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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 19, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 51.

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Editorial

By C. M. S.

The Influence of Our Life

THE self-centered life leaves ruin in its wake; it scatters from God; it sows tares among the wheat; and then, like a locomotive without a guiding hand at the throttle, it crashes along to its own ruin. On the other hand, self lost sight of in blessed service for others scatters good seed everywhere, and the feet of the sower are led into the shining path that ends at the city of God. Unselfish service, true worship, and loyal obedience to God's law lead the mind out of the fogs of the dark valley of death up onto the Pisgah heights, where man may commune with the Eternal One.
The experiences of ancient Israel are full of priceless lessons for us in this matter. They are written for our admonition; they are beacon-lights along the pathway of the child of God; and in God's dealings with that people all the power of words is used and all the infinite storehouse of love is opened to cover every need of man's nature. In those experiences are the faithful warnings of the fruits of disobedience as well as the sure promises of the fruits and rewards of righteousness. The declaration that the iniquities of the fathers will be visited upon the children to the third and fourth generations of them that hate God, while true and sure, is no truer nor surer than that other declaration that the mercies of God will be visited upon thousands of generations of them that love God and keep his commandments. That the unrighteous life of the parent shows itself in the sinful tendencies of the children is a proved fact. It is in perfect harmony with the law of growth; and, were it not for the uplifting influence, the up-drawing power, of the Spirit of God still striving with man, the baneful influence of no single life could ever be checked in the continuing posterity of that individual. It is through the mercy of God alone—and that even to those who are in rebellion against him—that the corroding, corrupting, sin-breeding influence goes no farther than it does.
On the other hand, there is no power but the power of self, in our own choice, that can prevent the power of a righteous life working out, and inducing to, righteousness in succeeding generations of men. It is one of the laws of God that as the sowing is, so shall the reaping be. So the influence of a righteous life in this earth is more far-reaching than that of a sinful life, except as it is hindered by the individual choice of wrong. The ultimate fruit of the influence of righteousness is eternal life in the kingdom of God. The ultimate fruit of the influence of unrighteousness is eternal death. The one goes on forever; the other is cut short as unfit for the universe of God. Through all the ramifications of a righteous life there pulses a power which nothing but the human choice can check. In that declaration that God would show mercy to thousands of generations of them that love him and keep his commandments, there is a lesson for us in the far-reaching influence of a righteous, God-loving life. There is also the lesson that sin and sin's influence, though powerful, are not eternal; that they are not limitless even in this life; for the power of God is against them on behalf of all who seek release from the clutch of their talons.
Every evil thought leaves a scar upon the heart of him who thinks it, and every evil act of the parent leaves a sore upon the soul of the child he has brought into the world. You can not harbor in your heart a greed for gold without bringing the rheumatism of sin into all the articulating parts of the spiritual man. You can not indulge that greed in worship without inoculating or infecting your offspring with a soul-blighting sickness. Just so in every other line of self-service and self-worship. It is so written in the economy of nature. Like brings like; and yet upon the trunk of that tree, all gnarled and bearing but wild fruit, the husbandman may set a graft that will bear fruit of the most delightful character. So in the life of a child weighed down with an inheritance of evil, God, through the surrender of that life to him, can bring forth fruit unto his glory throughout eternity.
Our load of sins may be greater than our power to lift ourselves under them; they may have dyed our character with the indelible scarlet; they may have left scars which neither power nor skill of man can eradicate; and yet there is a power by which we may be lifted above the weight of that load, a remedy for the indelible stain of sin, a Physician who can take away the deepest scar that sin can make. David was well-nigh overwhelmed by the crushing weight of his sin, but he declared: “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay; and he set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” The Lord calls to us through the prophet Isaiah: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” That takes out the indelible stain, and God is just as able to take out the scars that sin has made; for “Jehovah bindeth up the hurt of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.” Isa. 30:26. When God has fully accomplished that work, the influence of every wicked life is done, while the influence of every life of righteousness goes on through eternal years.
C. M. S.