On this program, Harry Efferth of Cleveland, Ohio, told of his own experience. The program was as follows:

Speaker: Surely all of us can afford to consider whether we are being prompted in our various activities by thoughts of personal glorification, or whether our true desire is to let our life—our motives, our words and deeds—glorify God. The title of our program today is "Advancing on a Right Basis," and here is Harry Efferth of Cleveland, Ohio, to tell you his experience in this connection.

Mr. Efferth: When I started in college, one of my chief objectives was to become well known and well liked on the campus. I thought the best way to become prominent was to get into as many activities as I could; so I joined the glee club, the crew, the band, a fraternity, and several other organizations as well.

Almost from the start, my life became a frantic dash from one obligation to another. I was taking a six-year course, and by the end of my third year I was terribly disappointed in my achievements, and the groups I belonged to were certainly disappointed in me, too; in fact, two of them asked me to withdraw. Well, this was a terrific blow to me, but it woke me up.

I had been brought up in Christian Science, and I'd been taught a good many things about God. But I hadn't really put much of what I'd learned into practice. Now I remembered Christ Jesus' words about seeking the kingdom of God first, and I saw that all my efforts had been for personal glory. In other words, I'd been trying to put myself first all along.

During summer vacation I dug in and I really studied Christian Science. I began to see that I must love God above all and my neighbor as myself, as Jesus points out. I also saw that in order to love your neighbor as yourself, you have to see man as he really is—as God's image and likeness. Then you are able to see yourself as you really are and others in their true nature.

At the end of the summer I went back to school with these truths clearly in mind. The result was a complete change in my approach: instead of personal ambition I had a real desire to serve. I knew I couldn't serve properly in all the groups I belonged to; so I stayed in just a few and tried to be a constructive member. I quit talking so much and began to listen, too. Also I became active in the Christian Science college organization. Before this I'd never bothered to attend, because it didn't seem attractive or useful to me. Now I saw its real purpose was to help others, which was something I wanted to do. Also I worked with the freshmen in each year's class, and I helped them to get started correctly.

As I went along I noticed a change in attitude toward me—now that I'd changed my attitude about myself and others. For instance, I was asked to try some choral conducting in the glee club. This was really very encouraging to me since it was a branch of the glee club I'd been asked to leave, but the directing didn't seem to go too well. The group seemed to lack confidence in me. However, I did have one more concert, and in thinking it over before the rehearsal I saw that I was again being influenced by a feeling of personal ambition and personal ability. I saw the need for more real love of my neighbor, more recognition that God is the source of all true direction and control, and that I could turn to Him for the qualities of real leadership. In the performance, I found that they responded to my September 29, 1956] direction, and the concert was a good one. As a result I was kept on, and I worked with the glee club in this way for two years.

Of course, I'm awfully grateful for the way this worked out and for the improvement in my other activities and studies as well. But I'll never forget the main point I learned—that we must put God first and do our best to be of service. My experience proved to me that putting personal ambition and glory first just doesn't work. It was an awfully good lesson; I hope it may be some help to others too.

Speaker: Thank you, Mr. Efferth. I'm sure it's a lesson that will be helpful to many of us. After all, the situation you faced is a very recognizable one on any campus or in almost any field of work. The question of what we want most in life and how we go about obtaining it is one we all have to face at one time or another. But the right answers come into focus when we seek them first of all in the understanding of God.

Now let's consider why this is true. Why is the understanding of God, of our relationship to Him, so important and so helpful in providing the right basis for success, the right approach to our work and to our relationships with others? Briefly, the answer is that God is the source of all real being, of our own true being and of our true activity. Christian Science shows that if we want to understand our own true nature and purpose, if we want to bring out our own individuality and identity, first of all we have to understand God. When we gain this spiritual understanding and acknowledge our relation to God every step of the way, this leads to right adjustments in our daily life.

Actually, friends, the real man—and this means your true identity and mine—exists to reflect and express God, as, for instance, a sunbeam reflects and expresses the sun. Now just as the sunbeam derives all that it is from the sun, all its beauty and usefulness, so it is that man, who is the spiritual idea of the divine Mind, or God, derives all that he is or can be from his divine source.

Let me quote what Mary Baker Eddy says in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 361): "As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being. The Scripture reads: 'For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.'"

So if our daily round is like that of our guest—"a frantic dash from one obligation to another"—our foremost need is to pause and acknowledge God as the source of all right activity.

Now in a similar way we find the right motives for our activity through the understanding of God. For instance, it's natural to want to achieve something worthy of recognition, but through spiritual understanding, this desire is lifted above a mere selfish interest in personal glory and becomes a desire to express the completeness and perfection of man in God's image, to express God's qualities, to glorify God. In this approach, self-centeredness gives way to a genuine interest in helping and serving others, in loving our neighbor as ourselves, as Christ Jesus commanded. Naturally, this leads to mutually satisfactory relations with others.

And so it is that through understanding our relationship to God, we find all that is needed for success in our work, whether we need intelligence and ability, right direction, or the capacity to get along with others. You recall how Christ Jesus looked to God as the source of all that made his work effective. He said (John 5:19), "The Son can do nothing of himself." And (John 14:10), "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."

Listening for God's guidance—and following it—acknowledging God as the source of all right action, we will find the right human footsteps unfolding before us.

The musical selection on the program was Hymn No. 354 from the Christian Science Hymnal ('Tis God the Spirit leads).