The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-26
EVERY LIFE EXERTS
INFLUENCE UPON
EVERY OTHER
Rev. VIII. W. Boyle Says That
If True Light Be in a Man
1t Will Shine, and If He
Possess Darkness of Motive
It Will Cast a Shadow.

Rev. w. H. w. Boyle, of the House
of Hope church, preached yesterday
morning on Life Infiuential-Whose
Life?" taking his text from John xiv: 7.
He said in part:
Each year we have lived has press
ed into US some moral characteristic.
Tendencies have grown into habits,
and habits sooner or later crystalline
into character of some sort. Every
being in the world, conscious of the
possession of definite will power, is
creature of inf1uence-is, in a very
important sense, the creator of his
moral self. No man liveth to himself
That which a man is in his beliefs, in
his purposes, in his affections, all that
he is and is not, is contagious in its
influence and photographs itself on the
lives of others.
IF the true light be in a man, it
will shine. If there be in him dark
ness Of motive it will cast a shadow.
ITO live with some people for an
hour is like living on the sun bathed
slope of a mountain. To live with
some other people for an hour is to
go down cellar-to be in companionship
with the specters of pessimism.
Nor is it possible for any one to
maintain a position of neutrality or of
Indifference toward this question. No
make the sad confession, I have no in
fiuence,' he cannot truthfully say so.
He may decide to shut himself away
in the cave of the anchorite, apart
from the dwellings Of men, without
thought or activity, yet in that life he
still exercises an influence negative
influence, it may be, but still an 1nt1u-
ence-in the loss Of a living man to
living men.
EorcA of ExannJe
I'm this thought of influential life we
must not forget the force of example
Maxims and principles are laid down
for our direction from the earliest
years. But nobody begins to live a
principle. The faculty of imitation is
the very first to be called into exercise.
Examples are followed before the sim
plest precepts are understood. Exam
pie is like a printing press-it has a
-propagating power. A thing done
is thought printed. 1t may be re-
puted, but it never can be recalled.
The influence of life upon life, of dis
position upon disposition, of soul upon
soul is tremendous. Who is there that
cannot call up in his memory some life
which was changed in its condition, in
its motive, by coming into close con-
tact with some other life?
1.-The evil men do Shakespeare
says, lives with them But L am glad
to say, While sadly believing this, that
I am the possessor of faith enough in
mankind to lead me to believe that the
other line which Shakespeare uses as a
complement to the first is not true.
The good is oft inferred with their
BONES 1 do not believe that
i have nothing to say about those
who need granite and marble to per-
petuate their memory. Generally the
crown OF glory is a well merited crown
but / have known thousands of lives
with character born from above, in
Vesting with a real glory the common
place deeds of life. have seen I'M
murmuring patience reflect its calm
ness over other lives in the face of in
justice. have seen sweet content
preach its sermons Of peace to storm
tossed souls. l have seen lives trans
formed from the shape of the demon
to the shape of the divine by those
strange workings of God through the
agencies He is able to use. Even as He
is able to bring out of the body Of a
rotten shellfish the ornament of a
pearl.
THE question of capital Importance
is: Do we, as individuals, realize the
responsibility for the putting forth of
influence according to our power? This
is personal question.
True religion is not theology. That
is only the philosophy of it. True re-
UNCONVENTIONAL shibboleth. That is
only its stated form. True religion is
a conviction. 1t has to- do with the
imperial sanctions of conscience The
true Christian realizes responsibility
Tor the sanctification of his social re-
lationships.
1T was Daniel Webster who said.
l must answer to Cod This ought to
be the motto Of every man. It is in
Ststence upon the fact of moral re-
sponsibility to God that differentiates
man from all creation. Eliminate from
his being the fact Of realized duty, the
fact of the impulse of the absolute in
conscience, and he will sink rapidly
into the category of mere animal in
stinct, and finally will devolute to the
brute beast. He cannot help it,
True Christiaity, in the true Chris
t1an, Will realize responsibility for the
fulhllment of religious OBLIGATION
Everything that has to do with reli-
gion has to do with life. When 1 re-
ceive a deposit of the divine grace 7
am responsible as a creature of God
for the communication of 1t. To offer
for service is to serve with the whole
being laid on the altar To a half
hearted Christian of his day Charles
Kingsley said: DO thy work, sir, as
though earth We're heaven. and this
very day in which thou Invest, thy
judgment day.
John Milton once said, No one can
write a good and noble book without
living a good and noble life He was
absolutely right Thought gives direc-
ton to action, and action makes life.
If mans highest thought is at the
death level of the material, with the
question, how much can get into my
hands and how much can I keep his
influence will just be at that dead
level-no higher; maybe no lower. But
If he makes his life an ascension to
God, over the white stairs Of action,
he viii, through stress and toll and
temptation, lift others up with him as
he goes"