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mark of crystallized character is not attained so early inour Christian experience as is the mark of character-development.But by fighting the good fight until theend of our course, we crystallize our characters in lovefor the principles of righteousness, for God, for thebrethren and even for our enemies. If thus faithful,we shall win the prize of glory, honor and immortality.PERFECTION, NOT CONSECRATION, THE MARKThere is no reason to think that our consecration isthe mark; for our testing, our proving comes after ourconsecration, and not before it. No one would be at themark merely because he is consecrated, but because hehad endured the testing, thus proving that his consecrationwas from the heart and that he was sincere in thedevotion of his every power to the service of God. Wecannot suppose that the mark is reached the next momentafter consecration. Some degree of character-developmentmust be possessed; there must be some mark ofcharacter, in order that God may count that personworthy of everlasting life.God's standard of character is perfection, which mustbe manifested by loyalty and obedience under whatevertests He permits to come to individuals upon any planeof life. No one will get the prize of everlasting lifeunless he successfully passes those tests. We realize thatthe Church has been under trial throughout the GospelAge, as to her worthiness to obtain "glory, honor andimmortality"--joint-heirship with her Lord.--Rom. 817.From the Scriptures we learn that throughout theMessianic Age the world will be tried by The Christ,and that even after passing that test they will not receivethe reward of everlasting life until God shall haveproved them at the end of Christ's reign by loosingSatan for a "little season." (I Cor. 1524; Rev. 207-10.)The fact that the world is thus to be tried by both TheChrist and God confirms the thought that God has astandard, or mark, of character to be attained by allthose who are loyal and obedient to Him--on any planeof existence.While this mark of character to be attained by theworld during Messiah's reign is not the one to which St.Paul refers in our text, nevertheless there is such acharacter-mark to be reached by mankind. Those whothen attain the mark will have everlasting life on thehuman plane. But those who attain the mark to whichthe Apostle refers will be given eternal life on thedivine plane.THE MARK OF CHARACTER-CRYSTALLIZATIONThe Apostle was a noble example of one who hadreached the mark. So far as we know, he was ready todie at any time; hence it was not this mark of character-developmentto which he had not attained. He had not