The  authority with which Jesus rebuked error and cast out evil wherever he encountered it, was decidedly baffling to the rabbis. They had to admit that he spoke with authority, for how else could the results be achieved? The record reads, "With authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him." It will repay the Christian Scientist to study this question of authority, for if one would have that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus," he must know whence this authority was derived, whether it is still available, and how it may be exercised in these times in which we live.

According to the dictionary, authority means "power or admitted right to command or to act." There are, one may assume, as many opinions as to what constitutes authority as there are beliefs in law or power. In Science and Health (p. 247) we read that "custom, education, and fashion form the transient standards of mortals," and these are only some of the ways by which mortals have accepted a false and fleeting sense of authority. One thing is certain, namely, that true authority rests only with true law and those who uphold true law. It is found, however, that in all questions affecting the welfare of mankind, whenever authority is vested in a person, or even a number of persons, it generally rests on so frail a basis that at any time and in the most unexpected ways it may be reversed, superseded, or entirely annulled.

Sennacherib sent his messengers to the king of Judah with all the insolence of success in arms and human power,—"Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria,"—but through the spiritual insight of Isaiah, reassuring words from a higher authority were spoken to the king of Judah, that this boaster should neither enter the city, nor this claimant to supreme power shoot an arrow there. "By the way that he came, by the same shall he return," were Isaiah's words of assurance, and on that night the opposing army was annihilated, and Sennacherib returned to meet his own doom at Nineveh.

In more recent days Napoleon, the "world ruler," ended his earthly days an exile on a small island off the coast of Africa. Instances could be multiplied of persons who have aspired to power,—as though the serpent's lure "Ye shall be as gods" was forever whispering in their ear,—and who have at length been driven to see the emptiness of their own pretensions through their failure to establish the existence of any law by which they could enjoy security from evil. The Master's statement, "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven," really settles the whole question of authority for us, and from the time we perceive the truth of this statement there begins to devolve upon us the laying down of all beliefs in authority derived from any lesser source than the infinite Mind.

Jesus clearly recognized his Father as the source of his authority over sin, sickness, and death, but we find that the arguments in favor of a lesser authority are many and diverse. The so-called human intellect, which is very far from being ready to make way for spiritual understanding, demands that they mental process of man shall be formulated into some theory, creed, and dogma, and nothing is more fatal to the clear-sightedness of the individual than his consent to have his sense of the supreme authority defined in this way. The writer remembers being asked by a clergyman by what authority he accepted Mrs. Eddy's interpretation of the Scriptures as the correct one. He replied by asking the clergyman what in his opinion would constitute authority, whereupon the latter immediately replied that to him the Scriptures, apart from the authority of the church, had no more significance than a book of fairy tales. Having made this confession, he dropped the subject. Here was a clear case in which the traditional and dogmatic interpretation of the Scriptures was allowed to dwarf and practically obscure the individual's own powers of spiritual discernment; and this is by no means an isolated instance.

Christian Science lays very great stress on the necessity that we individually retain our divinely bestowed right of self-government, and he who enters upon an earnest study of the Bible in the light which this Science throws upon it, soon finds his sense of what is right and true, and his power to act in accordance therewith, quickened to a remarkable degree. He now needs no external authority to tell him how he should interpret its teachings, for he has found a sure way of interpreting them for himself, and this is immeasurably more satisfactory.

In Science and Health we read that "the despotic tendencies, inherent in mortal mind and always germinating in new forms of tyranny, must be rooted out through the action of the divine Mind" (p. 225). A tendency is a leaning of thought in a given direction; it is not a law, and it can always be ruled out by the knowledge of what is law. It is knowledge of true law that invests the knower with authority to rebuke and disperse wrong thought-tendencies. According to the Bible record, Moses was the first to see the necessity for a definite rule with which to handle these tendencies, and this rule was embodied in what are known as the ten commandments. The fact that these commandments have survived through many generations and are still the fundamental basis of religion and the administration of justice in our country, is evidence of their close approximation to absolute law. This was the first "letter" of religion, and it served to provide the Israelites with a rule of life which, if followed, would enable them to choose the good in life without the painful necessity of first experiencing the effects of belief in evil. Based on an unswerving honesty and spiritual insight, these commandments have always been invested with an unquestioned and impersonal authority, and the one who observes them becomes, in a degree, endowed with it also.

Christ Jesus spoke of himself as a fulfiller of divine law, the representative of its authority. Materialism was condemned by this law, and mortals were chained with it, needing to be released. Their freedom was to be gained through a knowledge of the spiritual truth revealed in Christ Jesus. On this point St. Paul says, "Now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held [false belief]; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." There was nothing in the law of Moses which could release mankind from the effects of false belief. Jesus added nothing to the letter of these laws, and took nothing from them, but he brought the spirit. He introduced a new element into religion, the concept of God as Truth and Love, whose kingdom is within man.

It is hard for us today to see what an immense change of thought this demanded from the rabbis of that time, and had it not been that Jesus spoke with authority, and that his words produced definite and indisputable results, his teaching must have been lost. One would naturally assume that those who had been so zealous in their obedience to a law which they believed to be the final will of God, would have become more zealous than ever in the freer, more complete, and much more joyous outlook provided by the new concept given by Jesus. But we know that this was not the case, and even those who came nearer to understanding it began to lean so much on the personality of Jesus as to force from him the words, "It is expedient for you that I go away."

In the intervening period between that time and the present, there has been a great advance of knowledge in every material direction; but it cannot be said that religion has advanced in the same ratio, and the explanation of this seems to lie in the more or less general acceptance of the idea already alluded to, that creed and dogma are the proper garb in which religion should be clothed. In Christian Science, however, we have a perfect union of the letter and the spirit of religion, for it presents a full and complete statement of the letter in a form that is logical, scientific, and practical, and at the same time recognizes that all have the ability, and must needs acquire for themselves its spirit. Those who see the truth of these teachings and begin to apply them according to the rules laid down, find that they are becoming endowed with a certain sense of authority which they had not before considered themselves either likely or worthy to possess. But this authority is not a personal influence; it is rather the compelling nature of Truth which rebukes ignorance and false belief. We should not be afraid or ashamed of this power, neither should we confuse it with human willpower, which relies upon dogma rather than upon demonstrated truth for its sense of authority.

A faithful follower of Christ, John Woolman, a Quaker, writing in the middle of the eighteenth century, said, "Therefore to examine and prove ourselves, to find what harmony the power presiding in us bears with the divine nature, is a duty not more incumbent and necessary than it would be beneficial." If one should set aside everything to gain a true sense of this authority, he would be able to appreciate and uphold the authority of existing laws, in other words, to "render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's." He would know that Cæsar's authority is the outcome of humanity's effort to check the lawlessness of mortal mind, and it is therefore worthy of respect and obedience from individual members of the community. If this human sense of authority fails to work the greatest good for the greatest number, history has many illustrations to show how quickly it is set aside in favor of another; but this other also is usually that of Cæsar.

To the Christian Scientist such changes appear to be a necessary and continuous overturning in the human consciousness, "until he come whose right it is." He knows furthermore that as each works to maintain his own individual right of self-government, he is doing what is best for the community as a whole. By taking his part in the work of uprooting and casting out the evil that presents itself at the door of his own consciousness, clothed with a false semblance of authority, he is doing much to lessen his neighbor's burden as well. It is his perception of the nature of the authority which Christ Jesus exercised when on earth, that gives him the ability to do this and to follow in some degree in the steps of the Master. Such are perhaps fitly described in the words of the poet Milton:—

Copyright, 1915, by The Christian Science Publishing Society