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Themes: "God Calls, God Speaks to Man Samuel Finley Breese Morse. Ever heard of him? How about the "Morse Code?" How about the telegraph?
Morse was an artist with a very creative mind. In 1812, in England, he won the acclaimed Adelphi gold medal for a clay statue of Hercules. He was accepted there as an accomplished artist, but America shunned him. He went to Europe to prepare for the challenge of doing paintings for the proposed rotunda of the Capitol in Washington.
On his way home from Europe in 1832, on the ship Sully, he overheard a conversation that added a new dimension to his life. He learned that electricity could be sent over any known length of wire. The idea of an electric telegraph burned in his mind and he spent the rest of his trip home planning the invention.
He was not commissioned to do the paintings in the rotunda. John Quincy Adams decided that American artists were not good enough. Dejected, Samuel Morse turned his energy into perfecting the telegraph. He taught art at the University of the City of New York, but all his money and spare time went into his invention.
After five years he demonstrated the telegraph. He had hoped that someone would believe in him and invest some money so that he could advance the project to completion. Even Congress refused his invention a year later.
In 1842 he tried another demonstration. He laid insulated wire underwater, from the Battery to Governors Island in New York. The newspapers proclaimed his intended success. It was a failure. A ship's anchor caught the wire and the sailors pulled it up and cut it. No one believed him now. Everyone felt it was a hoax.
A year later, Morse had given up all hope. Then, on the last night of the session, Congress passed a bill to support the testing of the telegraph. This was Morse's last opportunity. He strung a telegraph line from the United States Supreme Court room in the Capitol all the way to Baltimore,MD. As a large crowd of spectators watched, he tapped out, in code, his famous message "What hath God wrought."
The people finally believed in him and his invention. It took years of hard work and poverty to accomplish his dream. He suffered many rejections and setbacks before his invention was accepted.
It took people a long time to be convinced that Samuel Morse did indeed have a valuable invention. In our Bible story, it took Mary only a second to believe what the angel said to her. The people investigating the telegraph wanted proof, facts, details and demonstrations before they would believe. Mary simply trusted what God promised through the words of the angel.
Today we do not have the words of angels. We have something that is more sure. We have God's Word. It is absolutely reliable. God takes care of the details - all you have to do is accept it - believe it. "So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11)
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Peter Orasuk
