friends in the competitions and strifes of earthly
life, whom we would have kept forever had death taken them away in the
earlier days when love was strong. Often is it true, as Cardinal
Newman writes:--

"He lives to us who dies; he is but lost who lives."

Thus even death doth not quench the influence of a good life. It
continues to bless others long after the life has passed from earth.
It is true, as Mrs. Sangster writes:--

"They never quite leave us, our friends who have passed
Through the shadows of death to the sunlight above;
A thousand sweet memories are holding them fast
To the places they blessed with their presence and love.

"The work which they left and the books which they read
Speak mutely, though still with an eloquence rare,
And the songs that they sung, and the dear words that they said
Yet linger and sigh on the desolate air.

"And oft when alone, and oft in the throng,
Or when evil allures us, or sin draweth nigh,
A whisper comes gently, 'Nay, do not the wrong,'
And we feel that our weakness is pitied on high."

It must be remembered that not all influence is good. Evil deeds also
have influence. Bad men live, too, after they are gone. Cried a dying
man whose life had been full of harm to others: "Gather up my
influence, and bury it with me in my grave." But the frantic,
remorseful wish was in vain. The man went out of the world, but his
influence stayed behind him, its poison to work for ages in the lives
of others.

We need, therefore, to guard our influence with most conscientious
care. It is a crime to fling into the street an infected garment which
may carry contagion to men's homes. It is a worse crime to send out a
printed page bearing words infected with the virus of moral death. The
men who prepare and publish the vile literature which to-day goes
everywhere, polluting and defiling innocent lives, will have a fearful
account to render when they stand at God's bar to meet their influence.
If we would make our lives worthy of God, and a blessing to the world,
we must see to it that nothing we do shall influence others in the
slightest degree to evil.

In the early days of American art there went from this country to
London a young artist of genius and of a pure heart. He was poor, but
had an aspiration for noble living as well as for fine painting. Among
his pictures was one that in itself was pure, but that by a sensuous
min