Article August 9, 1941 Issue

The Pattern of Principle

FANNY DE GROOT HASTINGS

When Jesus came to sojourn on this earth, he found most men cutting their garments from old patterns never approved by divine Principle. They had forgotten the pattern shown to Moses on the mount, and it seemed easy and convenient to use over and over again those worn thin by tradition and habit, and divided by seams of dissension and avarice. Jesus' coat, John tells us, "was without seam, woven from the top throughout." It was symbolic, and the fulfilling of prophecy, that the Roman soldiers did not even attempt to rend it, but instead were content to cast lots for it. "Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing in all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with the Scriptures and uniting all periods in the design of God," writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 279 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany."

That seamless coat presents itself to us today. It has many aspects, all made clear by the teachings of Christian Science, the revelation of Mrs. Eddy. Let us consider a few of them. The patterns in vogue previous to Jesus' advent had tended toward division, as has been said. But Jesus came asking, "Who made me a judge or a divider over you?" He was never instigator nor sponsor of divisions, but always champion of unification. The strict laws of inheritance recorded in the book of Numbers, which acknowledged priority of human birth and impoverishing processes of apportionment, were forced to give way to Jesus' scientific liberalities and to the abundance of spiritual multiplication. Under the ancient law, convention had decreed that the heir depended upon his parents' death to consummate his inheritance. But Jesus admitted no subdivision, no postponement of good, and no acceptance of the unreality termed evil, that good might result. He proved that all men are in their true nature heirs of God, and are here and now recompensed with fullness of Life. He perceived that the measure and reflection of Life which is enjoyed by one does not lessen that of another. Overnight the hirelings of mortal sense were replaced by heirs of the promise. Thus the pattern intended for universal brotherhood was revealed and made practical.

In his account of the last supper, which Jesus shared with his disciples, Mark wrote, "And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it." Until the coming of the Master, the extent of polite procedure had been to receive and then give thanks. He who did not receive never gave thanks; in fact, thanks were a more or less perfunctory checking of past benefits. But Jesus gave thanks not only for what he had received, but also for what he was about to receive, before it was manifest, and, uniquely, for what he gave. Thus did Jesus express a continuous loyalty to the enactments of Mind. And he permitted no temporal or severing seam to appear in his garment of praise. The inevitable result of this new design was such an overflowing of good as had never before been witnessed upon this earth. The hungry multitudes were fed in "the desert place," the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, and the dead were raised. Again, the pattern of Principle, undefaced by grudging or stinted thankfulness, blossomed in fullness of gratitude and beneficence.

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