Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1896-01-22
Virtue Is Contagious.
Let him do likewise-Luke. iii. II.

v1Ituc - OUHtdS tUuS.
Let him do likewise.-Luke, iii. II.
Some one has said that if he were
able to create world he would make
virtue contagious instead of vice.
A small degree of observation will |
show that his efforts in this direction
would not be necessary, for the Lord
has already done so.
1t is not as bad world as the pes
simist would have us think, for the
general trend of things is toward the
good and not toward the evil, and if
you look into the matter carefully you
will find that what you call contagiOn
inheres in the pure and noble quite as
much as in the impure and ignoble.
Ii it be true that Haunted and sue
cessful vice ;-llures a great many it is
also true that an honest and knightly
life does the same thing.
The career of business man who
brushes aside the restraints Of moral
principle, who is little more than a
highwayman at heart, and who boldly
robs, under cover of law, until he
counts his millions, is certainly very
demoralizing. No one may measure
1t is startling and dazzling and entic
y
come bewildered as they look upon it,
and forgetting that there is moral
law which forces a man to pay his
debts either before death or after,
they pursue the tactics of their Idol
There is undoubtedly an appealing
inspiration in the life of even the
widest adventurer, who defies fate,
challenges the world, and by dint of
audacity, if not of courage. achieves
what he calls success | have no in
elm ton, therefore, to ignore the fact
that there is cOntagiOn in life which
is brilliant, even though it be at the
same time criminal.
But l insist that there is just as
much contagion in good deed as in
bad one-that the holiness of one life
conveys itself into anothe, life and
produces the same results there.
In physical experiences the agent OF
communication is germ or microbe;
in spiritual experiences it is an idea.
/ have heard physicians say that the
consciousness Of a disease depends
largely on circumstances. If you are
in a thoroughly healthy condition
your system closes every door and the
germ cannot enter You enjoy abso-
Lutte Immunity from danger Ii, On the
contrary, you are susceptible. or pre-
disposed to the malady, then the germ
takes root and you become i'll.
Whether or not you catch the disease
is determined by the weakness or
strength of your own body. Nurses
may watch over the dying and never
feel the effects of the ailment which
saps the life of the sufferer.
1t is the same in the moral world.
4horo Ionondc on UOurlplf
also, and to far greater extent. If
YOU lack spiritual strength and am
bition, if your sense of honor is only
slightly developed, if your self respect
is at a low ebb, then the example of
the man who wins a fortune by nefari
GUS means-ike the microbe of typhoid
finds Judgement in your soul, is
cherished and multiplied by its en-
vironment, until at last immortality
has the resistless sweep OF blizzard
and tears up by the roots every
heavenly and every manly aspiration.
If you had impregnable uprightness
of character, if nefariOus methods were
abhorrent to you, there would be no
attractiveness in vicious deeds and
they would have no more alluring
power than the fire has which may
coax you to thrust your hand into 1t, |
but which coaXes in vain.
There is contagion in goodness pro-
vided you are in condition to receive
it. a grand and glorious life rouses
you to imitation. The reputation |
achieved by honest methods so affects |
us that we build a monument to the
man who possesses it, and tell our boys |
to go and do likewise. | don't believe |
that the influence of pure life can be
r,oIropol 70 ching SO inSnirinp
is it. 1t is said that-the pregnant
wives of the Athenians used to spend |
hours gazing at some beautiful statue |
in the belief that something of its
beauty would be transferred to the |
child that was coming into the world |
Beauty was contagious, and the little |
one, slumbering amid the mysteries of |
a new life, caught it,
When Father Damien died among
the lepers of the Sandwich Islands his
heroism and seIf-sacrifce were so con
tagious that scores of applicants
prayed for the privilege of continuing
his work, with the certainty of death
as the result. Such was the influence
of his lonely, sanity and Godlike
mission that it was considered boon
to be immured within those leprous
walls and to fill at last a leper's grave.
1t is a mistake TO Talk OF the COLI
tagiousness of vice and to ignore that
of virtue This would be a queer
world if one could catch the impulse to
evil, but not the impulse to good. 1t
may serve the purpose of the orator,
who seeks telling period, to tell us
this, if he is willing to sacrifice truth
to rhetoric; but the stern and glorious
facts give an emphatic denial to the
statement. Mankind are nobler and
truer and more moral than ever before.
Public opinion is more generous and
more just. We have a larger faith
than our fathers and more true
religion than has heretofore been
found on the planet. Why is this
Simply and only because truth and
honesty and purity and all the nobler
qualities of character are contagious
and because the contagion of vice is
growing less dangerous year by year.
It is safe to conclude that, after all,
this is Gods world. For that reason
the tide of righteousness shonld be on
the flood, while the tide of vice should
be on the ebb, and little observation
will show that this is true.