Nothing has got the human race into more trouble than its habit of following and being followed. It is a vice which has appealed to ambition and vanity on one side, and to weakness and laziness upon the other. The human being has rarely existed whom it has been safe to place in a position of undisputed authority. Where such a human being has existed, that human being has been dominated in a remarkable degree by the Christ-spirit. The history of autocracies is the history of shipwrecked reputations. So clearly did Mrs. Eddy understand this that twice in her Messages to The Mother Church, those for 1901 and 1902, she insisted to her followers that they must follow her only as she followed the Christ, Truth. On page 34 of the Message for 1901, she writes, "Finally, brethren, wait patiently on God; return blessing for cursing; be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good; be steadfast, abide and abound in faith, understanding, and good works; study the Bible and the textbook of our denomination; obey strictly the laws that be, and follow your Leader only so far as she follows Christ," whilst, on page 4 of the Message for 1902, she says, "Competition in commerce, deceit in councils, dishonor in nations, dishonesty in trusts, begin with 'Who shall be greatest?' I again repeat, Follow your Leader, only so far as she follows Christ."

With such a warning before the world it might have been imagined that people would have been cautions of giving advice, cautions of telling their neighbors how to act in difficult circumstances, cautious, in short, of attempting to stand in the place of Principle. Equally it might have been imagined that mankind would have been cautions of accepting counsels, cautions of the attempt to unload its own responsibilities on its neighbors, cautious of permitting itself to be thought for. History shows us a condition of things the very reverse of this. Any man has been able to get a following who has had the ambition, the vanity, or the folly to desire one. Apollonius of Tyana and Alexander of Abonouteichos had as little trouble in doing this as did Judas Maccabæus or Saul the king. The people swarmed to Alexander and his hooded snake, just as they forced Samuel to make Saul king over them. Choose any century you wish, and the story is the same. Lodowicke Muggleton was, in his day, even more successful than Fox the Quaker.

It of course takes two to make a party, and it must not be forgotten that the follower is perhaps even more to blame than the leader. Which of them suffers more in the long run it would be difficult to say. The follower loses his power of initiative and his freedom of judgment. The leader gradually develops into imagining himself far above the common clay. Never was Mrs. Eddy's wisdom more clearly seen than in her insistence that those working with her should accept their own responsibilities, make their own decisions, and bear the brunt of their own actions. She would give the wisest of advice, criticize in the most helpful way, and illuminate the situation with extraordinary understanding, but always after the event. She never steadied the ark for her followers, and never weakened their resource or judgment by taking the responsibilities from their shoulders. Thus she prevented, so far as lay in her power, the growth of the race of "shepherds" which wields the crook in its own interests; the race of shepherds of which Isaiah wrote, "They are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter."

The truth of the matter is, of course, that there is, and can be, speaking absolutely, only one Leader, divine Principle, though, as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy became inevitably, through her understanding of the Christ, the Leader of the movement. It was this truth about leadership that Mrs. Eddy was never tired of impressing on her followers. She knew perfectly well what happened when the blind undertook to lead the blind. If the Israelites, in the days of Saul, had been content to go on following the leading of Principle, instead of insisting upon having a human king, they would probably have been saved all their later troubles. But they had not reached the point when they were capable of understanding what this meant, and so their turning from Principle to person was, in the circumstances, inevitable, just as the consequences were inevitable. It was the animal magnetism of the crowd that led the people to demand Saul for a king, and then to turn upon him when they had made him king. Sooner or later this revulsion against a human leader seems almost inevitable, because human leadership is itself a breach of the First Commandment. Of course, this does not mean that people are not to choose a political leader to perform certain tasks for them, or a military leader to command their armies, or anything of that sort. But this sort of leadership is limited to a single phase of government, and does not bring those who accept it into the position of surrendering their freedom of thought to an autocratic authority. Even so, the fate of generals and political leaders is a lesson in the instability of human reasoning.

When Mrs. Eddy told her followers only to follow her so far as she followed the Christ, she plainly and distinctively made the Christ the leader of the Christian Science movement. The interest of the world, however, in human leadership, rather than in Principle, was so great that she was applied to as to who her successor would be. "You would ask, perhaps," she said, in an interview with a representative of the New York Herald, printed on page 343 of "The First Church of Christ Scientist and Miscellany," "whether my successor will be a woman or a man. I can answer that. It will be a man." The reply, so absolutely misunderstood by the listener, gave rise later to a request for an explanation from the Associated Press, and in answer to this request, in a statement printed on pages 346-347 of "The First Church of Christ Scientist and Miscellany," Mrs. Eddy writes, "What remains to lead on the centuries and reveal my successor, is man in the image and likeness of the Father-Mother God, man the generic term for mankind."

Thus Mrs. Eddy made it perfectly clear that the individual must find leadership in his own understanding of divine Principle, and that he cannot purchase it in any cheaper way. There is only one leader, divine Principle, and in order to follow that leader, the leader must be understood. The follower, in other words, must learn to judge righteous judgment, must learn how to distinguish between Truth and error; for only as this lesson is learned can it be possible for him to know whether he is following Principle, or its counterfeit, error. The student of Christian Science, then, must give his entire attention to the effort to master divine metaphysics and to the effort to live in accordance with their teaching. Turning to this person or to that person is at the best to get Truth filtered through the alembic of another mentality, which can never save the individual from doing his own work in the vineyard of Principle. The more the individual knows of Truth, the less willing the individual will be found to steady the ark for his neighbor. He knows perfectly well that his neighbor must bear the burden and heat of the day for himself, and that it is ridiculous to suppose that he can escape the task. "The Divine Being," Mrs. Eddy writes, on page 3 of Science and Health, "must be reflected by man,—else man is not the image and likeness of the patient, tender, and true, the One 'altogether lovely;' but to understand God is the work of eternity, and demands absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire."

Frederick Dixon.