True Ambition ELLA W. HOAG, CSD            In her Message to The Mother Church in 1902 Mrs. Eddy says (p. 3), "The only true ambition is to serve God and to help the race." In this simple definition she has given the solution for a multitude of human difficulties. Because she has presented to mankind the possibility of a right ambition, there has thus been unfolded the opportunity for the expression of eager desire for righteous attainment which can be directed to such holy offices as shall result in blessing to all.          Ambition had been considered from such mistaken viewpoints that it had almost seemed that no place was left for any sense of good in connection therewith. It had been so associated with evil pursuits and desires, so turned to evil purposes, that the more earnest searchers for righteousness had come to agree with Shakespeare, when he said:— . . . . . . . . . . Fling away ambition! By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it? This mistaken sense of ambition has always been based upon a desire for personal advancement, personal gain, personal adulation, and has been associated in the general thought of mankind with almost every human activity. It has claimed to hold despotic sway over every effort for progress in any direction, insisting that success could never be attained without its presence. It has striven to build up with one hand through a belief in personal ability, only to tear down with the other because of its false basis of limitation. It has held exalted vision aloft that one might strive for it, and then pulled down the ladder of possible ascension by presenting it as impossible of climbing by any but the favored few.          One of its most pernicious methods has been early to incite in children a mistaken desire to exceed their companions in accomplishment. A constant urging to do better than their fellows has started them from so self-centered a basis that it is not strange that boys and girls have grown into men and women madly struggling for the top, pushing aside or throwing down any others whom they might encounter in their selfish determination to reach the summit of their desire.          The disappointed ambitions of the world, with their accompaniment of wrecked lives, are a sad commentary on the fruitlessness of self-seeking. This lesson has been repeated with such terrible insistence that it would seem as though mortal man must ere this have awakened to see the uselessness of false ambition. This would undoubtedly have been the case had not the claim of materiality ever beckoned forward with its lying argument that although others might have failed, there was still the chance for success; always there has been the great temptation of egotism, the temptation of a yet greater personal ability luring one on to certain defeat. No least temptation of evil but in some way contains this argument of personal ability, personal superiority, personal triumph; always the lies of self-will, self-love, self-justification, vaunting themselves in some seductive form claiming a selfhood and a power apart from God, apart from that which is divine.          To all this selfish, mad ambition, Christian Science comes with its gentle "Peace, be still." Pointing out the unsatisfactoriness of all self-seeking, it lifts up at all times the goal of perfection in righteousness, encouraging all to strive equally for it, showing that no good can be gained that is not equally possible for all. The only good there is, is the good which is universal; for is not our infinite God the All-good? And are not all His children the likeness of that good?          Christian Science teaches the child as well as the adult to seek perfection in every undertaking, but tells him at the same time that he should desire that his brother do the same. It shows him that he gains nothing by his brother's failure of attainment, nor is he in any way limited or harmed by his brother's success. Indeed, on the contrary, he is encoureged by it. It is this wonderful equality of opportunity that Christian Science presents which proves its divine origin and authority. When Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," he spoke no vain words. It was the truth of being he thus presented for our acceptance and which he himself was demonstrating. In Christian Science we have the rule for the attainment of this perfection, when it teaches men "to serve God and to help the race." This loving, considerate ambition, when obeyed, will purify all human endeavor and bring about the blissful government wherein each will seek his own in his brother's good. This is the vision of heaven, the government of God, which alone can satisfy all right desire; for as our beloved Leader tells us, in the Message before mentioned (p. 17), "Conscious worth satisfies the hungry heart, and nothing else can."   "True Ambition" by Ella W. Hoag, CSD Christian Science Sentinel, November 1, 1919

 

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