The Door

LUDA F. CORLEY

The multitude, slow to grasp spiritual truth, failed to understand fully the parable of the good Shepherd; and the tenderly compassionate Christ Jesus endeavored to explain its meaning in further detail. A part of this explanation was, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture."

How comforting to know that all who have strayed from the fold into the byways of fear and materiality; who are bruised by the rocks of mortal thinking or torn by the thorns and briers of error; who are weary, worn, and faint, may find entrance through the door, since the promise reads, "if any man"! Having entered by the door, one is promised salvation, or healing from fleshly discords with which he has been bound, cure for every hurt and bruise, freedom from the bondage of erroneous belief and material law. And not only is one to be saved from the claims of matter and error, but he may find pasture, understanding, through which human needs, sustenance, comfort, peace, harmony, are found; and the only requirement is to enter.

It would seem an easy thing to enter by a door. But what is it to enter by that door which is Christ Jesus? Is it not to pattern, in daily living, the life of the Way-shower in overcoming every claim of material sense, in listening for the Shepherd's call and trustingly obeying its directing commands? Is it not to love and live the truth which Jesus presented? Is it not to give proof of the nature of God as he did, through the manifestation of Godlike qualities?

Mrs. Eddy has written of Christ Jesus in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 26), "His mission was to reveal the Science of celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does for man." Therefore, to enter by the door, or to follow Christ Jesus, one should practice "the Science of celestial being" which the Way-shower practiced, and which, in this age, is named "Christian Science." To demonstrate the healing Christ, Truth, requires persistent effort to reflect that spiritual dominion over every claim of material sense, over every so-called law of matter, which the real man possesses by reason of his relationship to God.

Christ Jesus' statement that when one enters by the door he "shall go in and out, and find pasture," is based on the same law of Love which he propounded at another time to his disciples when he told them that, instead of making the acquiring of things their prime interest in life, they should rather seek "first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;" for then, as he promised, "all these things shall be added unto you." The pasture, the supply of every need, is added when one has fulfilled the necessary requirement of seeking good before all else, of following the Way-shower in daily living and daily demonstration.

May we, as earnest students of Christian Science, maintain the attitude of prayer implied by these words of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 398; Poems, p. 14):

"We would enter by the door,
And Thou know'st Thine own."

May we keep our ears attuned to the call of the good Shepherd, and our vision so pure and unobstructed that we may never lose sight of the Christ, nor allow our feet to stray from the path up "the hill of Christian Science" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 328).

In spiritual love and compassion; in the lamblike qualities of purity, innocence, meekness, and gentleness; in dealing honestly and lovingly in all our contacts with our fellow men; in the spiritual might which overcomes the false claims of sense and self and destroys the illusions of error, let us go through the portal into the realization of God's unlimited goodness! As we enter through the door of the practice of Christliness, the humility of divine Love, and the might of spiritual Truth, we shall surely find ever green pastures.

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