This is especially evident when this person is indeed a man of sterling character or a woman of a dominant spirit. Persons exercise an attraction upon one another which has a levelling effect. The one is stronger than the other, and the stronger molds the weaker into uniformity to his own nature. Imitation lies at the bottom of human nature, and unobservedly and unintentionally the weaker inclines to be and to act like the stronger, even to the extent sometimes, of the inflection of voice and kind of conversation. And this personal influence of itself leads to the influence of the religious atmosphere, which is distinctly different from the moral.
All religion is personal at the core.
Moses has put the print of his personality upon all Israel. Christendom has been carried into the world by the Apostles. S. Augustine has inspired the Middle Ages. The Reformation on the Continent of Europe and in the British Isles bears the stamp of its spiritual fathers. And in every community, to this day, in which a strongly animated religious life is dominant, you can point out the persons from whom this bracing atmosphere has emanated.