Second, freedom of thought as opposed to the idea of all authority. We are told that thought cannot be free if it submits to any authority, and it is quite true in the abstract. Attend to this. It is true that the abstract idea of freedom is opposed to the abstract idea of authority, in thought or religion. But it is equally true, that these are opposed in everything else. It is just as true in politics, in which the idea of freedom is opposed to the idea of authority. Where there is absolute freedom, there cannot be authority. Where there is absolute authority, we cannot understand logically how there can be any freedom. Starting from the maxim, “Man is free,” we arrive logically at the conclusion that there can be no authority for that man. Starting from the axiom, “Authority is supreme,” is to arrive at the logical conclusion that there is no room for liberty. The two ideas are logically opposed, the one to the other. But are they so in practice? Is it a fact that freedom is found inconsistent with authority? Is it not true that men reconcile them every day? Is it not true that thought is free, and yet thought submits itself to authority? Many cherished opinions are received on authority, not because we have proved them ourselves. We take the opinion of a lawyer on law, and of a doctor on medicine, as authority. Morality itself is largely received upon authority. We are always submitting ourselves to authority. Logically, freedom and authority are separate, but there never was a society in which the two did not come together. They are like the chemical elements, which have a strong affinity for each other, and are never apart, except when separated in the laboratory of the chemist, but the moment they are liberated they are together again. It is just the same with Freethought and authority. Men are always submitting themselves to authority, and if they did not they would never learn or know anything. When we speak of the authority of a revelation from God, we mean that we bring to Freethought, to judge of, the reasons for believing that the teacher knows more about the things he teaches than others. That is a very large part of what is called “the evidence from miracles.” Men speak as if the miracles were the evidences of the morals of the Gospel. That is not what we say. What we say is this, Our Lord coming down from heaven (as we believe) to tell us of another and supernatural world of which he knew and we did not, gave evidence of that knowledge by bringing down the supernatural.