Much is written and said today concerning patterns—patterns of life, patterns of behavior, patterns of success or of failure, patterns of health or of disease. And belief in such patterns has become at times a dominating factor in the experience of almost everyone. "Everything he touches turns to gold," or, conversely: "He never does anything right. He has always been a failure; it's a family pattern," and so forth. No stone is left unturned to convince one that what he did as an infant, or what his progenitors did or did not do, is for him a controlling pattern of life.
There is only one real pattern of life. The Scriptures tell us of it. It is the God-directed way of living, "the pattern shewed to thee in the mount" (Hebr. 8:5). The Apostle Paul in his Epistles to the young Christians, Timothy and Titus, spoke eloquently of this pattern. He said to Timothy that it was the pattern of everlasting life which Christ Jesus taught and lived. (See I Tim. 1:16.) He admonished Titus and the other Christians abiding in faraway Crete to be obedient followers of the Saviour, for by this obedience they would be blessed; and Paul added (Tit. 2:7), "In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works."
Christian Science comes with a lifegiving message to all mankind. It makes practical, livable, and deeply satisfying the pattern of life that Jesus lived and preached. In a Bible Lesson included in "Miscellaneous Writings," Mrs. Eddy states (pp. 196, 197), "The Scriptures require more than a simple admission and feeble acceptance of the truths they present; they require a living faith, that so incorporates their lessons into our lives that these truths become the motive-power of every act."
