A SUPERFICIAL glance at the affairs of the world to-day might cause many people who are not accustomed to looking below the material surface of things to exclaim that indeed the times are out of joint. Wars and all the attendant evils left in the track of war, business depression, political uncertainty, graft and corruption in public life, intrigue within intrigue in high places give rise to the feeling that the old days of ease and certainty are over, that the old anchors no longer grapple and hold, that the former stability and clean-cut distinctions are no more. Men seem to hesitate and waver now about decisions over which there once was no question; they look for assurance to former standards and find a mist. The feeling sometimes comes that they are just standing, marking time, and waiting for the appearance of some authority by which they may be guided.

It has been shown clearly by many recent events that the meaning of the word "authority" is not so clear as is commonly supposed. It is derived from the Latin word auctoritas, of which the root auctor, when translated into English, means "creator." The dictionary defines authority as "that which is or may be appealed to in support of action." This definition is an exact covering of every case in which an individual may wish to invoke authority. Incidentally, it may here be remarked that since a word is the symbol is the of thought, the grasping of the meaning often clears up situations that have seemed hazy.

Matthew, writing of the Sermon on the Mount, uses this word. He says of Jesus that "he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." Now this is rather an extraordinary statement. Without analysis the inference seems to be that the teachings of the scribes were not to be regarded as having much value. But Matthew was a Jew and was familiar with the high respect in which the scribes were held by his people. These learned men were not only writers and custodians of the national records, but were teachers and interpreters of the Mosaic and traditional law. In fact, their position in one way was analogous to that of a justice of the supreme court. He does not make the law, but he does interpret it and he gives decisions on certain points out of the vast agglomeration of statute and common law. This was the position of the scribes. They knew the Jewish law and tradition, and their interpretations were valued as the decisions of men learned and just, who out of their large experience and seasoned judgment gave the truth as they saw it.

Therefore what did Matthew mean when he practically stated that these scribes, esteemed though they were, had no authority, in the face of the apparently overwhelming evidence to the contrary? He was speaking through his own deeper understanding of what constitutes authority. He knew that that the store of knowledge of the scribes, although vast, was only the knowledge of material history and law, but that the lessons taught by Jesus to the people gathered about him on that hillside were absolute truth, because they were spiritual. No tinge of materiality entered into them. His authority was indeed absolute, in the absolute meaning of the Latin word auctor, "creator." He knew God was the great First Cause, the only creator, and he knew it better than any man before or since. Therefore when he spoke of the things of God he spoke "as one having authority."

This authority of Jesus was remarked several times in the writings of the apostles, and in every case it is spiritual authority that is made the subject of comment. Luke says that after Jesus, in the synagogue, healed the man of dementia, those who witnessed it "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" No wonder the people were amazed. They were familiar with the authority of the legions of Tiberius, but an authority which could heal one of their own townsmen of a disease that they had all witnessed, this was real authority!

Another time Luke tells that "he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases." Now this was no mystic transfer of some supernatural power. Jesus always showed that he was a practical man. He did give his disciples something when he gave them this power and authority. And what he gave was the knowledge of the authority by which they too could cast out devils and heal diseases. That this knowledge was not intended for a chosen few but for all men who would take advantage of it is clearly proved by history. For some time men and women performed what the grosser minded people of the Graeco-Latin world of that time regarded as "miracles," but were really demonstrations of the utter futility of evil and the powerlessness of matter. It was not until the apostolic church developed into a hierarchy which shortly became an autocratic dictatorship, suppressing all individual thinking, that the healing power disappeared and was lost until the last century. But to-day, through the teachings of Christian Science as given to us by Mary Baker Eddy, we have this authority with us. And it follows the meaning quoted before: "That which is or may be appealed to in support of action." As Christian Scientists, then, we know there is only One to whom we can appeal in support of action: to God, Mind.

Is it a question of physical healing? Our authority there is not the medicine chest, air, exercise, manipulations, but our certain knowledge that God, being perfect, is not the author (auctor) of sickness, therefore it has no real existence and of course we cannot suffer from anything that does not exist. The minute we know this with absolute conviction, we are healed. If we are confronted with a sense of lack, whether of money, happiness, success, loved ones, our authority again is divine Mind, and we know that we inherit all good and, in the very nature of things, cannot be deprived for one instant of anything that is in any way necessary to us, because if we doubted this it would include the corollary suggestion that in that instance God is not all-powerful. Knowing this to be impossible our demonstration is made.

There is no circumstance, no matter how seemingly inharmonious, no discord so grave that it cannot be met and conquered if the right authority is invoked. But so long as we look to material remedies or wealth or fame or personal opinion or groups of individuals for help or guidance, we may be sure we are not looking to the right authority. In the last analysis, there is only one authority and that is God, Mind, and the minute we look elsewhere for assistance in solving our problems, instead of demonstrating what we know of Truth, at once we are breaking the First Commandment. When we cease being fearful or self-righteous and stop personalizing evil and simply let divine Mind govern us as our only authority, the healing truth will be perceived and we shall behold as the true selfhood the "new man" made in the image and likeness of God.