Recently, during a radio program in the United States aimed to recruit enlistments for a local unit of the National Guard, the announcer spoke of the famed minutemen of pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary days. He related that these valiant armed citizens when reporting for duty responded to roll call with the alert answer. "Ready!"
Pondering this statement later, the writer realized what a lesson their example held for present-day Christian Scientists. How many times we are led to believe that our presence at a church business meeting, a Wednesday testimony meeting, a lecture, or a Sunday service is our full duty! Were we to ask ourselves. "You are here, but are you ready?" might we not frequently be aroused to a keener sense of our need for readiness to see the oneness of Mind manifested, to participate in the testimony meeting, and to share the healings, the spiritual growth, the peace we have gained from our study and application of Christian Science; to help actively in preparation of the feast which the lecture offers to the hungering thought? Such readiness comes only from earnest preparation done before we arrive at our meetings. The minutemen in answering "Ready"' indicated not only that they were there, but that they had their muskets cleaned and oiled; they had their ammunition: they were properly clothed and ready to do whatever the duty assigned might be.
On page 158 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mary Baker Eddy states: "All God's servants are minute men and women. As of old, I stand with sandals on and staff in hand, waiting for the watchword and the revelation of what, how, whither." In our daily activity we must be constantly ready to obey the "what, how whither" of divine direction. We must be constantly ready to reject any suggestion or thought which would claim power opposed to God's government; the false claims which would say that man can experience discord in home life, school, church, business, or social activity. We must be ever ready to assert our immunity to the so-called law of averages, the man-made laws of supply and demand, the unauthorized laws of contagion, sickness, and deterioration. If we are ready, if we are keeping human consciousness in line with the divine, then that which mortal mind calls friction, accident, lack, sin, disease, or death cannot find a place in our experience.
