Waves of Influence
      
      
        You may never know the result of your influence from day to
      
      
        day, but be sure that it is exerted for good or evil. Many who have
      
      
        a kind heart and good impulses permit their attention to be absorbed
      
      
        in worldly business or pleasure, while the souls that look to them
      
      
        for guidance drift on to hopeless wreck. Such persons may have a
      
      
        high profession and may stand well in the opinion of men, even as
      
      
        Christians, but in the day of God, when our works shall be compared
      
      
        with the divine law, then it will be found that they have not come up to
      
      
        the standard. Others who saw their course fell a little below them, and
      
      
        still others fell below the latter class, and thus the work of degeneracy
      
      
        went on.
      
      
        Throw a pebble into the lake and a wave is formed, and another
      
      
        and another; and as they increase, the circle widens until they reach
      
      
        the very shore. Thus our influence, though apparently insignificant,
      
      
        may continue to extend far beyond our knowledge or control.—
      
      
        The
      
      
        Review and Herald, January 24, 1882
      
      
        .
      
      
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