I WANT to have a little talk with you about the word, “Influence”. If you will look in your dictionary you shall see that it means “a flowing in or upon.” It is a power, and an effect that we exercise over one another, either for good or evil.
In 2 Kings 5. we read what a beautiful influence the little captive-maid had in the house of Naaman, the leper. She was a useful girl. When all the physicians in Syria could not restore her master, she told him how he might he healed.
She was of more value to him than all his bags of gold and silver.
A very young Christian may tell the most important of all truths to a sinner —that Jesus is the only Saviour, and that all who believe in Him shall be saved.
I know some boys and girls in our Spanish day and Sunday School, in the dark, dark land of Northern Africa, from whom, by the grace of God, a good influence is flowing out to others. Two little girls especially, by their sweet and loving spirit, were largely used of God in bringing their sisters to Jesus.
The mother of one of our Sunday School children told me that her little boy, who is about five and a half years old, loves to sing the hymns we teach the children. He is especially fond of the chorus of one.
“O, come to my heart, Lord Jesus!
There is room in my heart for Thee.”
When his father, who is a Mohammedan, came home from work one day, he heard his little son singing this chorus, and his heart was greatly touched. We pray that this little boy may be used of God to the conversion of his father.
“In this world of darkness we must shine,
You in your small corner, and I in mine.”
Messages of God’s Love 8/24/1919