It was while he was on the mount and the glory of the Lord rested there that Moses received God's instructions for the making of the tabernacle. The admonition to see that all the details were carried out according to the pattern which was shown him in the mount, indicates that Moses was learning that divine inspiration is necessary for the perfection of any pattern.
Pattern is a word very much in vogue today. Besides its significance in the world of art, fashion, science, and textiles, it is now widely used in the fields of psychology and medicine. One hears of patterns of behavior and of reaction, of heredity and of disease.
Psychology, for example, teaches how to classify individuals according to temperament, what patterns of behavior may be expected, and what pattern reactions will take, following given circumstances. Glibly it says that such patterns of behavior are typical. Anyone who feels he has been so classified and is now afraid either that he will not live up to the pattern set for him or that he cannot but conform to some pattern which is wholly unnatural and distasteful to him, will find encouragement in the fact that Christ Jesus never, according to the four Gospels, placed his disciples, his friends, or those who came to him for help in certain human categories and then expected them to remain there with slight variations. Had he done so, he would not have been the Saviour of all men. This does not mean that he ignored evil, but rather that he saw its claim to be personal, present, and powerful as a lie. Because the pattern which he accepted for himself was the same as the one he outlined for his followers, namely (Matt. 5:48), "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," he could say, "Ye must be born again;" "Neither do I condemn thee." Only perfection was typical to him.
Jesus spoke from the standpoint of the basic spiritual truth that God, Spirit, is All and that man is God-created; hence he is wholly Godlike and spiritual. He knew that only from this basis of the oneness of God and man could one achieve the perfect pattern.
Because of God's ever-presence as Mind, Mind is always present with its classification of man. In that classification there is no mediocrity, no monotony. Infinite perfection is expressed in infinite variety and originality. This Mind is not watching for nor observing imperfect character or human weaknesses, or even human strength. It is not reporting or recording one or the other. And only what divine Mind, infinite Love, knows is eternal.
If the Christian Scientist for business reasons or matters of reference is asked to classify individuals as to their ability and character, and there appear to be shortcomings, he can look on such a record as a temporary expedient, binding neither upon himself nor upon the persons classified. As he holds to the perfect pattern by impersonalizing error and keeping intact his concept of man's Godlikeness, he not only will make the way easier for his brother, but will deliver himself from falling into mortal mind's tendency to watch for error and then to justify itself by saying, "I told you so."
Paul long ago gave us "a most excellent way" when he said, "Love... rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth" (Am. Rev. Ver., I Cor. 13:6). The Christian Scientist who has accepted divine Love as his Principle will not diagnose or dissect human thought without healing or replacing mortal mind's pattern with the one shown him in the mount, the height of his spiritual understanding and inspiration.
Even those who have been classified by the human mind as promising, valuable, and so on will not find such a category entirely satisfying. The belief of being in a good classification is better than the belief of being in a bad one, just as belief in good health is better than belief in ill-health. But that which is in the realm of belief is subject to all the uncertainties and vagaries of the so-called human mind, which believes in both good and evil. Until one sees that all genuine good has its source in God, divine Principle, and that He who causes it maintains it, one cannot find the strong serenity of spiritual-mindedness.
Man reflects God's equipollence. Man then is never out of balance. His spiritual discernment is based on the judgment of Principle. The dignity of Soul which man reflects is balanced by the joyousness of Spirit. The tenderness of Love is supported by the strength of Mind. Intelligence is winged with inspiration. No spiritual quality outshines another. Each is ever present in abundance. There are no sterile, unproductive periods in God's pattern. Man is prolific in right ideas and in fruition. He is motivated and activated by the only cause, God, the one animating divine Principle. Man knows his Father's voice; he responds to no other.
In order to prove these great truths, we must let the Christ, the true idea of God, cast out instability, incapacity, and the legion of doubts, fears—whatever claims to make up mortal man—until we too, like the Gadarene whom Jesus healed, are clothed, conscious of man's unity with God, and in our right mind, seeing the one universe and it peopled with Love's ideas.
As we understandingly pray (Matt. 6:9), "Our Father which art in heaven," we are annulling the claims of human heredity and its patterns of disease. The acknowledgment of Spirit, God, as our Father-Mother acts as a law of annihilation to the concept of man as material, as made up of elements that can become impaired or diseased. No matter how inchoate or intricate the pattern which mortal mind claims to have started in the human system, the only change we can know, once we have taken the side of Spirit, is that change which comes with the breaking up of false beliefs and the establishing of true spiritual concepts.
"God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis," declares Mary Baker Eddy on page 258 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." As we accept only the development of the infinite idea which God expresses, we shall know only increased harmony. The writer has often silenced the fear of some illness developing by turning from the mortal mind pattern of symptoms to the divine pattern and letting it unfold its health and peace. Man, in God's likeness, is never struggling with untoward conditions; he is God's beloved, conscious of His approval and confidence.
Sometimes we may think we are seeing repeated in our experience symptoms of disease which we thought we had overcome, or which we believed belonged to someone else, or which we may have read or heard about. Let us remember that only spiritual sense can make an impression upon our true selfhood. Then let us take refuge in some statements of truth such as those of our Leader (Science and Health, p. 207): "The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things. The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth." Error cannot repeat itself, for it has no Principle, therefore no persistence or hold. Truth alone has a hold on man, and its spiritual truths alone persist.
For this reason our pattern of the world need not fall into mortal mind's beliefs of history repeating itself, of peaks and declines of nobility and integrity, of good and bad government. God knows no tyranny or ruthlessness, no helplessness or hopelessness. If we really believe what we say when we pray (Matt. 6:13), "Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever," we shall have to revise such thoughts as, What can we expect when corruption or some other erroneous influence is in power? Let us rather see that only spiritual qualities are enthroned in our thoughts and then prayerfully insist that they alone can be exalted anywhere. Isaiah prophesied of the Christ (Isa. 9:7), "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end." This is the "increase" we can expect in our individual experience, in that of our nation, and in that of the world.
As a lovely pattern repeated in a design gives balance and symmetry, beauty and form, so will the pattern of spiritual facts repeated in our thoughts and lives bring out wisdom and inspiration, beauty and health.
