On the starboard side of the vessel's bow appeared in bold carved
letters the words, "Heal the sick," on the port side of the bow,
"Preach the Word."
"Preaching the Word" does not necessarily mean, and did not mean here,
getting up into a pulpit for an hour or two and preaching orthodox
sermons, sometimes as dry as dead husks, on Sundays. Sometimes just a
smile and a cheery greeting is the best sermon in the world, and the
finest sort of preaching. Just the example of living honestly and
speaking truthfully and always lending a hand to the fellow who is in
trouble or discouraged, is a fine sermon, for there is not a man or
boy living whose life and actions do not have an influence for good or
bad on some one else. We do not always realize this, but it is true.
Grenfell little dreamed of the future that this voyage was to open to
him. He knew little or nothing at that time of Labrador or
Newfoundland. He had never seen an Eskimo nor an American Indian,
unless he had chanced to visit a "wild west" show. He had no other
expectation than that he should make a single winter cruise with the
mission schooner, and then return to England and settle in some
promising locality to the practice of his profession, there to rise to
success or fade into hum-drum obscurity, as Providence might will.
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