PART II. pass for all things else, any more than it ought to Other Work. pass for anything else than itself. Teacher's Another work. The work of shaping and guiding a scholar, is even more important to a scholar's character and destiny, than the work of merely teaching a scholar; although there is no reason for failing to attend to the important matter of teaching, because there is a yet more important matter of shaping and guiding to be attended to, at the same time as the teaching, and at other times as well. There are various phases in this work of shaping and guiding the scholar. Some of these phases it is well for us now to consider A Question of Gunpowder. 243 I. HAVING AND USING INFLUENCE. The Meaning of "Influence;" From the Heavens; Voluntary and PART II. The Teacher's Other Work. SECTION I. Having and Using Influence. INFLUENCE is a power flowing in upon one, to shape or sway or bias him, accordingly. In the very nature of influence, as indicated in its etymology, (in and fluere, to flow in, or to flow in upon,) there is an idea of an active potency, of an on-moving tendency, such as is not essential to the very nature of informing, or instructing, or teaching; for knowledge may, or may not, be an active force in the mind of him who receives it. At the same time, the idea of influence is not that of a blind and mechanical force, which A gradual moves by its dead weight, but rather that of a controlling power quietly exerted," "bringing about an effect, physical or moral, by a gradual, unobserved, and easy process." The power of gunpowder in the chamber of a cannon would not be spoken of as influ 66 process. PART II. SECTION I. From the planets. Shakespeare's view. encing the projectile in the direction of the cannon's mouth; but the power of gunpowder might be spoken of as influencing the modes of modern warfare, and the policy and destiny of nations. The mighty engines of an ocean steamer are the power for its propelling on its course; but the quiet movements of the rudder are the power which influences its direction. The primitive idea of "influence" was the potency of the heavenly bodies in the controlling of man's life and destiny; the "influent course of the planets; their virtue infused into, or their course working on, inferior creatures." The only instance in which the word appears in our English Bible, shows this meaning: "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, Shakespeare uses the word in this sense: A breath thou art, Servile to all the skyey influences, That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st, And, again: "When I consider every thing that grows Holds in perfection but a little moment, That this huge stage presenteth naught but shows Then the conceit of this inconstant story From God Outward. The poet Waller sings: "Our stars do show their excellence, Not by their light, but influence." repre Gradually the meaning of this word has been extended, without, however, losing all suggestion of its primitive force. It was raised from the idea of the quiet potency of the heavenly bodies, in the sphere of human thought and action, to the idea of the noiseless efficacy of the ceaseless workings of the God of all nature, in the whole realm of creation; and then it was carried outward into all the sentatives and all the agencies of God, in the shaping and directing work of the universe, more especially in their bearing upon human character and conduct. Thus, we speak of the influences of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer in Jesus, and in the very looks and speech of him who preaches Jesus. We speak, moreover, of the influences of affection and of affliction, the influence of memories and of habit, the influence of our surroundings, the influence of scenery, of music, of literature and art; and yet more than all of the immediate and direct personal influence of those who are our teachers, our companions, or in any way our patterns or our directors. 245 PART II. The Teacher's Other Work. SECTION I. Having and Using Influence. The idea expanded. And in all these uses of the word, it will be seen, there is the idea of an inflowing upon us of a quiet and efficacious potency from a centre of light and life, From a which gradually and unobservedly works a change in our feelings and course, in the direction of its out centre. PART II. SECTION I. goings. It is, therefore, in a sense, the quiet power of God, or of the representatives and agencies of God, which is recognized in the influences which we feel and to which we submit ourselves; and the same is true of the influence which we intelligently exert, or which insensibly flows out from us into the hearts In and from. and the minds of those who are about us. It is, in a measure, an emanation from God, which comes in upon us, or which goes out from us, as influence; an inflowing upon ourselves, or upon others, of that which came from God, or which speaks of God. Good and evil. Of course, it is only good influences which are here spoken of, or which primarily affect our idea of the meaning of the word "influence;" for the good is the normal in the universe. But there is, inevitably, the correspondent idea of the evil as over against the good, the malign as the converse of the beneficent. There was an adverse influence of the planets recognized in the earlier uses of this term. "They fought from heaven, The stars in their courses fought against Sisera," says the inspired Hebrew poem; and Milton tells of the fixed stars being taught "Their influence malignant when to shower." But this is only another side of the same great truth: influence is normally the outflowing from God, and for God; abnormally, it is the outflowing of hostility to God, the outflowing of evil against God. In speak |