When a party of people desire to climb a mountain which is difficult of ascent, an experienced guide or leader is usually chosen whose directions they obey, and all are expected to follow the path he selects. If during the ascent some one chooses to tread another path and induces others to follow him, this one by such action becomes a leader, either for a short time or a long one, although he may not be followed by more than two or three of the company.
That leadership of this kind may become perilous in mountain climbing is evident to all who have been on such expeditions. The self-constituted leader may have little acquaintance with the mountain to be climbed, but lured by some promising bypath or seeming short cut, and failing to recognize possible dangers, he may diverge from the trail "only a little,'' until presently neither he nor his companions know whither they are going. Sometimes the would-be leader has followers because the path pointed out is smoother and seems more attractive; or perhaps it is because he tells of others who took that trail. A speedier ascent or a broader outlook is usually the promise of such divergence, but invariably the result is a retracing of weary footsteps or the attainment of some lower point than was the original object of the journey.
Mountain climbing well prefigures the upward journey of Christian Scientists. They have in Mrs. Eddy, as they firmly believe, a divinely chosen Leader whose history has proved her ability to overcome obstacles, to attain high altitudes, and to find the safest paths leading thereto. Through faithful obedience to Principle she discovered the way best adapted to lead mankind out of the wilderness of materiality, and many have heeded her words of counsel and have begun the long journey upward. There are many words of encouragement and warning to the ever increasing ranks of her followers; and although they may not all have stood personally beside the Leader, or expected her personally to uphold them and save them from pitfalls, nevertheless their textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and the rules of the Church Manual are with them as chart and guide.
