The Power of Influence

MAN is an influential being. There is no person, however poor and humble, but is constantly exerting an influence over the minds and actions of those around him, an influence, too, that will be effective, for weal or woe, through coming ages. But what is influence? It is that silent and unseen power that lies in those words that fall from our lips, and in those sections which we perform, that often produce in the mind and hearts of others results of incalculable good or injury. It is that mysterious agent which we often send to the hearts and feelings of those around us, which carries with it a power that will be felt and realized by them through all future time, and which the ceaseless round of endless ages can never efface from the tablet of memory. We are so constituted, and sustain such a relation to our fellow-men, that it is utterly impossible for us to live in their midst, and not exert an influence over them by which they will be governed, to a greater or less extend, in the formation of their characters and course of life.

How often has the influence arising from the simple remark of some individual been effective in changing our purpose, and turning the channel of our thoughts in an entirely different direction. The unseen power there is in the influence that we exert over the minds of others, if that influence is right, often acts as a lever in removing them from an unsettle position, and placing their feet on a firm basis, or vice versa, if our influence is wrong.

Every moment that we come in contact with our fellow-men, we are touching chords that will vibrate when time shall cease to be, and old earth, with all its many wonders, shall have gone back to its primal state. Our influence, too, stops not with our lifetime; but when these frail bodies have mouldered back to dust, the influence we have exerted while inhabiting them, will still be active in helping form the characters of many who may come after us. Look at Voltaire and Paine! Their writings have made more infidels since their death than they did in the whole course of their lives. Thus it will continue; the whole amount of influence that will arise from their writings, to shape the character and destiny of men, will never be known, until the records of earth shall have been complete, and Time pronounced to be no more; then will be seen in the blazing light of eternity’s morn, the whole amount of good or evil that we have done in the course of our life-time.

Let us remember, we touch not a note but reverberates thought that the revolutions of eternity will ever erase from the memory; and we exert not an influence but will be felt by others long after we have passed away. In view of these facts it becomes us to beware that we exert a beneficial influence over those with whom we daily associate, and especially over those whom our hearts hold dear, and whose love and sympathy buoys us up in hours of trial and gloom, and stress our pathway with many a flower of affection and lasting happiness.

J. N. JOHNSON.