THEY WHO INFLUENCE US by Elsie A. Brown

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Apr 16, 1901

THEY WHO INFLUENCE US

By Elsie A. Brown

ELSIE A. BROWN

(Watrousville, Mich.)

Some one has said—and who has not experienced the truthfulness of the statement?—that “there are some men and some women in whose company we are always at our best.” Who are these men and women who thus influence us? Are they possessed of superior educational attainments, wealth, or influence?—No; for one may have almost boundless resources in any or even in all these directions, without any special influence upon us for good. Neither do we yield our treasure of good to those who, with condescending patronage, deign to give us notice. In place of good, these probably elicit from us only a feeling of resentment. And those whom we regard with fear because of their seeming distrust of us, have power to bring out only the worst in us; for “in an atmosphere of suspicion men shrivel up.”

Who, then, are the men and women in whose society we are at ease and at our best? “You will find, if you think for a moment, that the people who influence you are the people who believe in you;” and one who ought to know has said that, “as a matter of fact, there is nothing which so draws upon a man’s manliness, anyway, as to show confidence in him. Suspicion never helps him.” “As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.” And be sure that he who sets himself to the task of searching out the evil in men will find that which he seeks; for when one makes a search with some certain thing in mind, he sees only that sought for, even though things of an entirely different nature and of much greater worth are passed over in the search; and in this instance, at least, it will be passing strange if, as he beholds the thing in mind, he is not changed by beholding; and he who is searched will, almost in spite of himself, apply to the searcher the old saying, “It takes a rogue to catch a rogue,” and thus distrust breeds distrust.

At the bottom of the seventy-first page of the book, “Christ’s Object Lessons,” we find these words: “Often we regard as hopeless subjects the very ones whom Christ is drawing to himself;” and again, on the seventy-second page: “Many will be in heaven who their neighbors supposed would never enter there.”

Then, of necessity, many will be there who with safety might have been trusted here; and would it not be better even to run a little risk than thus to pass over Christ in the person of His saints?

We are placed here as instruments through which God can work for the uplifting and saving of men; but “if we try to influence or elevate others, we shall soon see that success is in proportion to their belief of our belief in them,” and it has even been said—and who disputes it?—that “to be trusted is to be saved.”