Article June 22, 1918 Issue

A Lesson from Nature

ARTHUR D. BARKER

Always a lover of flowers, shrubs, and trees, especially in their natural or wild state, the writer has long been impressed by the earliest spring flower that appears in certain sandy or rocky localities. This little flower, known as the buttercup, with a peculiarly bright face as wide open as a tiny saucer rather than a cup, comes with the first warm days of late winter, a perfect specimen being found one February in the small area of a hoof-print encircled by ice and snow. With the unfoldment which attended the earnest and prayerful study of Christian Science, through the Bible and other authorized literature, it was noted that my first sight of the buttercups was shortly after I had been healed in Science; in other words, just as the snow and ice of chronic invalidism, until then regarded as hopeless, were disappearing from my experience under the warm sunlight of Truth.

It is now ten years since one never to be forgotten evening when I watched the old year out and the new year in by reading a borrowed copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. I had never before observed a New Year's eve, and certainly did not arrange that observance of it, but perhaps God did. At any rate, I read Science and Health for about five hours that evening, and seriously for the first time, although I had been unable on account of my eyes to read other things more than a few minutes at a time for several months. Also, during that evening, I took final leave of a supposedly hereditary desire for as well as a fear of tobacco.

I am very thankful for these two healings that accompanied the reading of Science and Health with a desire to know its real value. A few more weeks slipped by, and the buttercups came again in all their glory. This was certainly a time of wrestling with a material sense of things, and one find day as I looked into their bright faces I suddenly knew why I loved them. In the first place, they open wide their hearts to the light. Then, even under close inspection, the face shows nearly the same brilliance in clouds as in sunshine. With these thoughts there came a great company of angels, "spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect" (Science and Health, p. 581), pointing out the godlike qualities or characteristics which the flowers typify. As the sun symbolizes Soul, so they show forth the reflection, of Soul, whether the sun is visible to mortal eyes or not. There is a sturdy, uncompromising individual reflection, with calm, unshakable humility; each stands in its place—just being a buttercup, nothing more and nothing less. Do they not thus point away from the "works of the flesh" toward the "fruit of the Spirit"? These things when understood in their application to one's own thought and life are certainly an inspiration to behold.

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