God, who has put into the hearts of Christian people the tendency towards
God--just in the same way does good company tend to make men good; high-
minded company to make them high-minded; kindly company to make them
kindly; modest company to make them modest; honourable company to make
them honourable; and pure company to make them pure. If the young man or
woman live with such, look up to such as their ideal, that is, the
pattern which they ought to emulate--then, as a fact, the Spirit of God
working in them does mould them into something of the likeness of those
whom they admire and love. I have lived long enough to see more than one
man of real genius stamp his own character, thought, even his very manner
of speaking, for good or for evil, on a whole school or party of his
disciples. It has been said, and truly, I believe, that children cannot
be brought up among beautiful pictures,--I believe, even among any
beautiful sights and sounds,--without the very expression of their faces
becoming more beautiful, purer, gentler, nobler; so that in them are
fulfilled the words of the great and holy Poet concerning the maiden
brought up according to God, and the laws of God--


"And she shall bend her ear
In many a secret place,
Where rivulets dance their wayward round,
And beauty, born of murmuring sound,
Shall pass into her face."


But if mere human beings can have this "personal influence," as it is
called, over each others' characters, if even inanimate things, if they
be beautiful, can have it--what must be the personal influence of our
Lord Jesus Christ? Of Him, who is the Man of all men, the Son of Man,