PERSONAL INFLUENCE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 198, 19 May 1936, Page 4

PERSONAL INFLUENCE

Canon James Addresses the W.S.P.M. “Personal Influence” was the litle of an address which Canon Percival James delivered at a meeting of combined groups of the Women’s Social Progress Movement, held in the Lyceum Club rooms yesterday afternoon. There was a particularly large gathering, over which the president, Miss McLean, presided, and Canon James, who treated his subject iu a quietly forceful manner, was listened to with the greatest interest and attention. The speaker presented the present bewildering hour in history as the scene into which the great power of personal influence must be brought if the next generation and generations to come were to inherit the brave new world that was promised. He put down a certain amount of the presentday confusion to the amazing strides of science, and asked what more science was going to do for the world and its people. Science, he said, was a two-edged tool—it could he turned to the purpose of merciless destruction as well as to good—everything depended upon the user. Had mankind reached such heights of moral greatness to use it to its best good? There was only one way to make a better world, be added, and that was to make belter men and better women. This was where the force of personal influence came in. It was a force that never ceased working and a power which every .individual possessed. It could be seen at work, yet it was exerted unconsciously. He gave as examples a mothers self-denying life for her children and a wife’s devotion to her husband. A good woman, he continued, exerted influence by the virtue of her own womanhood. In influence there was an unconscious sovereignty which excited no competition. I’ersonal influence could come only from real men and women disguise was of no avail, for the world would recognise the false coin in the end. To have a good influence we must, of course, be good in ourselves it depended not on what we did but what we were. It was within the reach of all, for as surely as others influenced us in many and subtle ways so we influencer! everyone else with whom we came in contact —personal influence being inescapable. There were many ways, continued the speaker, in which women organised as the Women’s Social Progress Movement was could make their influence felt for good; but the greatest thing that could bp done in this critical hour would be accomplished by the exertion of silent Influence bj’ each individual. "We can constantly be bearing witness to Christ by a life lived according to Christian principles,” Canon James said in conclusion: “a human life speaks to the human heart.” A sincere vote of thanks to the speaker for his helpful address was proposed by Mrs. B. L. Dullard. Mrs. Wainwright and Mrs. Ashbourn Chisholm. who entertained during the afternoon "’with songs and recitations, were thanked also. The serving of tea presented the opportunity for interesting discussion and brought a very pleasant meeting to a conclusion.