Lack of Evidence?

It's always tempting to wonder why people don't take better care of historical objects. The trouble is we only attach value to them long afterwards.

One day the current owner of Sunnyside Cottage, number 78, Banbury Road, Oxford, England was visiting the A.T. & T. museum. He's an anthropologist and the story of the missing telephone # 1 rang a bell - if you'd excuse the pun.

His Oxford home was once the residence of Sir James Murray, the Scot who edited the first Oxford English Dictionary. Murray and Alexander Graham Bell were childhood buddies and Bell was best man at Murray's wedding. The legend goes that Bell had given his pal the first phone as a memento of their friendship. Murray eyed the nondescript piece of Bakelite fixed to the wooden base without enthusiasm and dourly consigned it to the attic.

A thorough search of his loft by the anthropologist yielded no results. The home's previous owner was contacted and he recalled a very fierce winter during world war two. Many soldiers were housed in private homes including Sunnyside. The men combed the attic for any combustible rubbish to keep the home warm. It's very possible that the last act of the world's first telephone was to keep a few soldiers warm on a winter's evening!

At best that is just a strong likelihood. Telephone number one has vanished without trace. Obviously you're not going to deny that the telephone was invented just because there is no original historical evidence.

It often surprises me that people are willing to doubt the crucifixion of Christ just because the original cross has never been found (notwithstanding the bits of the "true cross" that fast thinking merchants sold to gullible pilgrims all over the Holy Land!)

The effects of Mr. Bell's first telephone, the one on which he, on March 6, 1876, spoke the simple words to his assistant in another room "Come here, Watson, I want you." are still multiplying today.

We've come a long way since that elemental speaking tube fixed to a piece of wood.

Your mobile is a descendant of the combined genius of Bell and Marconi who gave us radio. Mark Twain grumbled about the invention of the telephone: "The human voice carries entirely too far as it is...and now you fellows come along and seek to complicate matters."

Even so, all around you are lives being changed in big and small ways by the results of that first telephone call.

Last night I arrived at Newark airport after a flight complicated by many delays. I had arranged with my son that we'd meet at the last door on the departures level at terminal C. What could have been a further problem was instantly solved in a cell phone call. There are 2 departure levels at terminal C: Domestic at the top and International on the floor below that. Thanks Mr. Bell: "you done good!"

The effects of that old rugged cross on which the Son of God uttered those sublime words "Father, forgive them." are still multiplying today.

All around you are lives that have been changed.

Eternally speaking that dear Sacrifice fixed to the wood at Calvary is God's way of saying to a broken, selfish and lost humanity "Come here - insert your name - I want you!"

Unlike Sir Murray I'll not consign the cross to the dusty attic of my life. I hold dear the sentiments of the song: " so I'll cherish the old, rugged cross....until I exchange it some day for a crown."