The custom of roll call is well known to school children; it is also known in other walks of life where it is necessary to ascertain the personal presence of all who are ready for a day's work. The writer once listened for months to a roll call in the tropic dawn—that time of coolness when long shafts of early sunlight pierce the morning mist. This little ceremony always seemed to symbolize the meeting together of master and man in the spirit of the day's work, and an atmosphere of good feeling spread through the ranks as the beautiful liquid native names were called and each man responded "Present" in his own tongue, and with the variety his mood dictated.
This expression of law and order in human experience symbolizes the roll call of Spirit, of which we read in Isaiah 40:26, "He calleth them all by names . . . for that he is strong in power; not one faileth." This calling by name may be said to be Spirit's method of classification, and describes man's eternal individuality, established forever in God.
Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 70), "The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal." The "name," the individual designation, of Isaiah's statement must then refer to such identity; and it is clear that the Mind which maintains these identities is ever conscious of their name and nature, and is continually calling them forth to perform their especial function in the divine plan of the universe.
