Life and Conduct | Page 7

discouragements. (b) Even if
a man or woman become rich or clever and have life pleasant around
them, they cannot feel at the close of life that they have succeeded if
the future is dark before them. When Cardinal Wolsey, who had been
the favorite of the king and had long held the government of England in
his hand, fell from power, he said, "If I had served my God as truly as I
served my king He would not have forsaken me in my gray hairs." The
world is a poor comforter at the last. No man or woman has become
successful until their essential happiness is placed beyond the reach of
all outward fluctuation and change. Faith in Christ, the faith that
penetrates the future and brings down from heaven a bright and blessed
hopefulness, which casts its illumination over the present scene and
reveals the grand object of existence, is essential to true success.
We cannot sum up the teachings of this chapter better than in the words
of a poem of which we should try to catch the spirit: they express the
very philosophy of success in life:
Courage, brother! do not stumble, Though thy path be dark as night;
There's a star to guide the humble;-- Trust in God, and do the right.
Let the road be rough and dreary, And its end far out of sight, Foot it
bravely! strong or weary, Trust in God, and do the right.
Perish policy and cunning, Perish all that fears the light! Whether

losing, whether winning, Trust in God, and do the right.
Trust no party, sect, or faction; Trust no leaders in the fight; But in
every word and action Trust in God, and do the right.
Trust no lovely forms of passion,-- Fiends may look like angels bright:
Trust no custom, school, or fashion-- Trust in God, and do the right.
Simple rule, and safest guiding, Inward peace and inward might, Star
upon our path abiding,-- Trust in God, and do the right.
Some will hate thee, some will love thee, Some will flatter, some will
slight: Cease from man, and look above thee,-- Trust in God, and do the
right. NORMAN M'LEOD.
That is the way to succeed in life.
CHAPTER III.
PERSONAL INFLUENCE.
We are all of us in close relations to one another. We are bound
together in numberless ways. As members of the same family, as
members of the same community, as members of the same Church--we
are bound so closely together that what any one of us does is certain to
tell upon others. It is out of this close connection with others that
influence comes. Just as one man in a crowd sends by his movements a
certain impulse throughout the whole, just as the stone thrown into a
pond causes waves that move far away from where the stone fell and
that reach in faint ripples to the distant shore, so our very existence
exercises influence beyond our knowledge and beyond our calculation.
Influence is of two kinds, Direct and Indirect--Conscious and
Unconscious,--The first is influence we deliberately put forth, as when
we meet a man and argue with him, as when the orator addresses the
multitude, or the politician seeks to gain their suffrages. The second is
the influence which radiates from us, whether we will it or not, as fire
burning warms a room, or icebergs floating down from the frozen north

change the temperature where they come. There is a passage in
Scripture where both kinds of influence are illustrated. "Iron sharpeneth
iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. As in water
face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." The first part of the
proverb refers to direct influence: as "iron sharpeneth iron," so one man
applying to another his powers of persuasion, his motives in the shape
of money or some other inducement, moulds, fashions, sharpens him to
his liking. "As in water face answereth to face:" this is the silent
influence which we have on others. There is no conscious exercise of
power, there is no deliberate putting forth of strength, there is no noise
as of iron against iron; but as our shadow is silently reflected in the still
water, so our life and character silently reflect themselves in others, and
other hearts answer to the feelings that sway our own.
I. Direct or conscious influence.--In regard to this everyone must
choose his own line of action. Everyone has his own special gift, and
everyone has his own special opportunities. There are, however, certain
lines of direct influence that may be indicated, and which lie open to
all.
(a) Keeping others in the right path. We constantly meet with people
who are evidently taking a wrong road;