The Impact Of Influence Series

When Cecil B. DeMille was a nine year old boy, and old

preacher came to Echo Lake, New Jersey to conduct a

series of meetings. Young DeMille attended every morning,

but one cold rainy morning he was the only one who showed

up. He wondered if that man would preach to one small

boy. DeMille describes that unusual scene-

If he preached under those circumstances I felt that he

was a man of God. If he dismissed the service I felt that he

would be false. And he did preach, although it was a very

short sermon. Then he came down to the alter railing of the

church and invited me to come up. He said: "My audience

no doubt noticed that I did not take the collection at the

usual time. I now invite my audience to come up and put

the offering the plate." I walked up proudly to that alter,

put my nickel in the plate and, as I did so, that old

gray-haired preacher put his hand on my head and prayed

a prayer in which he lifted my name to God. I shall never

forget the feel of that old preacher's hands on my head. I

have en-joyed the greatest honors of life. Here in

Hollywood I have met the great of the earth. But I have

never had any thrill as great as the feel of that preacher's

hands on my head. It was a kind of ordination. That had

much to do with my interest in producing Biblical motion

pictures. Millions have watched the Biblical movies of Cecil B.

DeMille, but nobody even knows the name of the old

preacher who put his hand on him as a boy, and thus,

became a major influence in his life. Because of the impact

of influence, that hand that touched the little boy, touched a

whole world of people. The same story can be told on the

negative side of influence. Vincent Teresa in his book My

Life In The Mafia, tells of how his uncle would ask him to

shine his shoes, and then give him ten or fifteen bucks. This

made a deep impression on him, and he said to himself, I

don't know what he does, but what ever it is I

want to do it. That was the beginning of his desire to be a

gangster.

Every biography written is a story of influences, and

their impact on lives. The story of Ruth is no exception.

Ruth abounds in illustrations of the impact of influence.

Ruth would never have become a part of God's plan, and

never would have become a believer and a part of Israel, a

part from the influence of Naomi. Naomi, of course, would

never have been heard of without Ruth, and neither would

have been heard of without Boaz. Everybody in this story

has a major influence on everybody else in the story. But

there would be no story at all without the influence of

Naomi. She is the key influence, but the influence was

mutual.

Influence can be a two way street, as it was for Naomi

and Ruth. Naomi influenced Ruth to come to God, and

Ruth influenced Naomi, and made her a famous personality

for all time. Bach's, the Passion According To St. Matthew

is generally acclaimed as the greatest choral work ever

written in German. Bach performed it once in his day, and

it was put away where it lay unperformed for 100 years. In

1829 Felix Mendelssohn obtained a copy of it and revived it.

He unleashed a title wave of enthusiasm for Bach that has

never ebbed to this day, and so Mendelssohn had great

influence on Bach's fame, but Bach even more on

Mendelssohn, for the 20 year old composer was converted

to faith in Christ by his exposure to Bach. They lifted each

other, just as did Ruth and Naomi.

The word influence has a fascinating origin. It originally

referred to an ethereal fluid thought to flow from the stars,

which affected the actions of men. It is of interest that the

only use of the word in the King James Version refers to

this connection. In Job 38:31 we read God's question to

Job-"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleides."

Pleides is a group of stars. The idea behind a influence is

that it is a power which produces an effect without any

apparent force or direct authority.

If you tell your child to get the garbage down to the road,

that is not an influence, for that is a direct order by which

you are exerting the force of authority. Now is you

habitually get up from the table after each meal, and went

to the garbage, and scraped off your plate, and one day