The truth as Christian Science reveals it is simple because it is pure. It is the same truth of the perfection of God and man which Christ Jesus so completely illustrated in his healing works.
Mary Baker Eddy, through her consecrated study of the Scriptures and her obedience to God, discovered and demonstrated the true nature of the Christ. She found within the sacred pages of the Holy Bible the full light of spiritual truth, which other sincere seekers had failed to discover. Why did others fail where Mrs. Eddy succeeded? Probably it was because they were trying to reason both spiritually and materially. Mrs. Eddy, with spiritually enlightened vision, saw among other truths that the oneness of God, which the Bible so clearly enunciates, is an actual oneness of Spirit—not a union between Spirit and its opposite, matter. She also perceived the great truth that God is divinely pure and perfect as incorporeal Spirit and Soul and that man, reflecting the divine qualities, is spiritual and perfect. These simple truths underlie all manifestations of genuine health, harmony, and success.
There is a desire among some who come to Christian Science to find something simple. They believe that they could understand that which is expressed in familiar terms, but that they would find it difficult to grasp anything which is contrary to the common modes of thought. There is grave danger for the individual, and for Christian Science, in trying to meet this erroneous demand, because Science must be correctly stated to be used successfully. This is essential to demonstration. To oversimplify its propositions is, in many instances, to state them incorrectly, and thus to separate them from their true meaning. Some are seeking false mental short cuts in their application of Christian Science—short cuts which would cause them to avoid facing fully the pure light of the revealed idea Science presents.
Mrs. Eddy deals with this subject of simplicity in "Miscellaneous Writings," where she asks and answers the question (p. 53), "if Christian Science is the same as Jesus taught, why is it not more simple, so that all can readily understand it?" Her answer reads: "The teachings of Jesus were simple; and yet he found it difficult to make the rulers understand, because of their great lack of spirituality. Christian Science is simple, and readily understood by the children; only the thought educated away from it finds it abstract or difficult to perceive. Its seeming abstraction is the mystery of godliness; and godliness is simple to the godly; but to the unspiritual, the ungodly, it is dark and difficult. The carnal mind cannot discern spiritual things."
An example of the conflict between godliness and ungodliness is contained in Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus. Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was a member of the Sanhedrin, came to him at night to inquire about his teaching. Christ Jesus uttered a simple truth when he said to Nicodemus (John 3:3), "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." This statement puzzled Nicodemus, who, according to the narrative, was trying to consider this spiritual verity from a material standpoint. On that basis it naturally seemed an absurdity. Then Jesus clarified his words by adding: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
These words must have impressed Nicodemus, for later he spoke in Jesus' behalf before the Sanhedrin when its members were beginning to denounce Jesus as an impostor. And after the crucifixion he helped in the preparation of Jesus' body for burial by bringing myrrh and aloes. Does not this indicate that he was deeply impressed with the divine truth of Jesus' words and works? Why otherwise would he have spoken in Jesus' defense or have been thoughtful to the point of bringing sweet spices for his burial? Nicodemus' opening words to Jesus contained a statement which showed deep spiritual perception. He said (John 3:2), "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." And yet the purity and simplicity of Jesus' statements puzzled him, as they puzzle some today. Ignorance of God, Spirit, evidently led him, at least temporarily, into the so-called simplicity of material reasoning, which Jesus denounced. He must have had to learn, as we do, that the power of simple spiritual truth is in its inherent purity.
For this reason children, as well as adults, should be fed the purest statements of spiritual truth. It is in keeping with Science to use language adapted to the child thought, but this should never be carried to the point of making incorrect statements regarding the theory and practice of Christian Science. The child needs to learn the distinction between the real and the unreal and to grasp many other essential points embraced in this vital religion.
