But there is another link, and one more spiritual, which binds man to man for good or evil, and that is _moral character_. This influence is partly beyond and partly within the region of our will. That which is beyond the will is the fact of the necessary influence of character; while within the will is the character, good or bad, which we may choose to possess. Now, it cannot be questioned that character tells for good or evil beyond its possessor. That which a man _is_--that sum total made up of the items of his beliefs, purposes, affections, tastes, and habits, manifested in all he does and does _not_--is contagious in its tendency, and is ever _photographing_ itself on other spirits. He himself may be as unconscious of this emanation of good or evil from his spirit, as he is of the contagion of disease from his body, or--if that were equally possible--of the contagion of good health. But the fact, nevertheless, is certain. If the light is in him, it must shine; if darkness reigns, it must shade. If he glows with love, its warmth will radiate; if he is frozen with selfishness, the cold will chill the atmosphere around him; and if he is corrupt and vile, he will poison it. Nor is it possible for any one to occupy a neutral or indifferent position. In some form or other he _must_ affect others. Were he to banish himself to a distant island, or even enter the gates of death, he still exercises a positive influence, for he is _a loss_ to his brothers; the loss of that most blessed gift of God, even that of a living man to living men--of a being who ought to have loved and to have been beloved. "No man liveth to himself, or dieth to himself;"--he must in some form, for their good or evil, their gladness or sadness, influence others. The influence of individual character extends from one generation to another. The world is moulded by it. Does not history turn on the influence exercised by the first and second Adam? No one questions the reality of the influence of a bad character upon others. The existence of evil persons here or elsewhere, and their power to infect other persons through the foul malaria of the evil in which they live, may be unaccountably mysterious when seen in the light of God's infinite love; but they are, nevertheless, the most certain facts within the field of our own observation and experience. This malign influence is of every degree--from the undesigned yet real injury which is done to others by the merely slothful or indifferent man, who never, as he says, "intended to injure any one," and "never thought" he was doing so, but who, nevertheless, injures many a cause, and freezes and discourages many a heart, by his selfishness in _not_ thinking and _not_ doing;--up to the injury which is done by the cool, designing villain, who, in his plots and plans to sacrifice others to himself, has reached the utmost limit which distinguishes the bad man from the demon.