CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE by Charles Wadsworth, D. D.

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 19, 1861

CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE.

By Charles Wadsworth, D. D.

IN the life of a Christian lies the secret of all true Christian influence. It is the easiest thing in the world to talk about religion. But mere talk about religion is the poorest thing in the world. Every true Christian will, indeed, talk about his Saviour. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. And if the voice does not speak for Christ, sure you may be the soul is not filled with Christ. Nevertheless, here as elsewhere, the utterance of the lips is as nothing to the influence of the life. In the divine economy, all grand forces are comparatively gentle and silent. The shallow rill, that is dry on the mountain side half the year, brawls more noisily at times than yon mighty river. The boy's sparkling rocket makes a louder demonstration in the night air than all God's starry constellations. And yet, in the silence of their sublime manifestations, how eloquently do these great forces of the universe bear witness for God!

And so it is of moral forces. The gentle movement of "the man out of whom the devils were departed," amid his wondering countrymen, did more to convince them of Christ's saving power, than a thousand noisy utterances. And so it is with the convincing power of a Christian life. The converted man is left in this world a witness for Jesus, a living illustration of the power and blessedness of a religious life. He is to the theological truth of the Bible what practical experiments are to scientific truths in nature. As the chemist talks technically of elements in analysis and synthesis, and exhibits, in illustration, free gases and ponderous compounds; and as the botanist discourses scientifically of the structure of plants, and the functions of their parts, and shows you his meaning by producing the petals of a lily, or a spike of lavender, so it is with spiritual science in the hands of the great Teacher. In the Bible the graces of the Christian are described as in a written epistle—in Christian life they are illustrated as in a "living epistle."

And in this sense are we, mainly, witnesses for Christ. As the Gadarenes saw that the demoniac was restored, so must the world see that the sinner is converted. He must speak for Christ, as the flower and the star speak for God, in the beauty and glory of their physical manifestations. Without this abiding savor of a holy life, all else will prove but a mockery.—Charles Wadsworth, D. D.