more about what we are doing or intending to do, than of what
we are in ourselves, these considerations assume an unusual importance.

Moreover, in a society like this, where you live so close to one another,
and so much in public, there is a special reason for giving to such
considerations some special attention; and the thought suggested by this
world-old inquiry--Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?--becomes
a very direct warning to look well to our separate life, and take care
what sort of unconscious influences it is spreading around it.

A moment's reflection will remind you how quick and strong such
influences may easily prove, independent of all intention or desire on
our part, or even in spite of our deliberate wishes or hopes. One man is
careless or irreligious, and his weaker neighbours catch the infection of
his example; another indulges in some bad habits of language or conduct,
or he is addicted to some low taste, or he lives by some low standard,
and this or that companion is drawn down to his level; and so the evil of
his life takes fresh root in another life, and it gets into the air, and
it is impossible to predict the limit of its influence.

Or, on the other hand, one man is intellectual or refined in his tastes,
and by merely living in a society he creates an atmosphere of intellect
or of refinement around him; or, it may be, he is earnest and courageous,
and others are drawn to admire and imitate, and so he proves a centre of
courage and earnestness. Such is the solidarity of your life, as men
call it, and there is no escape from it, or from the responsibilities
which it lays upon you.

As the tree is known by its fruits, as men do not gather grapes of
thorns, as the same fountain does not send forth sweet water and bitter,
so we have to remember, when we think of the tides of unconscious
influence that are continually streaming out from us, that they are
wholesome, or the reverse, according to the character of our secret and
separate life.

Through them any one of us may become to his neighbour or his friend a
savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.

There are sure to be many in such a congregation as this who have visions
of the good they hope to do; and there is a spirit of native generosity
in almost all which makes them shrink from the thought of doing harm to
another soul.

Well, then, in this thought of your influence, conscious and unconscious,
your first and