Springfield Weekly Republican

Indirect Influence.—The amount and value of a man's influence, for good or evil, upon the world, will generally depend upon the character of his indirect and unconscious influence. Personal perfection,—the Christian refinement of feelings and sentiments, faithfulness to all the duties of the more private relations we sustain, are inexorably demanded by the Almighty, and by the spirit of Christ's gospel, and demanded the more rigorously because the effect of such fidelity does not end with ourselves, but goes forth and wins results that are precious in the sight of heaven, and which we may never know. The spirit of a person's life is ever shedding some power, just as a flower is steadily bestowing some fragrance upon the air. Do you think that a pure and earnest prayer, in the sacred privacy of home, does not steal through the walls and vivify the atmosphere beyond? Do you doubt that a word of sympathy and a gift of charity, in a desolate chamber, publish a sweet influence upon the frosty air of human selfishness? Such things reveal and confirm character, and make the power of a person's presence who performs them more intense and beneficial. Influence depends less on our activity than on the qualities that lie behind our activity; as the planet attracts not by its motion, but by its weight. If we had lived as we ought to live, and as we might live, a power would go out from us that would make every day a lyric sermon, that should be seen and felt by an ever-enlarging audience.—T. Starr King.