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Influence may Bless Thousands, September 5
Your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say
anything.
1 Thessalonians 1:8
, R.S.V.
The life of Christ was an ever-widening, shoreless influence, an influence that
bound Him to God and to the whole human family. Through Christ, God has
invested man with an influence that makes it impossible for him to live to himself.
Individually we are connected with our fellow men, a part of God’s great whole,
and we stand under mutual obligations. No man can be independent of his fellow
men; for the well-being of each affects others. It is God’s purpose that each shall
feel himself necessary to others’ welfare, and seek to promote their happiness.
Every soul is surrounded by an atmosphere of its own—an atmosphere, it
may be, charged with the life-giving power of faith, courage, and hope, and sweet
with the fragrance of love. Or it may be heavy and chilled with the gloom of
discontent and selfishness, or poisonous with the deadly taint of cherished sin. By
the atmosphere surrounding us, every person with whom we come in contact is
consciously or unconsciously affected.
This is a responsibility from which we cannot free ourselves. Our words, our
acts, our dress, our deportment, even the expression of the countenance, has an
influence. Upon the impression thus made there hang results for good or evil
which no man can measure. Every impulse thus imparted is seed sown which
will produce its harvest. It is a link in the long chain of human events, extending,
we know not whither. If by our example we aid others in the development of
good principles, we give them power to do good. In their turn they exert the
same influence upon others, and they upon still others. Thus by our unconscious
influence thousands may be blessed.
Throw a pebble into the lake, and a wave is formed, and another and another;
and as they increase, the circle widens, until it reaches the very shore. So with our
influence. Beyond our knowledge or control it tells upon others in blessing....
The silent witness of a true, unselfish, godly life carries an almost irresistible
influence. By revealing in our own life the character of Christ we cooperate with
Him in the work of saving souls. It is only be revealing in our life His character
that we can cooperate with Him. And the wider the sphere of our influence, the
more good we may do.—
Christ’s Object Lessons, 339, 340
.
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