THE VERY KEY. H. WAGE, D.D., ON AUTHORITY. 237 



Dr. W. Woods Smyth writes : — I regret to have to differ from the 

 views of Dr. Wace. What constitutes authority 1 In answering 

 this question we may perceive that authority may be either 

 impersonal or personal. Science as a body of verified facts is 

 impersonal, and is an absolute authority. The pronouncement of 

 God, of man, or of the Church is personal authority. Now it is 

 not said that God doeth everything according to His own will, but 

 that He doeth all things according to the counsel of His own will. 

 That is according to Supreme Eeason, of which He has made us 

 partakers, God's will is, therefore, not the ultimate formation of 

 authority, but the counsel or Eeason is. The authority of man 

 upon any subject depends upon his knowledge, and still more upon 

 his having seldom or never having made a mistake. An erring man 

 has no authority. When we turn to the Church, which is a body 

 or congregation of men, we find, as a matter of historic fact, that 

 it is a tragedy as well as a "comedy of errors." We are, therefore, 

 unable to accept its authority ; and the reason lies in the fact that 

 the counsel of God's will as expressed in His word and His works 

 is not faithfully followed. 



Now, inasmuch as the word of God is a written expression of the 

 works of God in nature, the knowledge of which is presented to us 

 in ascertained science, we are, therefore, shut up to the position 

 that authority is founded in the word of God, viewed in the light 

 of verified natural science, and interpreted by the reason which 

 God has given us. 



Mr. T. AY. E. Higgens writes : — I venture to utter a protest against 

 what appears to be the teaching of Dr. Wace on the duty of Christians 

 as regards obedience in religious matters. And I do so the more 

 reluctantly because he bases his argument on such a solid foundation 

 on page 223, namely, on the personal authority of our Lord. Yet, he 

 appears to teach an almost blind obedience to priestly authority in 

 religious matters, and this I unhesitatingly repudiate. 



On page 227 he informs us that the Catholic Church is a "phantom 

 of the imagination," and on page 228 he says that authority is to be 

 found " in its most immediate moral action in the Church." What 

 Church? Again, on page 227, I am told that each church must 

 exercise its own authority, and that the only way in which I can 

 discharge my duty of obedience to those set over me in the Lord is 

 by submitting myself to the authority immediately over me, "so 



