Article August 17, 1918 Issue

Unfoldment

WILLIAM ROY RONALD

The statement that "Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion" (Science and Health, p. 68), acts as one of those wellsprings of helpful thought with which Mrs. Eddy's writings abound. Indeed, it comprehends much that is fundamental in Christian Science, showing that all existence is evolved by eternal, immutable law, and that nothing transpires as a result of a combination of mere circumstances.

The unfoldment of the flower is spiritually symbolic to all students of the Science of being. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow," is an invitation by the Wayshower that has appealed to Christians even when they did not understand its real significance. The lily, of course, is a manifestation of the operation of God's law. "By its own volition," says Mrs. Eddy, "not a blade of grass springs up, not a spray buds within the vale, not a leaf unfolds its fair outlines, not a flower starts from its cloistered cell" (Science and Health, p. 191). Mortal mind cannot account for a single blossom. Human ingenuity is not equal to the task of putting together so much as one flower. Every real object, flower, or man, is the scientifically and perfectly unfolded idea of God, Mind, Principle. The flower as we see it is the mental concept visualized; nothing that is true is the product of chance. Once we know the law about flower or. man, we know flower or man.

Let us all, as bidden by Christ Jesus, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow," and learn from them inspiring truths of being. The lily is complete in the creative Mind when it is not apparent to the human senses. It is as perfect in embryo as in bloom. It is not alarmed lest it might lose something or come to harm by opening its blossoms unhesitatingly before the world. We cannot think of it as arguing over the order of its unfoldment, expecting the flower to precede the bud, or the seed to come before its time; neither would it wait for some one to come and pry it open. It would neither give itself over to haste nor prove a laggard along the way, its unfoldment being orderly and symmetrical. We cannot imagine its growth being delayed by doubt as to whether or not it will ever reach its full development. The blossom, indeed the whole plant, turns instinctively toward the light, as symbol of source and sustenance. It is sufficient unto itself, not as responsible for itself, but as governed always by God's law. The parent Mind provides for all its needs,—the summer rain, the warmth of the sun, the morning dew, the caress of the breeze,—and presently it appears decked in gorgeous array, the glorious consummation of the decree of its creator.

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