The Difference

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 25, 1913

It is related that one day Fitzgerald was standing with Tennyson in front of a line of marble busts of great men. Side by side were the busts of Dante and Goethe. Turning to Tennyson, Fitzgerald said, “What is it which is present in Dante’s face, and absent from Goethe’s?” Tennyson promptly answered, “The divine.” And who can dispute it? There can be no doubt that the indwelling presence of the Spirit in a person does make a difference even in the appearance of the face; and if a difference in the face, how much more in the heart!

John the revelator saw men with God’s name written upon their foreheads, or upon their faces. Certainly it made a difference, a great difference, not only in the face and the heart, but in the life as well. If there is no perceptible difference in the face, or in the heart, or in the life, after you have received Christ, you will do well to question whether you have ever received Him at all or not. Since this is so important a question to every living soul, ought we not to examine often ourselves to see whether we be in the faith or not? We need know that we are His and that He is ours. That knowledge wonderfully settles human character.—Herald of Gospel Liberty.