Article October 27, 1923 Issue

Simplicity

HELEN ANDREWS NIXON

Metaphysically considered, simplicity is a divinely mental quality; and with God, good, recognized as the one infinite Mind, simplicity is seen to belong to this Mind; hence is goodness manifested. "To be simple is to be great," wrote Emerson. As defined by one dictionary, to be simple is to be "straightforward, honest, not enfolded or entangled with compounds." Jesus said that to enter into the kingdom of good, to participate in goodness, there must be the simplicity of the childlike thought. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, presents goodness and greatness in their simplicity as identical in character, in her words in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 203), "Be great not as a grand obelisk, nor by setting up to be great,—only as good."

Simplicity is the mental state of being simple, of being one and the same throughout. "Good," the Anglo-Saxon term for God, presents Mind, not matter, to the understanding for acceptance, and offers for mankind's saving and healing no compound of Mind and matter, but the simple goodness of God as the remedy for every ill. Jesus illustrated this simple fact throughout his entire ministry, and in true Eastern fashion showed his contempt for any spurious compound of Mind and matter as a healing agency when, after anointing the blind man's eyes with clay, he immediately commanded him to go and wash it off. It was Jesus' understanding that good, Spirit, is all, that really "anointed" the blind man's troubled sense, and healed him of his false material belief.

Jesus' prayer to the Father was not a compound of hope and fear, but the simple, absolute assurance that good, and good alone, is real; and this understanding of God equipped him to speak to disease with authority, and to cast out all manner of evils. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Unity of Good" (p. 9): "The talent and genius of the centuries have wrongly reckoned. They have not based upon revelation their arguments and conclusions as to the source and resources of being,—its combination, phenomena, and outcome,—but have built instead upon the sand of human reason. They have not accepted the simple teaching and life of Jesus as the only true solution of the perplexing problem of human existence."

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors
NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Poem
A Weaver
October 27, 1923
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit