Many years ago a boat was wrecked in a storm on Lake Michigan at Evanston, Illinois. Students from Northwestern University formed themselves into rescue teams. One student, Edward Spencer, saved seventeen people from the sinking ship. When he was carried exhausted to his room, he aside, “Did I do my best? Do you think I did my best?”
Years later, R. A. Torrey was talking about this incident at a meeting in Los Angeles, when a man in the audience called out that Edward Spencer was present. Dr. Torrey invited Spencer to the platform. An old man with white hair slowly climbed the steps as the applause rang.
Dr. Torrey asked him if anything in particular stood out in his memory. “Only this, sir,” he relied. “Of the seventeen people I saved, not one of them thanked me.”