UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE by Frances E. Bolton

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 24, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 34.

UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE.

By Frances E. Bolton

BY FRANCES E. BOLTON.

THORSWALDEN wrought with his chisel and stone, A sculptor whose treasures were marvelous art, Conscious with joy that he worked not alone, His hand was God-guided, inspired was his heart. His statues he bore to his own Danish land, In sea-weed he gathered from Italy's strand.

The wondering people paused long on their way, Enrapt with the beauty the artist had wrought; And the sea-weed was trodden deep into the clay, As useless, unmeaning, nor calling for thought; Yet seeds men were sowing, unconsciously trod, Which stored as in caskets the glory of God.

Men wondered and worshiped, and bowed on the land, Not now for the beauty the artist had wrought, But for glory so lavishly strewn on the sand, Beyond man's conception and higher than thought; For the flowers of Italy, fair to behold, Had blossomed in splendor no sculptor could mould.

Then, humbled in spirit, in reverence there The sculptor looked forth with amazement untold, To see that he'd sowed without knowledge or care, In what he thought rubbish, such beauty of mould, And prayed, " Be it thus, Lord, in all days of mine, From my unconscious sowing bring glory divine."

O heart, throbbing so to thy hurrying hand, And strained with a work that is consciously wrought, God grant thee His seed for the unfurrowed land, That is sown without knowledge and grown without thought.

May thine unconscious influence scatter abroad The seeds of a harvest to glorify God.

The work of thy hand to men's eyes may be fine, The work of thy heart must be God-wrought with love, Or thine unconscious influence will lack the divine, Nor stand in the judgment of heaven above. The unconscious influence of life has the weight Of the soul that thou art, and is pregnant with fate.