Power of Influence by William Morley Punshon

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Sep 23, 1875

Power of Influence.

By William Morley Punshon

THE stone, flung from my careless hand into the lake, splashed into the water, and that was all. Look at those concentric rings, rolling their tiny ripples among the sedgy reeds, dipping the overhanging boughs of yonder willow, and producing an influence, slight but conscious, to the very shores of the lake itself. That hasty word, that word of pride or scorn flung from my lips in casual company, produces a momentary depression, and that is all. No, it is not all. It deepened that man's disgust at godliness, and it sharpened the edge of that man's sarcasm, and it shamed that half converted one out of his penitent misgivings, and it produced an influence, slight but eternal, on the destiny of a valuable life. Oh, it is a terrible power that I have—this power of influence—and it clings to me; it has grown with my growth, and is strengthened with my strength. It speaks, it walks, it moves; it is powerful in every look of my eye, in every word of my lips, in every act of my life. I cannot live to myself. I must either be a light to illumine, or a tempest to destroy. I must either be an Abel, who, by his immortal righteousness, being dead yet speaketh, or an Achan, the saddest continuance of whose otherwise forgotten name is the fact that man perishes not alone in his iniquity. O brethren, this necessary element of power belongs to you all. Thy sphere may be contracted, thine influence may be small, but a sphere and influence you surely have.—Punshon.