I will name, is, that it is impossible to live in this world and
escape responsibility. It is not that they alone, as you have seen,
who are trying purposely to convert or corrupt others, who exert an
influence; you can not live without exerting influence. The doors
of your soul are open on others, and theirs on you. You inhabit
a house which is well-nigh transparent; and what you are within,
you are ever showing yourself to be without, by signs that have no
ambiguous expression. If you had the seeds of a pestilence in your
body, you would not have a more active contagion than you have in
your tempers, tastes, and principles. Simply to be in this world,
whatever you are, is to exert an influence--an influence, too,
compared with which mere language and persuasion are feeble. You
say that you mean well; at least, you think you mean to injure no
one. Do you injure no one? Is your example harmless? Is it ever on
the side of God and duty? You can not reasonably doubt that others
are continually receiving impressions from your character. As
little you can doubt that you must answer for these impressions. If
the influence you exert is unconsciously exerted, then it is only
the most sincere, the truest expression of your character. And for
what can you be held responsible, if not for this? Do not deceive
yourselves in the thought that you are at least doing no injury, and
are, therefore, living without responsibility; first, make it sure
that you are not every hour infusing moral death insensibly into
your children, wives, husbands, friends, and acquaintances. By a
mere look or glance, not unlikely, you are conveying the influence
that shall turn the scale of some one's immortality. Dismiss,
therefore, the thought that you are living without responsibility;
that is impossible. Better is it frankly to admit the truth; and if
you will risk the influence of a character unsanctified by duty and
religion, prepare to meet your reckoning manfully, and receive the
just recompense of reward.
The true philosophy or method of doing good is also here explained.
It is, first of all and principally, to be good--to have a character
that will of itself communicate good. There must and will be active
effort where there is goodness of principle; but the latter we
should hold to be the principal thing, the root and life of all.
Whether it is a mistake more sad or more ridiculous, to make mere
stir synonymous with doing good, we need not inquire; enough, to
be sure that one who has taken up such a notion of doing good, is
for that reason a nuisance to the Church. The Christian is called
a light, not lightning. In order to act with effect on others, he
must walk in the Spirit, and thus become the image of goodness; he
must be so akin to God, and so filled with His dispositions, that
he shall seem to surround himself with a hallowed atmosphere. It is
folly to endeavor to make ourselves shine before we are luminous.
If the sun without his beams should talk to the planets, and argue
with them till the final day, it would not make them shine; there
must be light in the sun itself; and then they will shine, of
course. And this, my brethren, is what God intends for you all.
It is the great idea of His gospel, and the work of His spirit,
to make you lights in the world. His greatest joy is to give you
character, to beautify your example, to exalt your principles, and
make you each the depository of His own almighty grace. But in order
to do this, something is necessary on your part--a full surrender
of your mind to duty and to God, and a perpetual desire of this
spiritual intimacy; having this, having a participation thus of the
goodness of God, you will as naturally communicate good as the sun
communicates his beams.
Our doctrine of unconscious and undesigning influence shows how
it is, also, that the preaching of Christ is often unfruitful,
and especially in times of spiritual coldness. It is not because
truth ceases to be truth, nor, of necessity, because it is preached
in a less vivid manner, but because there are so many influences
preaching against the preacher. He is one, the people are many;
his attempt to convince and persuade is a voluntary influence;
their lives, on the other hand, and especially the lives of those
who profess what is better, are so many unconscious influences
ever streaming forth upon the people, and back and forth between
each other. He preaches the truth, and they, with one consent, are
preaching the truth down; and how can he prevail against so many,
and by a kind of influence so unequal? When the people of God are
glowing with spiritual devotion to Him, and love to men, the case
is different; then they are all preaching with the preacher, and
making an atmosphere of warmth for his words to fall in; great is
the company of them that publish the truth, and proportionally great
its power. Shall I say more? Have you not already felt, my brethren,
the application to which I would bring you? We do not exonerate
ourselves; we do not claim to be nearer to God or holier than you;
but, ah! you know how easy it is to make a winter about us, or
how cold it feels! Our endeavor is to preach the truth of Christ
and His cross as clearly and as forcefully as we can. Sometimes
it has a visible effect, and we are filled with joy; sometimes
it has no effect, and then we struggle on, as we must, but under
great oppression. Have we none among you that preach against us
in your lives? If we show you the light of God's truth, does it
never fall on banks of ice; which if the light shows through, the
crystal masses are yet as cold as before? We do not accuse you; that
we leave to God, and to those who may rise up in the last day to
testify against you. If they shall come out of your own families;
if they are the children that wear your names, the husband or wife
of your affections; if they declare that you, by your example, kept
them away from Christ's truth and mercy, we may have accusations to
meet of our own, and we leave you to acquit yourselves as best you
may. I only warn you, here, of the guilt which our Lord Jesus Christ
will impute to them that hinder His gospel.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
Page 203: "the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all
things", shall be found unto praise, and honor, and glory!--The
transcriber has supplied the missing closing quoteation mark.
Page 206: not only from its condemnation, but from its very
"in-being";--The transcriber has supplied the opening quotation mark.
End of Project Gutenberg's The World's Great Sermons, Volume 04, by Various