STUDENTS of Christian Science are learning to understand the works and teachings of Christ Jesus, and thus to appreciate the beautiful simplicity of his marvelous life and healing methods. In Christian Science it is made plain that though his teachings were not always fully understood even by his disciples, this was not because of any complexity in what he said, but because his listeners were not always prepared to receive his inspired message. Their education in many instances had not been spiritual enough to form a mental attitude receptive to the healing, regenerating truth he was ever giving out.
On page 53 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, states that "Christian Science is simple, and readily understood by the children; only the thought educated away from it finds it abstract or difficult to perceive." His immediate disciples' childlike willingness to listen and learn enabled them to comprehend the Master's words much better than did others who had been trained in more worldly knowledge. The scribes, Pharisees, and rulers resisted and resented Jesus' radical but simple teaching regarding the one true God and His relation to His spiritual creation. The language and illustrations of Jesus were simple; his statements of spiritual truth were concise, direct, and forceful.
In the Gospel according to Matthew there is given the record of that unexcelled sermon of Jesus now known to Bible students as the Sermon on the Mount, and it relates that "the people were astonished at his doctrine. For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." Under the marginal heading "New Testament basis" in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p.271), Mrs. Eddy, speaking of "the Science of Christianity," calls this sermon "the essence of this Science."
