Article July 23, 1955 Issue

DIVINE AGENCY

CLIFFORD ORLANDO SHANDY

Agency may be defined as the relationship in which one person acts for or represents another by his authority. The principal, according to the law of agency, is the person for whom another acts and from whom he receives his authority; and the agent is the representative of his principal and derives his authority from him. Do not these definitions point to the relationship of God and man, and to God's law of divine agency?

Jesus affirmed the existence of the divine agency relationship when, replying to Philip's request (John 14:8), "Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us," he said: "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. ... I am in the Father, and the Father in me." And it is also pertinent to note that Mary Baker Eddy defines man in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 591) as "the compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind."

The authority of man as God's agent is also expressly stated in the Bible passage (Isa. 43:10), "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen." Thus the creation of the divine agency relationship coincides with the creation of man and endures forever. Man, made in the image and likeness of God, is His eternal representative; and the only purpose of man's existence is to express or represent his divine Principle.

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