45. All Exert Influence
All Exert Influence
HELPING OR HARMING.—We are helping or harming our fellows. We may not have a thought of one who is near us; we may not say a word or give a look, kind or unkind, to him, yet we may cheer and help him, or sadden and dishearten him, toy our countenance as he looks at us, or as we look at him. No one stands or falls to himself alone. Our influence is continuous. There are those who are constantly helping their fellows by loving looks or words. And there are those who are a constant cause of depression, by not being thoughtful to do this. A button was once touched in New York which fired guns and rang bells all around the world. Vet the man who touched the button never heard a sound. WHICH ARGUMENT?—A preacher delivered a course of lectures on infidelity, and was pleased to learn that an infidel who had attended the services was deeply impressed. “Which of my arguments did you find the most convincing?” the preacher asked the infidel. “No argument moved me,” was the reply, “but the face and manner of an old blind woman who sits in one of the front rows.”
MOULDING FOR ETERNITY.—No human being can live long without increasing or diminishing human happiness or misery. No one can avoid this responsibility. We are forming character for Eternity; our own and others’. Herein lies the solemn responsibility of our existence. Continually are our fellow-beings entering the other world with characters bearing, more or less, the impress of our influence upon them.
CONSTANT MOTION.—It is said that the pulsations of the atmosphere, once set in motion by the human voice, go on and on while the sound dies. The waves of the air thus set in motion by the words spoken are said to travel the surface of the earth and ocean, and in less than twenty hours every atom of its atmosphere takes up the altered movement. Thus considered, what a strange thing is the air we breathe, what a book upon whose pages are forever written all that men and women have ever said or whispered. You throw a pebble into the lake. It sinks out of sight and is seen no more, but from the spot on the water where it went down rings form, and they roll on and on and widen out until they reach the very shore. That hasty word, that word of hate, or scorn, or pride, was soon uttered, and for the moment produced a depression or a wound, and that was all. No, it was not all. It left an influence eternal.
NATURE LEAVES TRACES.—Nothing takes place without leaving traces behind it; and these are, in many cases, so distinct and various as to leave not a doubt of their cause. Arizona, New Mexico and other sections of the West abound in beds of lava and other evidence of volcanic eruptions in remote ages. There are also vast canons, evidently cut out by mighty torrents of water, and yet, today, water may not be found in some localities in a day’s journey.
BEAUTIFUL EPITAPHS.—In a cemetery, a little white stone marked the grave of a dear little girl, and on the stone were cut these words: “A child of whom her playmates said: ‘It was easier to be good when she was with us.’“ Lord Peterborough, in speaking about Fénelon, said: “I was forced to get away from him, else he would have made me pious.”
BAD INFLUENCE REGRETTED.—It was a sad remark of a dying man who said: “Oh, that my influence could be gathered up and buried with me!”