The word "simplicity" has several significations, but as here used it is to be understood as being straightforward, sincere, natural, true, free from artifice or duplicity, without affectation or artificiality. In speech, action, and manner one may emulate simplicity, but in its purity it may best be found behind the gates of truth that open with the key of love. Ignorance is sometimes mistaken for simplicity, while intellect rarely is; yet simplicity has nothing in common with ignorance, while intellect may be humbly proud when it can claim relationship with simplicity. As Christian Scientists we may see in scientific simplicity more than a trace of the divine essence; for does not our Leader refer to "the simplicity of the oneness of God" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 342)?
It was the element of simplicity which our Leader desired to preserve in our "Daily Prayer" (Art. VIII, Sect. 4) in the Manual when she made it personal and individual. Its words are simple and few, but its sentiments are sublime and its fruits immeasurable. Its brevity supports the old saying that "the short prayer seldom goes astray." This prayer which our Leader has given us for daily use is strong in its simplicity and simple in its strength.
A simple statement of truth stands out in the field of memory long after involved statements are forgotten, just as the pyramids of Egypt will stand majestic in their simplicity when the vaulted and fretted cathedrals of ecclesiasticism have fallen into desuetude. Not only are the simple truths permanent; they are also readily adaptable. They add luster to the smallest, as well as the greatest, affairs of humanity. The learned and the untaught alike can understand the simple statements of truth, however profound may be the ideas back of them. Our Leader tells us, in speaking of Jesus' teachings, "The method of his religion was not too simple to be sublime" (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 92).
