An Apt Retort by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 22, 1910

An Apt Retort

By W. A. S.

ONE of our Hungarian brethren was traveling by stage-coach in Transylvania, farther Hungary. He was a colporteur, if I remember correctly the story told by Elder J. F. Huenergardt, president of the Hungarian Conference. With our brother, as fellow passenger, was an intelligent gentleman who was inclined to be scornful of the brief history of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.

The following conversation took place:—

Stranger: “The Adventist religion can not be very old; for I hear that the first Adventist preacher is still living.”

Our brother: “Yes; the first Adventist preacher is still living. Yet the Adventist faith is thousands of years old.”

Stranger: “How can that be?”

Our brother: “The Bible says that Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, preached the coming of Christ in glory and power. And Enoch is still living, and will never die. He was translated to heaven without seeing death.”

The retort came with such aptness and in such a spirit that the gentleman was greatly impressed with the thought. He dropped all his tone of banter and of indifference; and the further conversation left him with a spirit apparently of genuine inquiry to know more of this ancient faith of the coming of the Lord in power and glory.

It is a gift to be coveted and sought for, this gift of speaking just the word in season. We see it in Christ’s method; and the secret of it there was in the word of God hidden in his heart. The more familiar we are with the Scriptures, the more readily may we take advantage of the flying opportunity.

It means much to “be ready always”—at the instant—“to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” W. A. S.