Editorial May 26, 1917 Issue

The Call and the Answer

Annie M. Knott

In studying in the Bible the subject of prayer, we discover that the appeal which comes from the human side is very insistent. The psalmist says: "Hear my prayer, O Lord ... Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; ... in the day when I call answer me speedily." This expresses very fully the human attitude toward God. Very few call upon God unless they are in trouble, and there is usually a demand that a response come speedily from the divine side. On the other hand, we have this statement from another psalm, where God is speaking: "Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies."

Too long has the belief been entertained that we may address God whenever we please, but that we may forget the far more important thing, which is to listen continually for the divine voice and then hasten to respond to what God has to say to us. This is made clear in the fiftieth chapter of Isaiah, where God declares: "When I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?" Christian Science reverses the mortal concept of communion between God and man, and shows that the first and most important consideration is that we answer at once when we are called by God, and that we hasten to obey; for as we do this the seeming difficulties of mortal experience speedily vanish.

In "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 9) Mrs. Eddy tells us that in her childhood she had a similar experience to that of Samuel, and that she did not at first know who had spoken, until her mother instructed her and bade her reply when she was again called. It seems, however, that fear kept her silent, but in later years, after the truth had come to her, we learn that when God called her "to proclaim His Gospel to this age," also "to plant and water His vineyard" (Science and Health, Pref., p. xi), she responded without hesitation, and unnumbered thousands today rejoice that she was ready to do so.

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