PERHAPS no other form of virtue has been extolled so much as obedience, for there is no human activity into which it does not enter to some extent, and it is necessary that it should. Obedience and faith go hand in hand. Because of the universal necessity for obedience in human affairs the word has been narrowed in its application until it seems to rest only on a material law or basis, and thus is commercialized so that obedience is rendered only in the hope of material advantage.
In Science and Health (p. 189) we read, "The human mortal mind, by an inevitable perversion, makes all things start from the lowest instead of from the highest mortal thought." This is true of obedience as well as of other things, the human mind invariably basing its sense of obedience upon a personal demand, whereas our obedience should always begin with the demand of God's law. The more we are obedient to God, good, the more we shall be fit to render a proper obedience to those authorities that have a right to demand it of us, and the better we shall be able to distinguish between a true and a false authority. True obedience does not have to be blind, neither should it be based on ignorance. Truth is reasonable in its demands, while error is not. It is blind, unthinking obedience to error or selfishness that has seemingly hindered the leaven of Truth from working in the thoughts of men.
Humanity is too much inclined to follow Esau, and sell its birthright of intelligent obedience to Truth to some schemer for a mess of pottage, ease in error. When the results of this ignorance come home to the victims, it is usually realized that it takes two to make up this undesirable claim of ignorant human leadership, the led as well as the leader, and that it proves the truth of what Jesus said, "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."
