A DIFFERENT OUTCOME

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Dec 14, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 49.

A DIFFERENT OUTCOME.

About forty years ago a man with a young family was in a state of great discouragement. A friend gave him a glass of brandy. He sought the stimulant again. He became a visitor to a saloon. He left the great city, and opened a saloon of his own in a small town in the great Northwest. To-day his sons are saloon-keepers. His daughters married men like their own brothers. This family has never uplifted one soul. They have been a curse to the town and a large community round about the town. Men have left their saloons drunk, and been killed before reaching home. Murders, arson, quarrels, poverty, and heartache are the result of their life-work.

Less than half forty years ago a college student invited a classmate to Sunday-school. The classmate became a Christian, and for fifteen years has been preaching the Gospel. Nearly a thousand souls have found Christ through his influence, and he is a blessing in every community in which he lives. No discouraged soul meets him, but a look into his face, a grasp of his hand, a word of cheer from his lips, even the knowledge of his brave, unselfish life, gives new strength and courage.

“Influence never dies”—the influence exerted yesterday, to-day; to-morrow. Seemingly unimportant, yet it never dies. The influence still goes on of the brilliant Aaron Burr and the degraded, common dram-seller. The influence of the recorded words of three thousand years ago to the seemingly defeated Trojans, and the influence of the words and the brave cheer of the Christian pastor of to-day can never die.—Selected.