Admiral Dewey served through the Civil War, and had the fortune to get always into the thickest of the fight. When in command of the Dolphin, he exhibited his ideas of obedience. One of his “Jacks” refused to obey an order of his lieutenant and was reported to Dewey. “What!” said Dewey, “you refuse? Do you know this is mutiny?” The man still remained stubborn. Thereupon Dewey told the captain to call the guard. He stood the obdurate seaman on the far side of the deck, and ordered the marines to load. Then he took out his watch and said, “Now my man, you have just five seconds to obey that order,” and began to count the seconds. At the fourth count the man moved off with alacrity to obey the order. The admiral was a man to be trusted implicitly to carry out orders, which fact had become a byword at the Navy Department, and he won fame from the custom he had formed of doing the thing expected of him.—James T. White, “Character Lessons.”
(2216)
OBEDIENCE AND GREATNESS
The moon calls to the Atlantic and the mighty seas lift themselves in great tidal waves as they follow their mistress round the globe. It calls with equal insistence to the wayside pool and this passing reminder of yesterday’s shower yields not an inch. The dust speck dances in the sunlight impudently or ignorantly defiant of the law which holds the earth with a grip of steel as it goes bounding along through a wilderness of stars held steady by the same hand. Be it big enough and noble enough, it knows how to obey.—John H. Willey.
(2217)
OBEDIENCE IN SPIRIT
It is told of an Eastern king how, planning to visit a remote part of his kingdom, he sent ahead a trusted minister to build for his royal master a suitable palace to live in. When the royal courier reached the end of his journey he found a plague raging and the people dying by thousands. So instead of building the contemplated palace, he took the money and spent it in medicine and bread for the poor sufferers, dug graves and buried the dead, and bought clothing to protect the living. When the king came on and found what was done, instead of punishing his minister he commended him, saying, “Oh, faithful servant, you have builded for me a palace in the hearts of my people—built it out of the tombstones which you have erected over the graves of the dead; jeweled it with the tears you have wiped away, made it echo with songs out of the sobs which you have stilled.”
These servants followed the spirit of the king’s command, not the letter. Will not God be well pleased with a similar obedience from His children? (Text.)
(2218)
Object-preaching—See [Sermon, Saving a].