The Simplicity of Christian Science

ROY L. HARVEY

One of the subtle claims that endeavors to discourage the neophyte in Christian Science is the belief that the subject is too "deep," and therefore difficult to understand. "I should like to try Christian Science, but I'm afraid I cannot grasp it," is frequently voiced by the beginner. This one is in much the same position as the child just undertaking the study of arithmetic. "Oh, dear," he sighs, "I'll never be able to do it. It is too hard." However, as the child continues to study he finds addition is not at all an impossible process. Once he grasps its simple rules he makes steady progress, and this progress enables him to proceed to solve the mysteries of subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions and so on.

No, Christian Science is not difficult to understand and apply if the seeker enters upon its study with an honest heart, with sincerity, willingness to keep thought open, prejudices subdued, and preconceived ideas in leash. Christian Science is, in effect, a restatement in scientific, practical terms of the teachings of Christ Jesus and the apostles. The Master's teaching was the acme of simplicity, a simplicity which was so profound, however, that many worldly-minded Pharisees and other materialists of the day failed completely to grasp it.

Great teaching is always simple, just as really great people are simple, easy to approach, humble, and childlike, so filled with the wonder of what they have perceived and what has to be accomplished that they have no time or inclination to appear difficult or complex.

The men who were selected by Jesus as his disciples were plain and simple—fishermen, tax collectors, and the like. His parables were of simple, ordinary things, such as the grain of wheat, the barren fig tree, putting new wine into new bottles, the house built on the rock, and others of a similar nature.

A dictionary definition of "simple" includes these meanings: "Free from complexity;... uninvolved;... absolute; having no limitation." Surely those who have experienced the healing and regenerating power of Christian Science will readily agree that its statements, spiritually grasped and applied, are uninvolved, absolute, and without limitation.

A child can grasp and successfully use Christian Science. Why? Because the child thought is trusting and accepts unquestioningly the truths contained in this teaching or way of life. Jesus once admonished his disciples, "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Our dear Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 459), "To mortal sense Christian Science seems abstract, but the process is simple and the results are sure if the Science is understood."

Christian Science is being put to practical daily use in the present World War. Service men and women are being healed and protected by their understanding and application of Mrs. Eddy's teaching that God, divine Mind, is omnipotent and omnipresent, and that man, in His image and likeness, reflects this all-power and ever-presence. Paul writes in II Corinthians: "For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world."

Now Paul was not noted for the simplicity of his writings, so it is interesting to note that he realized sincerity and simplicity were indispensable adjuncts to Godlike thinking.

This thought of childlike trust is beautifully expressed in one of the hymns in the Christian Science Hymnal, the first stanza of which is as follows:

I cannot always trace the way
Where Thou, Almighty One, dost move;
But I can always, always say
That God is Love, that God is Love.

Mrs. Eddy has continually stressed the need for Christian Scientists to keep their consciousness free from the complications and pitfalls of involved thinking. Sincerity, honesty, and real simplicity are ideas to which she gives prominence throughout her writings. The following from our textbook (p. 367) clearly expresses her attitude: "The tender word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience with his fears and the removal of them, are better than hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame with divine Love."

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