Sermons: Selected from the Papers of the Late Rev. Clement BailhacheBailhache, Clement
Religion
Sermons: Selected from the Papers of the Late Rev. Clement Bailhache
Bailhache, Clement
Sermons
it not speedily lapse into a mournful, moral waste--a training-school
for present and everlasting perdition? Multiplied and energetically
worked as these agencies are, the condition of the world is bad
enough. The appalling needs of the world demand heroic effort; and, as
I have said, the amount of good already wrought by this is beyond
calculation.
Nevertheless, the other kind of influence--the indirect and
unconscious--is invested also with an importance which is
incalculable; and it will be a blessed time both for the Church and
for the world when this truth comes to be practically remembered as it
should be. Let us consider this matter a little further, bearing in
mind, as we do so, that the application of the subject must be to the
Christian conscience of us all.
I. Notice some differences between the two kinds of influence which
have been named.
1. We have already said the influence which we consciously exert is
the result of forethought, and deliberately contemplates an end, the
attainment of which is steadily kept in view; whilst our unconscious
influence is spontaneous, and has no premeditation or calculation
about it. We need only add here, that the action of this unconscious
influence is very immediate; a fact which is explained by the
mysterious insight which enables men to look into, and to understand,
one another. We form judgments of men every day without data that we
can adduce. These judgments are instinctive, and they are more
frequently right than wrong. How is it that we conceive a sudden
repugnance to one, and at first sight fall in love with another? The
impression made needed only a word, a tone, a look, a gesture, a
smile, a tear; on so slender a basis a judgment was formed which will
last a life-time, or which years will be required to modify.
2. Our unconscious influence is a perpetual emanation from ourselves.
Direct effort need not truly express us at all. It may be imposed upon
us by circumstances which we cannot control. Often we should avoid it
if we could. Moreover, when it is voluntary and unconstrained, it is a
thing of times, seasons, places, and conditions in life, and is
therefore more or less fitful, partial, and intermittent. The other
kind of influence acts continuously--without pauses, without breaks,
without paroxysms. It is thus that every man--high or low--in spheres
extended or narrow, without intention, forethought or consciousness of
the fact, is always leading some one more or less closely after him:
it may be wife, friend, little child, or stranger; but some one most
surely.
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