. 133 157 . 177 201 X COMPARATIVE RELIGION XI THE EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY XII HERE AND HEREAFTER BOOKS QUOTED INDEX "The question of our authority is the question of our religion. It is a religious question first and last. We have no absolute authority over us except in our faith; and, without it, all relative authority becomes more and more relative, and less and less authoritative. There is no final answer to the question of any authority but the answer contained in our personal faith. . . . Our great authority is what gives us most power to go forward; it is not what ties us up most to a formal past. It is of Grace and not of law. It cannot be a doctrine, nor a book, nor an institution; it must, for a person, be a person. And a person who is not an æsthetic ideal of perfection, but an active source of life, a person who is gathered up and consummated in a creative, redemptive act. There is no revolt when the authority is realized as the Lord and Giver of Life; for it is the passion for life and its largeness that is at the root of rebellion." -P. T. Forsyth: The Principle of Authority, p. 14 f. FREEDOM AND ADVANCE I THE VOICE OF AUTHORITY THE idea of authority is not acceptable to the modern mind. This is due in part to a misunderstanding of its nature and claims and in part to the subjective temper of the times. The spirit of independence refuses to tolerate any interference on the assumption that it is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But it fails to reckon with objective facts, and, when it becomes too introspective, its very intensity jeopardizes the prospects of liberty and precipitates a condition of chaos. No man can be a law unto himself, be he an autocrat ruling over a vast empire or an individual in an obscure village. As soon as he tries to carry out his theories he is confronted by other individuals. If he persists in his ways, there is an inevitable conflict with much distress; and, if for the time being might prevails, the reaction which is bound to come will finally restore stable equilibrium. The fact of authority cannot, however, be dismissed. It might change its garb or even its spirit, but its presence must be reckoned with. Authority really means weight. In the realm of politics the appeal of weight secures votes; in intellectual matters the weight of judgment commands assent; in moral concerns the |