Christ Jesus was speaking to a mixed group, including some of the Pharisees and others, when he referred to himself as the good shepherd who knew his sheep and was known of them. "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold," he said, "them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd."John 10:16; Since that time Christianity has spread all over the globe, and hundreds of thousands of churches based on Jesus' teachings have been established for the worship of God.
Today, however, we can see two distinct trends in religious thought—a disenchantment with organized collective worship and a startling growth of interest in spiritual things drawing people together. While churches of many Christian denominations have been viewing with concern their dwindling congregations, an exceptionally strong wave of curiosity about the deeper meaning of existence has sprung up. College courses on religion and metaphysics are often oversubscribed; there has been a boom in the publication and sale of religious books; and great numbers of earnest people crowd together to listen to popular evangelists, charismatic preachers, and gurus.
There evidently exists today a deep yearning in human hearts to discover what man truly—spiritually—is, to have an awareness of identity in the infinite, divine oneness, and to feel a kinship with fellow men and women. But at the same time there is resistance to church as an institution, that church which ideally is the visible human expression of the invisible, spiritual structure of God's creation, constituting true being.
People in general, though they do not often recognize the cause of their restlessness, are not satisfied by theories that explain identity on a material basis. Present in the consciousness of everyone, often below the level of conscious human thought, there is a spark of divine intelligence that spontaneously causes people to rebel against the concept of individuality as being merely self-evolving dust—against being labeled as isolated biochemical organisms that owe their lonely existence, variable intelligence, and uncertain destiny to random physical development and conditions.
Mrs. Eddy describes this rebellious yearning and its cause when she says in Science and Health: "A mortal, corporeal, or finite conception of God cannot embrace the glories of limitless, incorporeal Life and Love. Hence the unsatisfied human craving for something better, higher, holier, than is afforded by a material belief in a physical God and man."Science and Health, p. 258; Experience shows that the teachings of Christ Jesus, when scientifically understood and practiced, are able to satisfy this craving as nothing else can because they introduce us to our divine Father—the perfect, infinite, eternal Principle, the actual source of all real being, in whom we find completeness and perfection.
Christian Science explains that this primal cause is the basis from which proceeds a perfectly structured spiritual universe, governed by immutable laws. In this unique and perfect structure of immortal Mind, man, the manifestation of God, exists in multitudinous identities, and good is supreme. This divine Mind is man's eternal home, and when we understand the nature of our true, spiritual being in God—its wholeness and harmony—and shape our lives in accord with it, we attain the peace and joy humanity so deeply desires.
Man is individual but not solitary or isolated. The identity of each son and daughter of God is complete but inseparable from Him and from the spiritual universe as a whole. This divine order of individual wholeness in unity with all creation must be worked out in life-practice.
Much of the Master's teaching is devoted to this end. He referred to people's relationships with each other: how to live together, work together, give to others intelligently, and forgive them. He urged upon his followers mutual aid in bearing each other's burdens and forbearing others in love. He spoke of the benefits of collective prayer, saying, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."Matt. 18:20;
The Bible metaphor of the shepherd and the fold hints at the Christly understanding of God's universal fatherhood and the eternal structure of divine Love. We hear that when Jesus "saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd."9:36
Indeed, without the Christly understanding of spiritual being in God's likeness, humanity is lost, lonely, and dissatisfied—separated from the consciousness of true being by the negative attraction of animal magnetism.
Christ Jesus detected the phases of animal magnetism that would draw people away from the safety and harmony of one fold. The Bible refers to these metaphorically as a serpent, a beast, a dragon, false prophets, and wolves in sheep's clothing. Mrs. Eddy explains them in terms that are impersonal and easily recognizable. She gives this metaphysical interpretation in Science and Health: "RED DRAGON. Error; fear; inflammation; sensuality; subtlety; animal magnetism; envy; revenge."Science and Health, p. 593; Elsewhere she writes, "The beast and the false prophets are lust and hypocrisy."ibid., p. 567.
Are these the enemies of the lonely, restless, dissatisfied sheep who are so hungrily seeking spiritual satisfaction today? Are these the negative forces that draw them away from the very institution that would feed their spiritual hunger? If so, there is work to be done to help humanity. We can banish these bestial traits—the hypocrisy and lust, envy and revenge—from our own thoughts and from our churches. We can destroy them with the innocence of the Lamb of God and the outpouring of the spirit of divine Love.
In truth God's ideas are indissolubly at one in His fold, eternally within His Church, the heavenly structure of His creation. This Christly understanding is established and cannot be denied. The Master's prophecy must be fulfilled: "There shall be one fold, and one shepherd."
