Editorial May 31, 1913 Issue

MANHOOD'S CALL

John B. Willis

The greatest word of prophecy was not the forecast of future events, not the commendation or condemnation of conduct, but the disclosure of the nature and ministry of man as God's image and representative. Thus in the sixtieth and sixty-first chapters of Isaiah, so wondrous in their wording, the inspired seer, speaking to receptive human sense, says, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."

This is the prophetically framed call of privilege and opportunity; more, it is the mandate of Love; and it comes to rebuke every sense of incapacity, inadequacy, and infirmity, every indulgence of self-depreciation and excuse. It is the call of Christian Science, and it forbids us to know man otherwise than as commissioned and empowered to fulfil the requirements and the expectations of Truth. It is the call, moreover, of human need. It voices the longing of those enslaved by ignorance and prejudice, by sickness and sin. It speaks in behalf of the vast unnumbered who long for sympathy, for happiness, and for peace. "Arise, shine; for thy light is come"—not will come, but "is come"! How this smites our every disposition to delay endeavor, to question fitness,—the impulse to postpone the achievement of right doing, and rest in seductive inactivity till tomorrow.

There are no withheld completions in the divine purpose or plans, no hope deferred, no heaven reserved, save to human sense. At the bar of Truth, asserted weakness and inability are denied all hearing, they are not permitted to enter their plea, and this for the reason that the divine requirements never outmeasure our capacity. Above the tumult of earth's greatest tragedy there was—aye, there is yet—heard the glorious answer of the Christ-man, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; ... to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

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