In the Holy Bible we may read one of God's promises to His children (Jer. 3:15): "I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." And in "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mary Baker Eddy we may read of the fulfillment of this promise (pp. 313, 314): "Humbly, and, as I believe, divinely directed, I hereby ordain the Bible, and 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,' to be hereafter the only pastor of The Church of Christ, Scientist, throughout our land and in other lands."
In The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Massachusetts, and all of its branches over the world, this pastor serves without interruption and will continue to do so. Its message is given to the congregation by two Readers—members of the church who have grown into fitness for the office. The message from God given in the Bible and Science and Health sustains and feeds "with knowledge and understanding" both the Readers and the congregation.
One thinks of a pastor as a shepherd of his flock; and our loving pastor fills this place "according to mine heart," as prophesied by Jeremiah. Only divine Love is perfectly constant, unvarying, tender in its healing and blessing, wise in its correcting, universal in its scope. Love is impartial, like the sunlight, in whose warmth the child plays and in whose light his father and mother perform their tasks. Love knows what every one of us needs, and in the Lesson-Sermon as outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly, it gives a full supply of inspiration to each seeking heart according to the exact requirements of the moment. Humanly, each of us seems to be at a different place in his demonstration of spiritual reality. Consequently one's need at any given moment is never exactly like his neighbor's. The truth given out weekly in the Lesson-Sermon meets us where we now seem to be and takes us farther along the road toward spiritual understanding and the demonstration of our true selfhood— the perfect man made in God's likeness.
