Article February 13, 1932 Issue

"Divine authority"

JOHN ERSKINE GRANT SANDFORD

Under the caption, "Divine authority," on page 395 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy says, "Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak to disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to master the false evidences of the corporeal senses and to assert its claims over mortality and disease." It therefore behooves the student of Christian Science who seeks to exercise the ministry of healing to learn how he may acquire that faith and spiritual understanding which shall enable him to speak to disease with authority.

Turning to the Gospel narratives of the words and works of the great Exemplar, the student finds it there recorded that the people "were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out;" also that he took occasion once to commend very highly a certain centurion for what would seem to have been a unique recognition of the divine authority which gave healing efficacy to the spoken word: "Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed."

That this faith in and understanding of the power underlying the word of competent authority should have been exhibited by a Roman soldier, accustomed to receive and give the command that must be obeyed, is less remarkable than that it should have been apparently lacking in the Master's own disciples. It is permissible to infer that it was not until after Jesus' students had witnessed his resurrection and ascension and had received the Holy Ghost, that they, as Mrs. Eddy points out (Science and Health, pp. 46, 47), were convinced of the truth of his teaching and became better healers, using the word of command in their healing ministry, as later did Paul in the case of the cripple at Lystra. (See Acts 3:6; 9:40; 14:10.) Centuries later this example was followed by Martin Luther, when he roused his disciple Philipp Melanchthon from a torpor, which would otherwise probably have ended in death, by the authoritative spoken word.

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