If events change men, much more persons. No man can meet another on
the street without making some mark upon him. We say we exchange
words when we meet; what we exchange is souls. And when intercourse
is very close and very frequent, so complete is this exchange that
recognizable bits of the one soul begin to show in the other's
nature, and the second is conscious of a similar and growing debt
to the first.
Now, we become like those whom we habitually reflect. I could
prove from science that applies even to the physical framework of
animals--that they are influenced and organically changed by the
environment in which they life.
This mysterious approximating of two souls, who has not witnessed?
Who has not watched some old couple come down life's pilgrimage
hand in hand, with such gentle trust and joy in one another that
their very faces wore the self-same look? These were not two
souls; it was a composite soul. It did not matter to which of the
two you spoke, you would have said the same words to either. It
was quite indifferent which replied, each would have said the same.
Half a century's REFLECTING had told upon them; they were changed
into the same image. It is the Law of Influence that WE BECOME
LIKE THOSE WHOM WE HABITUALLY REFLECT: these had become like because
they habitually reflected. Through all the range of literature,
of history, and biography this law presides. Men are all mosaics
of other men. There was a savor of David about Jonathan, and a
savor of Jonathan about David. Metempsychosis is a fact. George
Eliot's message to the world was that men and women make men and
women. The Family, the cradle of mankind, has no meaning apart
from this. Society itself is nothing but a rallying point for these
omnipotent forces to do their work. On the doctrine of Influence,
in short, the whole vast pyramid of humanity is built.
But it was reserved for Paul to make the supreme application of
the Law of Influence. It was a tremendous inference to make, but
he never hesitated. He himself was a changed man; he knew exactly
what had done it;
It was Christ.
On the Damascus road they met, and from that hour his life was
absorbed in His. The effect could not but follow--on words, on
deeds, on career, on creed. The "impressed forces" did their vital
work. He became like Him Whom he habitually loved. "So we all,"
he writes, "reflecting as a mirror the glory of Christ, are changed
into the same image."
Nothing could be more simple, more intelligible, more natural, more
supernatural. It is an analogy from an every-day fact. Since we
are what we are by the impacts of those who surround us, those who
surround themselves with the highest will be those who change into
the highest. There are some men and some women in whose company
we are
Always at our best.
While with them we cannot think mean thoughts or speak ungenerous
words. Their mere presence is elevation, purification, sanctity.
All the best stops in our nature are drawn out by their intercourse,
and we find a music in our souls that was never there before.
Suppose even THAT influence prolonged through a month, a year, a
lifetime, and what could not life become? There, even on the common
plane of life, talking our language, walking our streets, working
side by side, are sanctifiers of souls; here, breathing through
common clay, is Heaven; here, energies charged even through a
temporal medium with the virtue of regeneration. If to live with
men, diluted to the millionth degree with the virtue of the Highest,
can exalt and purify the nature, what bounds can be set to the
influence of Christ? To live with Socrates--with unveiled face--must
have made one wise; with Aristides, just. Francis Assisi must
have made one gentle; Savonarola, strong. But to have lived with
Christ must have made one like Christ: that is to say, A CHRISTIAN.
As a matter of fact, to live with Christ did produce this effect.
It produced it in the case of Paul. And during Christ's lifetime
the experiment was tried in an even more startling form. A few
raw, unspiritual, uninspiring men, were admitted to the inner circle
of His friendship. The change began at once. Day by day we can
almost see the first disciple grow. First there steals over them
the faintest possible adumbration of His character, and occasionally,
very occasionally, they do a thing or say a thing that they could
not have done or said had they not been living there. Slowly the
spell of His Life deepens. Reach after reach of their nature is
overtaken, thawed, subjugated, sanctified. Their manner softens,
their words become more gentle, their conduct more unselfish. As
swallows who have found a summer, as frozen buds the spring, their
starved humanity bursts into a fuller life. They do not know how
it is, but they are different men.
One day they find themselves like their Master, going about and
doing good. To themselves it is unaccountable, but they cannot
do otherwise. they were not told to do it, it came to them to do
it. But the people who watch them know well how to account for
it--"They have been," they whisper, "with Jesus." Already even,
the mark and seal of His character is upon them--"They have been
with Jesus." Unparalleled phenomenon, that these poor fishermen
should remind other men of Christ! Stupendous victory and mystery
of