The young preacher thrilled his congregation with his first sermon—a challenge to “gird their loins” for Christian service and living. Then, to their dismay, he preached the same sermon the following Sunday. When he confronted them with the same ringing message on the third Sunday, his flock felt something must be done.

“Don’t you have more than just one sermon?” blurted a spokesman to the pastor.

“Oh, yes,” he said quietly, “I have quite a number. But you haven’t done anything about the first one yet!”

Once the eminent philosopher John Dewey found his son in the bathroom. The floor was flooded. The professor began thinking, trying to understand the situation. After working a few minutes the son said, “Dad, this is not the time to philosophize. It is time to mop.”

In conversation with Professor S. F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, the Rev. George W. Hervey asked this question:

“Professor Morse, when you were making your experiments yonder in your room in the university, did you ever come to a stand, not knowing what to do next?”

“Oh, yes, more than once.”

“And at such times what did you do next?”

“I may answer you in confidence, sir,” said the professor, “but it is a matter of which the public knows nothing. I prayed for more light.”

“And the light generally came?”

“Yes, and may I tell you that when flattering honors come to me from America and Europe on account of the invention which bears my name, I never felt I deserved them. I had made a valuable application of electricity, not because I was superior to other men, but solely because God, who meant it for mankind, must reveal it to someone, and was pleased to reveal it to me.”

In view of these facts, it is not surprising that the inventor’s first message was, “What hath God wrought!”

—Moody Monthly