Article September 22, 1951 Issue

"THE WAKEFUL SHEPHERD"

ETHEL DANIELS HUBBARD

It was once told of the pastor of a certain church that when asked what he considered the secret of his fruitful ministry, he replied, "I have sought and found the shepherd heart." May not this be the secret of all altruistic labor which brings lasting benefit to mankind? The teacher, the preacher, the social worker, the mediator in labor and international disputes, each can measure his success in terms of the shepherd's relation to his flock.

The symbol of the shepherd and the sheep is used many times in the Bible, in both the Old and the New Testament. Well known among these references are the twenty-third Psalm, generally called the Shepherd Psalm, and the shepherd parables of Jesus, related in the tenth chapter of John's Gospel. An allusion to the false shepherds brings out by contrast the characteristics of the true shepherd (Ezek. 34:21): "Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?" A selfish, stolid, indifferent shepherd is a contradiction in terms, since, by the very nature of his calling, a shepherd is always self-sacrificing and vigilant.

In the Preface to "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy we read (p. vii), "The wakeful shepherd beholds the first faint morning beams, ere cometh the full radiance of a risen day" Our Leader's words may be linked with those of Luke in the second chapter of his Gospel (verses 8, 9): "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them." They were wakeful shepherds, mentally alert, typifying those who keep watch through the night of material beliefs and fears, To such awakened thought come the angel of the Lord and the glory of the Lord, bringing promise of the radiance of a new day.

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