Our Influence by S. N. Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 7, 1873

Our Influence.

By S. N. Haskell

THE religion of the Bible is not altogether passive, but active. It is a law of the mind that where there is a firm conscientious belief, it carries with it an influence that will affect minds, even if the words spoken are very few. Add to it words and our general deportment, and lasting impressions are made. Minds are molded, thus character is formed, and it is in view of this fact that men and women should realize the importance of being soundly converted to the work of God, if they would be successful in the tract and missionary enterprise. It is important that our influence be ever on the right side in the cause of God. Sympathizing with wrong and those in error, when God is especially arresting their attention, is standing directly in the way of the work of God; and in proportion as our influence is felt by others, evil seeds are sown, which months and years of repentance cannot eradicate from the soil of the human heart; for evil is like weeds in the garden, which will grow of themselves; but good seed must be cultivated.

The apostle quotes from David, the following words: “He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor; his righteousness remaineth forever.” The influence of that act which results in soundly converting one soul to God does not cease with its author, but its influence affects others, and thus it spreads like the ripple arising from a stone's being thrown into a smooth surface of water. The soul saved by the act will live throughout eternity; and thus his righteousness will continue forever.

It is thus with wrong acts and words, arising from sympathy being on the wrong side. “He that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad.” There is no end to such influence. It lives, destroying precious souls for whom Christ died, until the Judgment, when it is made manifest that souls are eternally lost as the result of it. And if those individuals are saved through the pardoning love of God, that have committed such errors, there is a loss to them which might have been an eternal gain. David’s sin “has given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme” until the present day. Jacob, by siding with his mother in deceiving Isaac, resulted in his being obliged to flee for his life to a stranger’s land, and in after years nearly proved his ruin, and the ruin of his family, and of his substance. Ahithophel, whose counsel “was as if a man had inquired at the oracle of God,” proved his own ruin by casting his influence on the side he sympathized with, the wrong party.

It is not the amount of influence that men have which proves their salvation or ruin, but it is the scale in which it is cast. David prayed, “Let my heart be sound in thy statutes,” and with propriety the Christian might additionally pray that their hearts might be sound in the order and work of God. The Judgment “will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts.” We might well say, Who is sufficient for these things? and where are the hearts which will ever prove true to God and his precious cause? Everything that can be shaken will be, but that which cannot be shaken will remain.

S. N. HASKELL.