Article May 13, 1933 Issue

Leadership

[Written Especially for Young People]

ROBERT S. VAN ATTA

A COMMON goal of human ambition is leadership. The child claims it in his play, the youth aspires to it in his sports, the young person labors for it in business and society, and maturity values it in the councils of politics and commerce. Schools and colleges make a point nowadays of "training for leadership," as the expression goes. Fraternities urge their members to strive for positions to enhance the standing of the group; and to a young person of ability there is generally no lack of opportunity to attain some measure of prominence. Personal leaders have been and doubtless are now necessary in most human activities, and the drama of history is rich with the examples of noble men and women who have led movements for human betterment.

A preeminent instance is that of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. In her were combined high idealism, courage and kindness, strength and tenderness, and extraordinary practicality. In the midst of her unparalleled career as the Leader of a great movement to establish her revelation of true being she wrote that her successor would be, not a person, but "man in the image and likeness of the Father-Mother God," which, she said (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 347), "remains to lead on the centuries."

Right leadership, then, is the expression of divine ideas in outward conduct—the manifestation of true selfhood. Young people in Christian Science are unencumbered with many of the ordinarily accepted fears and false beliefs; this brings them much freedom in the exercise of their faculties and abilities, and qualifies them to fill positions of honor and trust. If called to serve, they should work and pray to acquit themselves creditably. They should know that of themselves they can do nothing, but that all right qualities of thought are in and of divine Mind and are theirs by reflection.

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