Where wander the sheep?

Shepherd, show me how to go
O'er the hillside steep,
How to gather, how to sow,--
How to feed Thy sheep...

This is the first stanza of a poem by Mary Baker Eddy, "Feed My Sheep," part of Miscellaneous Writings, page 397.

I'm not a Christian Scientist.  I was brought up in its philosophy, and learned about it only in my 20s, when the church I'd entered some years previously had been transformed into something entirely different from what I thought I was signing up for.  One of the main attractions for me with Christian Science was that it had not changed.  Its services were the same, it used the same textbook, it even continued to rely on the beautiful King James Bible.

However, with the Internet, it becomes clear that today's Christian Scientists are sometimes of a type Mary Baker Eddy would certainly rebuke, if indeed she understood Christian Science to define man as spiritual, not sensual.

When we identify ourselves by any term which can refer only to a characteristic of material selfhood, and specifically to a term used equally to describe a way of life and sensual behavior, and then say we are Christian Scientists, it shows we need more study and prayer to find our true identity.

There may be a time in our lives when, as we are beginning to understand Christian Science, we still self-identify as the child of an alcoholic, an epileptic, an overeater or an addict.  As we progress in the understanding of our true state as a child of God, reflecting His perfection, we can let go of the labels and just be what we are, Christian Scientists, and God's men (and women).

Let us beware of labeling ourselves in ways which not only limit our thinking, but lead others to focus on our material limitations and practices instead of the spiritual truth that man is not material, but spiritual.  Those who are our "shepherds" need to be loving, but firm in their encouragement to aspire and strive to reflect God.  In our practice of the last tenet, let us solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.