion, its clasp of God as its very own, are the
subjective and inward proofs of a future life. As a matter of fact,
if you will take the Old Testament, you will see that the highest
summits in it, to which the hope of immortality soared, spring
directly from the experience of deep and blessed communion with the
living God. When the Psalmist said 'Thou wilt not leave my soul in
_Sheol_; neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption,' he
was speaking a conviction that had been floated into his mind on the
crest of a great wave of religious enjoyment and communion. And, in
like manner, when the other Psalmist said, 'Thou art the strength of
my heart, and my portion for ever,' he was speaking of the glimpse
that he had got of the land that was very far off, from the height
which he had climbed on the Mount of fellowship with God. And for us,
I suppose that the same experience holds good. Howsoever much we may
say that we believe in a future life and in a heaven, we really grasp
them as facts that will be true about ourselves, in the proportion in
which we are living here in direct contact and communion with God.
The conviction of immortality is the distinct and direct result of
the present enjoyment of communion with Him, and it is a reasonable
result. No man who has known what it is to turn himself to God with a
glow of humble love, and to feel that