Article September 29, 1917 Issue

Authority

GEORGE H. MOORE

Conservation of unity is the end and aim of all real authority, and "unity is spiritual cooperation" (Miscellany, p. 162). Authority originates in the right of the Author of the universe to the control of that which He has made. It ultimates in the spiritual cooperation of man with his creator, as exemplified in the divine authority exercised by Jesus, as a result of his close association with the Father.

Throughout the entire range of law and order God's prerogative holds true, whether it appear in the mere detail of orderly human conduct, in the healing of sickness and sin, or in the whirling of the worlds through the boundless blue. Every word of true authority is an assertion of His right, and obedience to His word is essential to a fruition of His right. All lesser power to direct or to command is a derived power, which possesses no inheritance of its own beyond the right to spiritual correlation with its source. Authority itself must hold true to its own design,—as Truth can never be more than Truth, or Love can never be less than Love. Principle must be true to its own nature, else creation could have no unity and the universe itself would disintegrate.

The most obvious test of any semblance of authority is the question as to its origin. If authority be derived from the one power alone competent to enforce obedience, then the unity which it seeks to disclose is real and entitled to endure. If on the other hand asserted authority be so much as tinged with personal assumption or self-seeking, if it be directed to preferment of the instrument of power rather than to exaltation of the source of power, then its rule would degenerate into tyranny and disorder and the sham unity at which it aims would end in disruption and dishonor. The spiritual cooperation which alone defines unity is an interrelation of Principle and idea which exalts the idea only through its clearer reflection of the divine original. In a word, all authority is of God and for the glory of God.

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