Article August 29, 1970 Issue

"Simplify, simplify"

ALAN YOUNG

How many times a medical report, an account of peace negotiations, or some other record of reasonable, well-meaning effort ends with the words, "Everything was coming along nicely, but complications set in"!

Wouldn't this suggest that any plan based on human reason is liable to unpredictable change called "complication"? To avoid complication, how much we all need to practice Thoreau's succinct advice, "Simplify, simplify"! ^{Walden by Henry D. Thoreau, "Where I Lived and What I Lived For";}

When David first prepared to battle Goliath, he was tempted to complicate his defense by wearing the king's armor—all the paraphernalia that showed trust in material methods of security. But David "put them off him." ^{I Sam. 17:39;} He chose the simplest of weapons and the only defense possible: absolute trust in God. When faced with the simplicity and purity of spiritual strength, the conglomerate of evil beliefs, represented by Goliath in the story, had to fall.

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