Obedience always presupposes authority; and obedience is either willing or unwilling according as to whether or not the authority is respected. The prisoner obeys the regulations of the prison approved by the state, but he may do so with reluctance. The athletic team, working together with a common object, is obedient to the rules laid down by the management, as well as those rules which determine the conduct of the sport in which it is engaged: it recognizes authority and the necessity for obedience thereto. Every well-organized business has its rules whereby the coming and going of its employees is regulated and their work carried on; so much so, indeed, that it is usual for these rules to be clearly stated and a promise of obedience to them obtained before engaging anyone as an employee.
The same holds in every worthy undertaking, be it in connection with school, college, business, church, or home: there must be obedience to recognized authority if orderly progress is to be assured. How important, then, is the question of authority! And in considering it one perceives that it may be of two kinds—arbitrary or persuasive, as they may be termed. The first, arbitrary authority, is that which demands obedience irrespective of whether the one who obeys understands, or respects, its nature; the second, persuasive authority, is that which demands obedience because the one who obeys understands its nature and respects it. It may be that these two kinds of authority often tend to merge into each other, in human affairs; nevertheless, a clear line of demarcation can be drawn between them.
Now there cannot be the slightest doubt as to the authority the well-meaning person would choose; there cannot be any doubt as to the authority the Christian Scientist would choose: both desire to be obedient to the authority which they understand, respect, and honor. In the case of the Christian Scientist that authority is God. In the Preface to "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. vii) Mrs. Eddy states, "The only guarantee of obedience is a right apprehension of Him whom to know aright is Life eternal." A right apprehension, a correct understanding, of God is therefore necessary to ensure genuine obedience to Him. That certainly is the teaching of Christian Science regarding the obedience which it demands that its adherents shall give to God. And in making this demand Christian Science is altogether reasonable, since it reveals God as the perfect One, the One altogether lovely, the adorable One, as the divine Mind, whose infinite intelligence governs His entire creation, including man, with perfect wisdom.
