exert on able young men who turn
toward them in love? Nothing will shrivel the idealistic conceptions of
life in a young man as thoroughly as love for a selfish woman. The world
is full of eyeless Samsons, grinding the money-mills, and whipped to a
quicker pace by smiling grafters--who would not recognize this description
of them if they saw it.
Suggestions for Thought and Discussion
I. _The Need of Leadership_
1. Does the need of leadership diminish with the spread of democracy? With
the growth of education?
2. Do we need leadership more or less in America today than fifty years
ago?
II. _Jesus on the Problems of Leadership_
1. Give proof that Jesus consciously confronted the problem of social
leadership.
2. What elements did he condemn in the old leadership of his nation?
3. What principle of leadership did he lay down for the new social order?
4. What body of leaders did he create, and what standards of special honor
did he impose on them?
5. What do we think of the historic effectiveness of the leadership he
created? What is the true interpretation of Judas Iscariot?
6. What evidences are there in Jesus' career that he was true to his
ideals of leadership?
III. _The Problem of Leadership in History_
1. How have the great leaders in the field of religion attacked the
problem of leadership in the Church? What does the Protestant Reformation
signify from this point of view?
2. How have the landed aristocrats of the past met the Christian test of
leadership?
3. Give examples from history and from modern life of men who exercised
power in the way Christ condemned. Give examples of others who exercised
it according to Christ's law.
IV. _The Problem of Leadership in Modern Life_
1. In what professions is ambition now securely tied up with service, so
that a man must serve well in order to rise?
2. In what positions can a man still gain power and wealth by exploiting
society?
3. Is the consciousness that they are public servants spreading among
business men? If so, to what is this due?
4. Is society paying too big a price for the leadership of the industrial
aristocracy today?
5. When the interests of the stockholders are set over against the health
of women and children, and the safety of employes, which consideration
determines the wages paid?
6. How have the social leaders of the past mortgaged the economic
resources of nations to their own families? To what exte
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