Men's faith in a power higher than material sense, a good power guiding and directing human affairs, has brought them comfort and courage, and they have often likened this power to a good shepherd. But, although yearning for this guiding influence, many have not known where to look for it or how to lay hold upon it.
Now, through the study of Christian Science, all may learn that God, who is infinite Mind, Love, imparts His own unlimited, perfect qualities to each of His ideas, and that the shepherding presence of these qualities, even though unperceived and unused, is ever at hand in human consciousness to be recognized and accepted. The moment one opens the door of his thought to these spiritual elements he sees them unfold. As the student recognizes God-bestowed qualities as truly his own, and utilizes them, he becomes conscious of the shepherding presence of good within his own thinking.
With this consciousness of spiritual influence comes the moral obligation to heed and prove its guiding power. Jesus understood and voiced this duty when he said (John 10:11), "I am the good shepherd." Here he not only referred to his spiritual selfhood, the Christ, which was the actual shepherd pointing the way in all his healing ministry but also drew attention to his responsibility, as the human Jesus, to express the shepherding qualities of the Christ and to be an example to others of the truth which he taught.
