Editorial February 5, 1910 Issue

"I WILL ARISE AND GO TO MY FATHER."

John B. Willis

One of the most significant features of the story of the prodigal is this, that when understood it is found to be not a far-away Oriental tale, but a near-by experience. We are all prodigals, in a way, for we have turned our backs many a time upon our highest ideals, and sought satisfaction in response to the seductions of material sense; and we have all found, or are sure to find, that this course means rapid expenditure and fleeting joy. It means a deep sense of unworthiness and degradation, of enslavement and shame, all the heart-hunger, humiliation, and despair which filled the swine-feeder's cup with bitterness to the brim.

The experience of all this has been so keen in many a noble nature as to beget a splendidly sincere effort to gain the peace and joy which pertains, as he is sure, to true living. Too often, however, though the endeavor to "arise" has been genuine, he has not gone to his Father, for he has not understood that, if there is no reconciliation with Truth and Love, there can be no home-coming, no entrance into the inheritance of good. In his ignorance and desperation he has tried to find the homeward path in ascetic vigils, in conformities, and in prayers that were mingled with tears. His struggle has been an honest one, but he has utterly missed the way because he has not understood the import of the Master's teaching, that freedom is gained by Truth-knowing, by the right understanding of God and His law, and by this alone.

This has been most clearly instanced in the case of those for whom the penalty of material sense has assumed the form of physical suffering. Prompted by pain, they have arisen, and have bravely tried to find escape from their miseries; but instead of going to the Father, instead of looking to the apprehension of that divine law which was effective in Christ Jesus for the healing of all diseases, they have entered the devious and labyrinthine paths of materia medica. This has been the place of stumbling for the great body of Christian people, and in the hour when they knew that no earthly arm could save they have proved again that to be without God is to be without hope.

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