Whose powers shed round him in the common strife, — Social influence

"I thank God that if I am gifted with little of the spirit which is said to be able to raise mortals to the skies, I have yet none, as I trust, of that other spirit, which would drag angels down."

"Even here Thy strong magnetic charms I fed, And pant and tremble like the amorous steel. To lower good, and beauties less divine, Sometimes my erroneous needle does incline; But yet (so strong the sympathy) It turns, and points again to Thee."

"Even as the needle that directs the hour, (Touched with the loadstone) by the secret power Of hidden Nature, points upon the pole; Even so the wavering powers of my soul, Touchd by the virtue of Thy spirit, flee From what is earth, and point alone to Thee."

"It is very true that I have said that I considered Napoleons presence in the field equal to forty thousand men in the balance. This is a very loose way of talking; but the idea is a very different one from that of his presence at a battle being equal to a reinforcement of forty thousand men."

"The Bible calls the good mans life a light; and it is the nature of light to flow out spontaneously in all directions, and fill the world unconsciously with its beams. So the Christian shines it would say, not so much because he will, as because he is a luminous object. Not that the active influence of Christians is made of no account in the figure, but only that this symbol of light has its propriety in the fact that their unconscious influence is the chief influence, and has the precedence in its power over the world. The outward endeavors made by good men or bad to sway others, they call their influence; whereas it is, in fact, but a fraction, and, in most cases, but a very small fraction of the good or evil that flows out of their lives."

"A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."