Christ Jesus spoke with authority and taught his disciples to do the same. They were instructed to cast out demons and to heal the sick. In this age students of Christ Science know that they are vested with the same authority. The power is not personal, but is the essence of divinity. It accompanies the understanding of Christ, Truth, which reveals that God, good, is All-in-all and that there is no other power, presence, or consciousness.

The First Commandment is based on divine law, and the sincerity of our discipleship is shown in the fidelity with which we maintain all thought and action in line with the oneness and allness of good. Mary Baker Eddy, the greatest demonstrator of divine power in this age, recognized the necessity for absolute allegiance to God. Many times in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she points this out in no uncertain terms. On page 183, for instance, she writes: "Divine Mind rightly demands man's entire obedience, affection, and strength. No reservation is made for any lesser loyalty."

The healing word which the Roman centurion asked of Jesus when he said (Matt. 8:8), "Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed," was an authoritative statement. It flowed from Jesus' unshakable understanding that God, good, is present even when mankind believes evil is holding sway. The servant and the centurion were apparently under the erroneous impression that a phase of evil, named palsy, was in control. Jesus knew that this was untrue. His loyalty did not allow the smallest deviation from the law and order of the presence and power of good.

Evil in any form finds no foothold in the consciousness convinced of God's allness. It is rejected as illegitimate and falls into oblivion. The utterance of the Word of God is the statement of the only truth, the only law of perfection, which forever operates and can never be put aside. The law of perfection is supreme.

The so-called law of gravity is no law. It was challenged by the divine Logos when Christ Jesus walked on the water and said to the sea (Mark 4:39), "Peace, be still." All beliefs of material science are stilled by the activity of God's law.

The Word of God is always accompanied by supreme power. It is that which is and has been since the beginning. It sustains the primal order of the universe. It is the immovable Science of being which can never be set aside. It is the might of omnipotence; supreme, not because there are other powers to rule over, but because God is All and there is no other power.

To acknowledge this supremacy is to enjoy the reign of harmony. Beliefs in the presence and power of evil, lack, sickness, and death fall into nothingness when thought is awakened to the glorious facts of being. David presented the power of God in these words (I Chron. 29:11): "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all."

To human apprehension Christ, Truth, has come and is removing evidence of mortal weakness. But the omnipotent Mind has never beheld a shadow of evil, which exists only as a belief of a presence apart from good. Inspired human thought drops the evil belief in its joyous acknowledgment of the allness of good, and no longer holds to its previous error. God is enthroned as the one and only power and presence. God's kingdom is recognized as already come.

Mrs. Eddy asks these three questions in her Communion Hymn (Poems, p. 75):

Every student of Christian Science speaks the Word with confidence and assurance because he knows that it is the statement of that which is. He is expectant of healing just as the centurion was when he begged Jesus to heal his servant.

The activity of the Word of Truth brings instant annihilation to the opposite false belief—the testimony of material sense. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews said (4:12), "The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword." Jesus demonstrated this truth daily. The centurion's servant was healed "in the selfsame hour," and in other recorded instances we know that healing was also immediate upon the declaration of truth.

Divine law only requires faith in it on the part of the student to put it into operation in his immediate experience. When this is done, treatment is no longer hesitant and timid. It is the authoritative declaration of the presence of Truth and Love. This declaration is actually the humble prayer of one who is aware that of himself he can do nothing. Through the understanding of Truth he can do all things, because the law of God is supreme. This is the triumphant pinnacle of praise from which we may look out upon the universe with joy and thanksgiving because "the accuser ... is cast down" (Rev. 12:10). The law of Spirit has destroyed the false testimony of material sense, and infinite goodness and harmony are recognized as the only presence and power.

It is never too late to speak the Word of Truth. No picture of human belief is too frightening, no condition too serious, to cause an earnest adherent of Christian Science to draw back. The remedy in every case is to acknowledge and realize the presence and power of the laws of divine Truth, Life, and Love. These laws are not stagnant, but vital and operative. They demonstrate the might of good, and Mrs. Eddy tells us (Science and Health, p. 412): "The power of Christian Science and divine Love is omnipotent. It is indeed adequate to unclasp the hold and to destroy disease, sin, and death."