On Authority by C.S. Lewis

There are three things that spread the Christ-life to us: baptism, belief, and the mysterious action which different Christians call by different names - Holy Communion, through Mass, the Lord's Supper. At least, those are the three ordinary methods...

I cannot myself see why these things should be conductors of the new life....But though I cannot see why it should be so, I can tell you why I believe it is so. I have explained why I have to believe that Jesus was (and is) God. And it seems plain as a mater of history that He thought His followers that the new life was communicated in this way. In other words, I believe it on His authority. Do not be scar do by the word authority. Believing things on authority only means believing them because you have been have been told them by someone you think trustworthy. Ninety-nine per cent of things you believe are believed on authority. I believe there. Is such a place as New York. I have not seen it myself. I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there must be such a place. I believe it because reliable people have told me so. The ordinary man believes in the Solar System, atoms, evolution, and the circulation of the blood on authority - because the scientists say so. Every historical statement in the world is believed on authority. None of us has seem the Norman Conquest or the defeat of Armada. None of us could prove them by pure logic as you prove a thing in mathematics. We believe them simply because people who did see them have left writings that tell us about them; in fact, on authority. A man who jibbed at authority on other things as some people do in religion would have to be content to know nothing all his life.

22 January 1969

Operation Dewey Canyon, perhaps the most successful high-mobility regimental-size action of the Vietnam War, began in the A Shaun/Da Krong Valleys when the 9th Marines, commanded by Colonel Robert H. Barrow, and supporting artillery were lifted from Quang Tri. By 18 March the enemy's base area had been cleared out, 1617 enemy dead had been counted, and more than 500 tons of weapons and ammunition unearthed.