aracter, 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,
the perfect and ideal Man--and more, who is very God of very God; the
Author of all life, power, wisdom, genius, in every human being, whether
they use to good, or abuse to ill, His divine gifts; the Author, too, of
all natural beauty, from the sun over our heads to the flower beneath our
feet? Think of that steadily, accurately, rationally. Think of who
Christ is, and what Christ is--and then think what His personal influence
must be--quite infinite, boundless, miraculous. So that the very
blessedness of heaven will not be merely the sight of our Lord; it will
be the being made holy, and kept holy, by that sight. If only we be fit
for it. For let us ask ourselves the question,--If St John's words come
true of us, if we should see Him as He is, would the sight of His all-
glorious countenance warm us into such life, love, longing for virtue and
usefulness, as we never felt before? Or would it crush us into the very
earth with utter shame and humiliation, full and awful knowledge of how
weak and foolish, sinful and unworthy we were?--as it does to Gerontius
in the poem, when he dreams that, after death, he demanded, rashly and
ambitiously, to see our Lord, and had his wish.

That is the question which every one must try to answer for himself in
fear and trembling, for, he that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself,
even as He is pure. The common sense of men--which is often their
conscience and highest reason--has taught them this, m