Article March 2, 1946 Issue

"Be ready always to give an answer"

WALTER S. SYMONDS

A Student of Christian Science, who was in the habit of daily studying the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly, was asked one day by a minister, "Do you think Mrs. Eddy was inspired?" Without a moment's hesitation he replied, "Yes, she was divinely inspired." The confidence which had prompted his answer was a statement by Mary Baker Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 109), which had occurred in a Lesson-Sermon: "The revelation of Truth in the understanding came to me gradually and apparently through divine power." The readiness and sincerity of the Scientist's answer impressed the minister but behind that answer lay hours of study and prayer on the part of the student to understand man's relationship to God.

When Peter was writing to "the strangers," those Jews who had been living among other nations since the captivity, he said. "Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." In the same letter he exhorted them to be unafraid and to live righteous lives in order that they might answer their critics in a firm and convincing manner. He knew that to do so they must practice what they preached—that they must be true followers of their Exemplar. Christ Jesus, who so clearly marked out the way.

In reviewing the wonderful career of Jesus, we are impressed by the readiness of his answers and the profound effect they had upon his listeners and upon the generations that have since pondered their meaning. His words were spontaneous, yet before they were uttered the Master had spent many years in preparation. In speaking of Jesus, Mrs. Eddy says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 163): "Three years he went about doing good. He had for thirty years been preparing to heal and teach divinely; but his three-years' mission was a marvel of glory: its chaplet a grave to mortal sense dishonored—from which sprang a sublime and everlasting victory!" In those three years he gave an answer to all the problems and woes of humanity. He healed the sick walked on the water, fed the five thousand, calmed the waves, and raised the dead—all because he was prepared.

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