When our great Master, Christ Jesus, "sat at meat" with a number of publicans and sinners, the Pharisees were considerably shocked. Jesus rebuked them with the statement (Matt. 9:13), "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." The great Nazarene, who referred to his true selfhood as "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), recognized the spiritual need of those who had strayed from the narrow path of goodness.
Christ, Truth, is always present to guide those who might otherwise lose their way and to direct back to the heavenly highway those who have departed from it. Christian Science shows how one may utilize the Christ in gaining full salvation. Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 332), "Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ is the divine idea of God—the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth."
On a hillside in northern England, a shepherd was observed leading his flock from one pasture to another through a narrow aperture in a thick hedge. All the sheep except one passed through the opening obediently. The recalcitrant one broke from the flock and attempted vainly to force its way through at a different point. The alert sheep dog saw the straying animal and at first ran behind it to direct it back to the right passageway. But seeing that the sheep was becoming more entangled in the dense growth, the dog raced through the gap in the hedge to the opposite side and faced the struggling creature. The sheep then backed out and obediently rejoined the flock.
This episode may serve as an illustration for anyone who is blindly seeking to gain health or happiness through materiality. The true way of salvation is to be gained only by our following Christ in the way. The way of Christ is not hidden from view. It is not a dangerous, unhappy, or doleful way, and it is not restricted to enjoyment by a select or foreordained group. Salvation, health, and happiness are available now for all who choose to follow and obey Christ. Every expression by an individual of love, wisdom, and purity is a step in the holy way of Christ.
Christ, Truth, is ever present in human thought, lovingly pointing the way to heaven, harmony. The only price for the enjoyment of the blessings to be found on God's highway of perfection is the abandonment of valueless error and the admission into consciousness of the spiritual truths pertaining to perfect God and perfect man. Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 458): "The Christian Scientist wisely shapes his course, and is honest and consistent in following the leadings of divine Mind. He must prove, through living as well as healing and teaching, that Christ's way is the only one by which mortals are radically saved from sin and sickness."
Jesus declared (John 10:7, 9): "I am the door of the sheep. ... By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." In this statement Jesus was pointing to the Christ, the manifestation of Truth, Life, and Love, which constituted his real nature. Christ. Truth, is the door of salvation, "the door of the sheep."
Many who heard Jesus speak were not willing to follow in the way. They were required to put God first in their affections, to love their neighbor, to love their enemies, to turn away from reliance on matter, to be honest, pure, and good. The way of materiality is a labyrinth filled with false pleasures, discord, and distress, but one who has entered this maze of error is not permanently lost. He can at any moment accept the hand of Christ and thus find the way of escape. Even though he continues to shun the divine direction, he will sooner or later be impelled to come to Christ, Truth, as his desires are molded and uplifted, either through Science or through toil, sorrow, or pain.
Saul of Tarsus was brought into conformity with Christ through a sudden blindness which came on him as he journeyed to Damascus, intent on persecuting the early followers of Christ Jesus. While in great despair he heard and then heeded the warning of the saving Christ, which called out (Acts 9: 4,5): "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? ... It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." Saul need not have suffered this experience, but through it he was startled from his evil ways. He took the name of Paul and was afterward a devoted follower and disseminator of the teachings of Christ Jesus.
It is hard and entirely unnecessary for anyone to try to gain happiness, health, satisfaction, or security through matter. One who has lost his direction can find it again by turning away from materiality and mortality to God, divine Love, for guidance. The absolute consciousness of the presence of God gives strength to the weak and leads to the destruction of evil.
There are no lost sheep, lost souls, hopeless sinners, incurable diseases, or inevitable dangers in God's creation. All of God's ideas are spiritual only, and they are not subject to beliefs of sin, disease, and death. The understanding of the perfection of God's creation acts in the receptive thought of each individual as a rule of correction to all error. Each individual has the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of the laws of spirituality, and he will enjoy them to the extent that he follows Christ in the way.
All mankind has not only the hope, but the divine right, to happiness, freedom, salvation, and healing now. Such benefits are found as each of us follows the good Shepherd of the sheep. As Christ, Truth, directs, let us hasten to follow. Let not fear, ignorance, or sin cause us to depart into the entangling hedges of materiality. Let us obediently enter "the door of the sheep" and remain in the way under the perpetual care and protection of Christ. Thus we all shall enjoy salvation now.
