I think the first essential mark of the difference between true and false assurance is to be found in the fact that the true works humility. Surely this can be known. But if there is utter humility, you have the sign of the true spirit. This will manifest itself in connection with another mark.
Little children are very prompt to show their character.
There is a great difference in them. Bring a child into a room. She comes thinking about nothing in particular, looking at her mother, then looking at the guests or anything that objectively strikes her, not thinking of herself. That is pure, sweet, and lovely. She grows older, and she comes to think of herself and what people think of her, and her manner has lost its unconsciousness.