A Mark of Character

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 15, 1910

A Mark of Character.

There is more to the mark of the beast than a mere doctrinal matter. It is the mark of character. Two great opposing powers have stood out before the world during the ages. The one is the great apostasy allying itself with civil power, issuing its tyrannous edicts, demanding homage and worship, apotheosizing patriotism, defying man. On the other side has been the infinite God, asking for the worship of His children; pleading, with all the hoarded love of eternity manifest in Jesus Christ, for them to come to Him and be saved. Those who yield to Him, receive of His character. Those who turn from Him, surely sooner or later yield to the beast-power; and in the last days before Christ shall come, the line of demarcation will be drawn as it has never been drawn in all the ages. To that time the prophet looked when he said, "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision." So men are deciding to-day; and that decision stamps irrevocably upon the soul that decides, the character of the one of these great powers or the other. Hence the mark becomes, in its last essential, that which we desire, the character which we choose,—the character of God on the one side, or of the beast power representing the acme of apostasy on the other. How is it with you, reader? Whose mark will you choose? Whose stamp of character do you wish shall be found upon you when the great Judge shall call all to account? Whatever may have been our past, it is possible now to come to the great power of divinity and let His creative energy change us into His own divine likeness; or we may identify ourselves with sin and apostasy, and meet the penalties. The choice rests with us. The inevitable consequence is revealed to us in His Word.