POWER OF INFLUENCE by W. M. Punshon

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 21, 1880

POWER OF INFLUENCE.

By W. M. Punshon

THE stone flung from my careless hand into the lake splashed down into the depths of the flowing water; and that was all. No, it was not 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 shore of the lake itself.

That hasty word, that word of pride or scorn, flung from my lips in casual company, produced a momentary depression; and that was all. No, that was 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 human being.

Oh! it is a terrible power that I have, this power of influence; and it clings to me. I cannot shake it off. It is born with me; it has grown with my growth, and 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, and in every act of my life.

I cannot live to myself, 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. Your sphere may be contracted; your influence may be small; but a sphere and influence you have.—W. M. Punshon.