The infinite presence and power and law of God constitute complete and supreme authority. All realities of being are authorized by the one infinite divine Mind. Divine ideas are harmonious, everlasting, and necessarily included in true consciousness. Human or carnal concepts, often discordant and otherwise undesirable, are without genuine authorship, without law, and therefore they have no real existence.

Every earnest and law-abiding person wishes to know what is authorized in his particular field of endeavor and how to be governed by that authorization. Without proper authority for thought or action one might accept directives which could lead to confusion, perhaps to chaos.

Christian Scientists lovingly accept the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy's inspired and demonstrable interpretation of its writings as their sole authority for practicing and teaching the glorious and healing truth. How grateful every Christian Scientist is for the Manual of The Mother Church, authorized and made available for every member of a Church of Christ, Scientist, by our beloved and God-inspired Leader, Mrs. Eddy. Here we learn of The Christian Science Board of Directors, whose functions she clearly established. Among other things the Manual makes provisions for the authorized Christian Science literature and for the weekly Lesson-Sermons in the Christian Science Quarterly, which are "divinely authorized."

How refreshing is the assurance that the right way is really the only way for our peace and our progress in the demonstrable truth of Christian Science. The previously mentioned provisions, and others which are included in the Manual, enable us to detect instantly any falsity, any inharmony, that would parade under the guise of legitimacy. We then and there can cast it out and immediately turn to ever-available Mind as the real and lasting authority for our enlightenment, guidance, healing and harmony

If any mortal mind suggestion appears, of whatever name or nature, we can and should ask ourselves: "Is this authorized by divine intelligence? Has it divine authority so that I should take it into my consciousness and there let it abide, perhaps even seeming to mingle with ideas that are known by their fruits—peace, joy, progress?"

In the realm of infinite Mind, and there really is no other, there is not a single unauthorized idea. Aggressive suggestions of the carnal mind, which the Bible declares is "enmity against God," have no authority, no support for their seeming existence. Therefore, these counterfeits can be discarded as enemies of God, man, and all spirituality. Spiritual sense is the only basis for true, lasting, and harmonious consciousness.

We are admonished Scripturally to "try the spirits whether they are of God" (I John 4: 1). If a mental urge is selfish or discordant, its instability and unreality can thus be recognized, and its extinction is at once possible. Mrs. Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 392): "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously." "Stand" means to remain unchanged; never to desert our joyous post as sentinel. At once we can decide whether any thought is one that is authorized for admittance by the individual who would rise above the temporary impulses of the carnal mind.

What is our authority for accepting any false belief of sin, sickness, fear, lack, or other discord presented by physical sense testimony? There is none. God, Mind, alone gives us authority, the authority to abide in His infinite goodness without opposition. Why accept in our meditations anything less than Truth's harmonious direction? Divine Love's way is that which is decreed by the law of intelligence. There is no presence or power but good; there is nothing that can change our spiritually authorized course of endeavors.

One who would advance in the light of truth and understanding will never falter in his allegiance to divine authority. The mariner would never desert his authorized course, which remains clearly indicated by his chart and compass. He would never ignore his well-established and proved way of progress and follow anything else; otherwise confusion and fear would ensue. The mathematician, the lawyer, the engineer, and others in their respective professions would not accept errors as anything but unauthorized —something to be corrected according to authorized analyses and procedure. How much more should the metaphysician, the Christian Scientist, be ready to discard the false and accept the ideas of divine Mind as his ready means of freedom—the established and authorized way, regardless of the name or nature of the discord.

There is no flaw in the logic of Truth. There is no compromise permissible if we would be victorious in any and all seeming mental conflicts between the authorized ideas of divine Mind, ready to bless and to save from error, and the false concepts, the counterfeits, which last only as long as we subscribe to their supposed authority for existence.

Evil has no organization, no headquarters. Consciousness is "the house of the Lord," and we need never surrender that precious heritage for false and unauthorized beliefs, which tend to defile. The acceptance of false beliefs as realities paralleling divine ideas would delay the recognition of our established spiritual perfection and harmony in Mind, God, who is "of purer eyes than to behold evil" (Hab. 1:13).

Our Leader writes in the Christian Science textbook (Pref., p. vii), "The time for thinkers has come." The time to think aright has come —to dwell on the realities of being, the ever-harmonious ideas of pure consciousness, available to everyone who understandingly rejects the false and accepts only authorized ideas of Mind, clearly presented to the student of Christian Science. These real and lasting ideas happify and sustain our perfect and harmonious existence as children of God, of Spirit, who walk, who think, in the authorized light of Truth, where there is "no darkness at all."

Sin, sickness, death—all discords—are outlawed, because unauthorized by the ever-available truth. Through the understanding and application of Christian Science it is the great privilege of each follower of the Master, Christ Jesus, to prove his teaching that the kingdom of God is at hand, within consciousness, as close to us as our thinking.

Our thoughts and concurrent actions really answer the question regarding any suggestion: "Is it authorized in accordance with divine Truth? Is it good, harmonious, real?" When we honestly answer the basic inquiries, the course to follow is made plain in the light of Christian Science. Thus do we become better equipped to stand for divine Principle and, with rejoicing, see our salvation from discord made manifest.