Christ Jesus taught the lesson of obedience to true leadership in his parable of the sheep (John 10:1-15). Here he likens his spiritual selfhood, the Christ, to the shepherd who leads his flock, and those who follow the Christ to the sheep who know the shepherd's voice and flee from strangers. He said, "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine." The spirit of Christ must characterize true leadership, and spiritual intuition must dominate the thought of those who follow such leadership if the straight and narrow way of salvation from the mortal sense of life is to be found.
Students of Christian Science follow the leadership of Mary Baker Eddy only because of her unique understanding of the Christ and her own willing discipleship of Truth. She is the worthy Leader of her flock because of her insistence upon obedience to the Ten Commandments, the lessons in the Sermon on the Mount, and the other precepts of Christ Jesus. She taught her followers to forgive their enemies, to overcome evil with good, and to serve the race by purifying and healing the sinful and suffering. In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mrs. Eddy defines the basic requirement for true discipleship where she says (p. 188), "When it is learned that spiritual sense and not the material senses convey all impressions to man, man will naturally seek the Science of his spiritual nature, and finding it, be God-endowed for discipleship."
It is spiritual sense that leads one to recognize as genuine revelation the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. And it is spiritual sense that impels one to obey her Manual of The Mother Church, which, in Article IV, Section 1, requires of the member that "the Bible, together with Science and Health and other works by Mrs. Eddy, shall be his only textbooks for self-instruction in Christian Science, and for teaching and practising metaphysical healing." Nothing but human will looking for greener pastures outside the safe precincts of absolute Christian Science strays from obedience to this By-Law. It is spiritual sense that causes one to shun pseudo Science, which with selfish and commercial intent claims to do more for the student than the authorized literature provided by the Leader of Christian Science and to present an easier way of healing.
