Article June 21, 1913 Issue

"ALL THAT I HAVE IS THINE."

FRANCES M. GORRELL.

In the fifteenth chapter of Luke we have the story of two brothers who received their inheritance from their father. One, the younger, took his share "into a far country, and there wasted his substance in riotous living," we are told; while the other stayed quietly at home, caring for the flocks and herds, and obeying, to the best of his understanding, his father's wishes. When the younger brother "came to himself," after a vain search for happiness in material pleasures, he realized that only in serving others could he be truly blest, and in the spirit of humility he returned to his father and found him waiting with outstretched arms. The older brother, blind to the real change of thought and purpose by which his brother was actuated, remonstrated with his father for expressing his joy at his son's return in such a demonstrative manner; but the father-love was broad enough to encompass more than one child, and he said, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine."

In the light of Christian Science this narrative brings to the student many wonderfully helpful lessons. As sons of God we each have an equal inheritance,—of intelligence, goodness, power, love; in fact, everything that God posesses. We may think for a while that by using these qualities in striving to acquire peace and plenty, we shall find the object of our search, but sooner or later we shall learn, as did the prodigal son, that we must return to our Father, God, and ask Him to make us as servants. We, too, shall find the Father waiting with outstretched arms, with the same measure of love and patience, if with all our heart we truly seek Him.

It may seem to us that others have much more than we,—of ability, happiness, ease, or material supply; but we need to turn our thought Godward when this temptation appears, and remember the Father's words, "All that I have is thine." Think of it,—"All that I have is thine"! No anxious waiting for years of experience to accumulate a vast fortune, no competition, no discount, but only affluence, now and forever, In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, "Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals" (p. 13). As we turn our thought toward God and let it dwell on His wealth, on the true substance, our material condition, whether it be a belief in sickness, sin, or poverty, must perforce give way, and health, purity, and abundance be expressed.

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