Article June 26, 1909 Issue

"ALL THAT I HAVE IS THINE"

ANNE MAY LILLY

THE lessons to be drawn from the parable of "the prodigal son" are inexhaustible, and in this story of the treatment accorded the two brothers by their father there seems to be also a hint as to the answer to a question which has puzzled many earnest seekers for the truth. How often it happens that a person will turn to Christian Science only as a last resort, after having drained to the dregs the bitter cup of human experience, and will receive instant help, while, on the other hand, one who has seemingly lived daily with the Father will apparently fail to get the needed aid. At first thought this seems unjust. Why should one who has done so little receive so abundantly? And right here comes the application of the parable.

We read that the younger of the brothers said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living." Here we see that the younger son made his request to his father, never doubting that he would receive his own. And though, as we read, "not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living," he seems never to have lost wholly the sense of his father's love, for in the end he turns, humble and repentant, to that father with the confidence of a little child. We all know the ready response to his unquestioning faith: "But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him."

But how about the elder son, who abode continuously with the father? It would seem natural that he who' had lived with the father day by day would have a thorough understanding of his tenderness and justice. But is this the case? Take, for instance, his reproach when he comes in from the field and finds the feast in progress to celebrate his brother's return: "Yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends." And then the immortal reply: "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine."

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