ONE of the many simple yet profound statements made by our Master, as recorded in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, reads, "Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." Willingness to learn is one of the characteristics of a little child, one which Jesus may have had in thought when he made this declaration. Because the kingdom of God is a state of consciousness which can be attained only by understanding God's laws and obeying them, the first step in entering this kingdom is a willingness to learn the way.
It is a peculiarity of some men that while they are willing, even anxious, to learn about many material things, they are sometimes reluctant to learn about God. Evil may suggest that to attempt to learn about God, or even to admit one can learn much about Him, savors of sacrilege. It may suggest that to lose the mystery surrounding the divine Being would be to lose a right sense of Deity, or that since Spirit cannot be seen by the physical senses it is a waste of time to try to understand God. On pages 95 and 96 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy describes this unwillingness and its consequences, saying, "Humanity advances slowly out of sinning sense into spiritual understanding; unwillingness to learn all things rightly, binds Christendom with chains."
That "humanity advances slowly out of sinning sense" no one can question. That Christendom seems to be manacled, accomplishing but a small part of what should be achieved, must be admitted. It is cause for rejoicing that our Leader has pointed out the reason for Christendom's bondage and has courageously given the remedy by revealing God as divine Mind. The God-given desire to learn, however, is ours to use in the correction of this error. It behooves us as Christian Scientists to ask ourselves whether we are willing "to learn all things rightly" or are listening to suggestions of mortal mind concerning the difficulty of this task.
