THE term "shepherd" is used in the Gospels to denote the tender care and protecting love which Christ Jesus evidenced for his followers. In the ninth chapter of John is an account of the healing by Christ Jesus of the man blind from birth. To the blind man Jesus exemplified and proved the Christ, which healed him of his infirmity. In the next chapter is found his parable of "the good shepherd." To the few within hearing of his voice, as well as for the innumerable multitude of those in all time who should understand the spiritual import of his teachings, Jesus unfolded in sublimity, purity, and power the scientific fact that God's little ones are ever shepherded, and that no least one of those who claim their heritage can ever be separated from the love and protecting care of the Father-Mother God.
Jesus made it plain that every human need is abundantly supplied by divine Love. Referring to the Christ, he said, "I am the door;" this is the way whereby we enter our heritage of eternal bliss, and there is no other way. He showed the unreality of death, for through him the Christ had come to human understanding so that men might have, not death, not sin and suffering, but life in God, and have it more abundantly. The protecting care of the Christ he declared when he said of his followers, "Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." These declarations our beloved Master proved by works; and we too can bring his promised blessings consciously into our lives as we reflect the Mind which governed him.
The carnal or mortal mind seems ever ready to deny or belittle the works of the Master. So, following the spiritual healing of the blind man by "the good shepherd," came doubts from his neighbors as to his identity, and an attempt by the Jews to dispute the healing and discredit Jesus' ministry. They doubted the healing power of the Christ, manifested by Jesus, for they could not or would not believe in other than their generally accepted material means and methods. Mortal mind has not changed; and so today, when healings of sin, disease, lack, or discord are brought about by the right understanding of God and man, as taught in Christian Science, we find those who doubt the healings or say they were effected by means other than Christian Science. Now, as then, the carnal mind can never be aught but "enmity against God."
