Full Speed Ahead!

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     "Captain of the Queens" is the title of the autobiography of Harry Grattidge who spent more than fifty years at sea. As a boy he became an apprentice on the four masted bark Osborne, and this laid the foundation for his later service as an officer aboard almost every Cunard liner. He was promoted to Captain of the Queen Mary and ended his sailing career on December 21, 1953, as Commodore of the Cunard Steamship Company, Limited, and Captain of the Queen Elizabeth. Of his labors on the former vessel he wrote "Regardless of circumstances I was always happy to be aboard the Queen Mary, working eighteen hours a day, seven days a week. There was never a moment when you could say, 'My job is done.'"

     It seems to me that what is here said could be just as applicable to those of us who have enlisted on the Ship of Zion and who have assumed the responsibility that goes with such a position. "Service" was the guiding star of the career of Harry Grattidge and it should be our aim in life. The master of a modern passenger ship must be engrossed in the welfare of others. He lives not for self but for sacrifice and sharing. That he can accept this with a degree of joy and happiness and be constantly grateful that he is aboard is the one way to assure satisfaction in his relationship.

     There are no holidays for those at sea. They must think in terms of vocation rather than vacation. Just so, Christianity is not a one day per week proposition. We do not sail the sea of life only on Sundays. One of the most dangerous tendencies of our modern day is that of fragmenting and departmentalizing our lives. Instead of whole personalities we are human "pigeon holes" with this tucked away in one corner and that in another. Religious devotion is relegated to certain times or reserved only for ritualistic performance. We split our own personalities and lose the purpose and continuity of life. We become like ships without a rudder, running in circles on the high seas or at the mercy of every divergent wind that blows.

     Even worse is our tendency to think in terms of retirement from the Lord's service. We are imbued with the spirit of the labor union until we seek to apply its catchwords to our spiritual existence. We are obsessed with the idea of more leisure time and with social security. We look forward to the time when we can hang up our Christian uniform and don civilian clothes again, without recognizing that we fight in a war where there can be no cessation of hostilities to pick up the wounded and bury the dead. We either wear the armor or give up the fight to become defectors and turncoats. The civilian clothing we once wore was a product of Satan's garment factory.

     I like the thought expressed by Captain Grattidge that there was no moment in which you could conclude that your work was done. That is true of our life in Jesus. The need for constant alertness is acute, the time for service is ever present. We are engaged in a great crusade to bring peace to the harried and harassed sheep of God. This is not a task for the few but a responsibility of the many. There is no point at which we can rest on our oars and drift with the current. We need men who will pray unceasingly, practice unstintingly and proclaim unselfishly the hope that is in Christ Jesus. We need men who are alive and alert to the cry of our generation!

     The religious world is looking for leadership. The barbed wire fences of partisanship are no longer valid for our day. The intolerance of hate and animosity, nurtured in the mistaken view that it represented loyalty to Christ, is being tried in the balances and found wanting. The creeds which men have compiled and composed are being recognized for what they are--the synthetic product of truth mingled with opinion and filtered through imperfect and fallible minds. In this emergency those who have a firm grip upon the unity of the Spirit can serve a

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great need. But they cannot do it while plagued with their own divisions and hampered by their own schisms.

     We must arise and arouse. We must shake off the lethargy which has smothered us and overcome the stupor which has caused us to stumble. Never have we faced a greater challenge, never have we had a greater opportunity. The Holy Spirit has flung wide open "great doors and effectual." We have not finished our task. The restoration of the ancient order and spirit is not completed. There remains much land yet to be conquered and possessed. Let us signal "Full speed ahead!"