The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-10-13
SEALED ORDERS


object of interest and fascination.
How proudly and majestically one of
our great battleships looks as she
plows through the waves, dashing the
white foam from her bow, and speed
ing away on her course, as if she were
a living thing.
We forget as we gaze on fleet OF
these magnificent vessels, decorated
with bunting and streamers and flags,
that their mission is not always pa
cific; that behind their beautiful ex-
terror there are engines of destruction
and instruments of death.
At first thought no variance can
seem wider than that between huge
ship made of iron and wood and steel
and the invisible and intangible soul of
man. Their similarity is not perfect,
but it holds good in one important
and striking particular.
The ship and the soul are sent to
seattle soul always and the ship Of
ten-with sealed orders. The anchor is
weighed. the harbor is left, and the
landmarks along the shore are far as
tern before either the soul or the ship
knows its mission or its course, or it's
far-off haven.
We do not plan our birth, or the
color of our skin, or the time of our
appearance on the earth, or the time
of our going hence. We are under the
49, - =, o,,+bari+S, a1d O rower
above us.
When orders come from the secreta-
ry of the navy ordering the North At
lantic squadron to go here or there,
that order is obeyed, even though no
one but the admiral of the fleet may
know why or where or what the rea-
sons or the destination. Then, when
the ships are out at sea a given time,
or given number of leagues, the orders
are opened and the mission is under
stood
As the ship goes on her unknown
course, trusting in the wisdom of the
authority over her, so the soul of man
navigates the sea of time, consciously
or unconsciously trusting in the power
in which life and all it's fortunes are
hidden.
On the same day, February IL, 1909,
two babes were born who have left an
eternal impression upon the thought
and life of the nineteenth century.
One of these remarkable men was born
in the western wilderness the other in
the ancient civilization across the sea.
One was a man of science, the other
a man of affairs. One was a man of
thought, the other man of action.
One was Charles Darwin, the other
Abraham Lincoln.
When those two babes put forth on
life's wide sea they knew not their
course or their mission. No doubt they
had received their orders from the
Most High, but they were unable to
open their orders until they were far
out on the ocean of time. Then their
orders were opened, with what effect
upon the history and life of men, the
world now knows. Darwin emanci-
pated the mind from superstition. Lin
coin emancipated the body from slav-
cry.
Our orders are as unlike as our tall
ents. But there are two or three perma-
nent elements which should enter into
the thought and conduct of every one
of us, whether we have opened the
sealed orders in our hearts as yet, or
whether our mission is still unknown.
No soul can securely sail the tenn
pestuous and dangerous ocean of our
twentieth century without faith. Faith
| in man and faith in God and faith in
our own nature and power, are the
| three strands of the cord which binds
man to duty and to life. Sever one
of these and you cut the nerve of
courage and success. Without faith
| the soul walls