Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-02-20
For the Herald and Tribune.
Influence.


Influence.
Influence is the power We exert over
others by our thoughts, words and &C.
tions-by u lives, in short. 1t 10 a
silent, a prevailing, a magnetic, and a
most wonderful thing. We neither see
or hear it, yet consciously or uncon.
sciously we exert it. No one can think
or speak or act-no one car live with
out influencing others. We all, some
times seem unconscious of this very i'm
portant fact and appear to have adopted
the strange idea that what we do or
think or say can effect no one but our
selves. You influence Others and mould
their characters and destinies for time
and for eternity far more extensively
than you imagine. The whole truth in
this matter might iatter you; but it
would certainly astonish you if you
could but grasp it in its full proportion.
1t was a remark of s. J. Mills that mo
young man should live in the nineteenth
century without making his influence
felt around the globe" At first thought
that seems a heavy contract for any
young man to take. As we come to ap.
prehend more clearly the immutable
laws of Gods moral universe, we find
that this betting of the globe by his in.
fluence is just what every responsible
being does. 1t is for q blessing or a
curse every thought of your heart, every
word that falls from your lips and
every act you 90. 1t is time you awoke
to the convictions that whether you
would have it 30 or not your influence
is world wide for good or for evil.
which, There is another immense fact
which we may as we'll look squarely in
the face. IAN influence never dies"
once born it lives forever. In one of
his lyrics Longfellow beautifully illus
trates this great truth:
buOt al dTIOW III tn6 dlT,
1t fell to earth, I knew not where;
Long afterwards in an oak
found the arrow still unbroke."
No thought, no word, no act of mar
ever dies. They are immortal as his
own soul and he will be sure 10 find
them written somewhere. At sometime
he will meet their fruits, somewhere in
the future life he will meet their gath.
cred harvest. 1t may and it may not
be a pleasant one. An influence not
only lives forever, but it keeps on grow
ing as long as it lives and there is never
a time when it reaches maturity and
when its growth is arrested. The influ.
ence which you start into life today in
the family, the neighborhood, or the
social circle is perhaps very small now,
very little cared for but it will roll for
ward through the ages, growing wider
and deeper and stronger with every
passing hour and blighting or blessing
as it rolls. The skeptical thought that
fell as a seed of evil from the lip and
grew in the heart of the listener into
defiant infdelity, the light that pierced
the spirit like a poisoned dart, the angry
glance which stirred TIL soul to anguish
and made tears flow at the midnight
hour are all beyond our reach. The
mind thus wounded signs on and after
we are dead the chords vibrate which
our fingers have touched. Our influ.
ence is not confined to ourselves or to
the scene of our immediate action, but
1t extends to others and will reach to
succeeding ages to come. There is a
woe for those who suffer from evil in
fluences but a heavier, der woe for
them by whom the offense cometh. u
Therefore, resolve in the silent depths
OF your rejecting spirit that l will take
care of my influence. Concentrate
your influence to virtue, to humanity
and to God. Thus in your life you
shall be like a star glittering in its own
luster undimmed by the radiance of an.
other and uneclipsed by the deep shades
Of the midnight heayens. J.C. BERRY.