One of the points which is sometimes overlooked in explaining Science to children is the need to deal with evil beliefs specifically. The false impression is sometimes conveyed that there is no evil belief in the world. The correct position in this regard is a simple one. It is that to spiritual sense—the only true sense—God is All, and that evil is therefore unreal; but that to so-called material sense evil appears as a belief to be uncovered, denounced, and cast out. This process of detecting and rejecting error we term the handling of animal magnetism. Neither child nor adult is correctly instructed in Christian Science until he learns to recognize and handle the belief of animal magnetism. This is a simple but imperative demand. To try to succeed without complying with it is falsely to simplify the operation of Christian Science in human experience.
"The simplicity that is in Christ" (II Cor. 11:3) was illustrated in the experience of an eight-year-old girl. One morning she had a severe cold and was kept home from school. This disturbed her because she wished to participate in some special exercises to be held that afternoon. Her mother told her that she could be well in time to go to school in the afternoon and assured her that she could demonstrate the healing power of Christian Science in time to do so. The little girl was deeply impressed. Without further direction she took her Bible and the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and studied them. In the Bible she read the 148th and 149th Psalms, and the fifth chapter of Matthew; and in Science and Health she read the Lord's Prayer with its spiritual interpretation (pp. 16, 17). She chose these herself without any help from her mother. As she spent the morning in this work she improved rapidly. By noon she was completely free. This was confirmed by the school nurse, who permitted her to attend her class and to participate in the exercises she had not wanted to miss. A few weeks later I heard this child give her testimony regarding this experience at the Thanksgiving service in her church; and she spoke well. To me this is an impressive example of the power of "the simplicity that is in Christ."
"There are no tricks in plain and simple faith," William Shakespeare wrote in his play "Julius Caesar." In the light of Christian Science these words might be paraphrased to read, "There are no tricks in the use of the revealed ideas in our textbook." The little girl whose healing we have related found her freedom from sickness by turning to these revealed truths with courage and hope. All may do the same.
Divine goodness, grace, purity, loveliness, liveliness, orderliness, and truthfulness are simple manifestations of the Christ. These are some of the qualities which inhere in the real man, and which will persist in human consciousness and experience until all sense of evil disappears.
God knows only His own allness. This is a simple proposition in divine metaphysics which needs to be better understood. It stands in direct opposition to practically every mode of human thinking. Mankind usually appears to be convinced of the reality of physical phenomena, which, according to Science, God does not know. Evil, sin, disease, and death seem real to men because they believe that they see and experience these conditions. Is this not but another way of saying that God has created discord? With this false reasoning as a basis, men argue that God must know evil in order to overcome it. This falsity would fool us into believing that we too cannot heal unless we first accept the evils involved in situations. As has already been stated, evil's claims need to be seen and handled as animal magnetism; but evil can never be known as a reality, because God and His ideas alone are real.
God heals by asserting Himself and His ideas. If He knew evil at all, He would be the creator of it. God heals all manner of evil belief by virtue of His allness—not by knowing, or creating, the error to be healed. We heal by reflecting the all-knowing God and the divine knowledge of the true creation. It is what we know of the perfection of God and man, together with the active rejection of contrary notions about Him and His creation, that gives us the power to heal the sick, reform the sinner, and raise the dead. This is a simple method to one who grasps it, but it may appear as darkness to those educated in popular theories. This method is illustrated in the following statement, which Mrs. Eddy makes on page 7 of her book "Unity of Good": "When I have most clearly seen and most sensibly felt that the infinite recognizes no disease, this has not separated me from God, but has so bound me to Him as to enable me instantaneously to heal a cancer which had eaten its way to the jugular vein." And a little farther down on the same page she says, "An incontestable point in divine Science is, that because God is All, a realization of this fact dispels even the sense or consciousness of sin, and brings us nearer to God, bringing out the highest phenomena of the All-Mind."
Here is "the simplicity that is in Christ"— a simplicity which will never betray men, but which will lead everyone who adopts it to become a genuine Christian. Each can then bear witness to the truth, as Paul did when, in speaking of his ministry in Christ, he said (II Cor. 1:12), "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."
