Article March 12, 1932 Issue

Feeding the Lambs

ELIZABETH G. MC KINSTRY

Many beautiful and helpful similes to be found in the Bible are based on the lesson of the shepherd and his flock. In the record of the birth of Jesus we read that "there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night." In studying this a student of Christian Science found much help as she endeavored to apply the meaning of "shepherd" to her own thinking; for is not every individual responsible for tending his own flock of thoughts? Like the loving shepherd should we keep watch, not only during the pleasant hours, while thought is resting in the sunlight of Truth, but more especially during those testing times when the way seems dark; when some wolf of offending thought has been, perhaps, inadvertently admitted into our thinking, through either fear or ignorance, negligence or apathy. But however it may have found its way in, if we are really to protect and care for the flock of thoughts we would tend, it must be routed out as soon as its presence is detected.

As Jesus admonished Peter, so to-day, through the elucidation of his teachings in Christian Science, he likewise admonishes us, "Feed my lambs." These tender, loving, Christlike thoughts, which are a part of our individual consciousness or fold, should be loved, fed, nourished, protected, until they unfold and mature into larger lessons of love. What a sense of tenderness the idea, symbolized by the lamb, enfolds; and how significantly associated with it is the idea represented by the loving shepherd! Love enfolds and protects from whatever would rob or harm "every object as it appears in the line of spiritual creation, thus tenderly expressing the fatherhood and motherhood of God" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 507).

Looking deeper into the lesson of the shepherd and his flock, we find in Mrs. Eddy's spiritual interpretation of the twenty-third Psalm (ibid., p. 578) the words, "[Divine Love] is my shepherd; I shall not want." Seeing the shepherd thus, as divine Love, we find that each individual idea is an integral part of that great flock which is being guarded and protected from evil, being sustained and tenderly and lovingly cared for by Love. Nourished by the Word of God, finding the way through valleys and over hills of material beliefs; refreshed by that stream which flows forth form the throne of God, students of Christian Science are finding that the fold is large enough to include the thoughts of all who desire the love and protection provided therein.

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