PERSPECTIVE ON THE NEWS August 27, 1979 Issue

The question of leadership

Again and again in modern times, in one country or another, there has surfaced a serious lack of popular confidence in leaders' ability to solve the complex national and international problems confronting them. Some of the reasons given for such leadership crises are lack of vision, insufficient moral stature, absence of a compelling style, inability to inspire, and the end of an era of great personalities.

But vision, inspiration, comprehension, and moral strength are never really absent. They do not originate in mortal personality. They originate in God, divine Principle, and are continuously expressed through His idea, man.

Could not the present crisis be forcing us to look away from corporeal personality to divine Principle and the real man for the expression of leadership that is at all times trustworthy, inspiring, and competent? Mary Baker Eddy, who, as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and its Leader, has done so much to forward humanity's progress, constantly directed her followers to turn away from following or leaning upon her material personality. In a message to the members of her Church in 1902 she said, "I again repeat, Follow your Leader, only so far as she follows Christ."^{Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 4;}