Life and Conduct | Page 9

His weak and erring
disciple, whom He heard denying Him with oaths, it is said, "The Lord
looked upon Peter." No more than that, and it reached right down into
his heart. It touched him as nothing else could have touched him. "He
went out and wept bitterly." It was said of Keble the poet that "his face
was like that of an illuminated clock, beaming with the radiance of his
poetry and wisdom"; and it is written of one of the most
spiritually-minded of Scotchmen, Erskine of Linlathen, that "his looks
were better than a thousand homilies." There was something in the very
expression of his countenance that spoke to men of an inner life and of
a spiritual dwelling in God.
(b) Think of the influence of a smile: the smile of welcome when we
call at a friend's house; the smile of recognition when we meet him in
the street; the smile of pleasure which the speaker sees in his audience;
the smile of satisfaction in one to whom we have done an act of
kindness. By the very expression of the countenance we can influence
others, make their life more pleasant or more painful. There are those
who by the sweetness of their demeanor are in a household like fragrant
flowers. They are like the sweet ointment of spikenard which the

woman poured upon Christ--the sweet perfume of it "filled the whole
house."
(c) Think of the influence of sympathy. There are some natures that are
gifted with a blessed power to bring consolation to men. It is not that
they are glib of tongue or facile of speech, but somehow the very
pressure of their hand is grateful to the saddened heart. The simple and
kindly action, of which we think nothing, may tell powerfully on others,
and unclose fountains of feeling deep down in the heart.
(d) Think of the influence of example: the simple doing of what is right,
though we say nothing about it; the upright life of a father or mother in
a household; the steady conduct of a soldier in his company; the
stainless character of a workman among his comrades, or a boy in his
school. It is bound to tell. "Example," says Dr. Smiles, "is one of the
most potent instructors, though it teaches without a tongue. It is the
practical school of mankind working by action, which is always more
forcible than words. Precept may point to us the way, but it is a silent
continuous example conveyed to us by habits, and living with us in fact,
that carries us along. Good advice has its weight, but without the
accompaniment of a good example it is of comparatively small
influence, and it will be found that the common saying of 'Do as I say,
not as I do' is usually reversed in the actual experience of life."
Goodness makes good. As a man who trims his garden in a straight row
and makes it beautiful will induce in time all his neighbors to follow
him, or at least to be ashamed of their ragged and ill-kept plots in
contrast with his own, so is it that the upright, good life of a sincere
Christian man will silently tell upon others.
These are some illustrations of the power of influence unconsciously
exercised, and the whole subject teaches us (1) Our responsibility. If we
are ready to ask, "Am I my brother's keeper?" the answer is, you cannot
help being so. It is as easy to evade the law of gravitation as the law of
responsibility. A man was lately prosecuted for having waited on his
customers in clothes he had worn when attending his children during an
infectious complaint. It was proved that he had sown broadcast germs
of the disease. It would have been no justification for him to say, What

has anyone to do with the clothes I wear? It is my own business. He
was a member of the community. His action was silently but surely
dealing out death to others. He was punished, and justly punished. We
cannot live without influencing others. We say perhaps that "we mean
well," or at least we mean to do no one any harm, but is our influence
harmless? It is going from us in forms as subtle as the germs of an
infectious disease.
Say not, "It matters not to me, My brother's weal is his behoof," For in
this wondrous human web, If your life's warp, his life is woof.
Woven together are the threads, And you and he are in one loom, For
good or ill, for glad or sad, Your lives must share one common doom.
Then let the daily shuttle glide, Wound full of threads of kindly care,
That life's increasing length may be