Article September 16, 1916 Issue

Who Is Sufficient?

CHARLES C. BUTTERWORTH, 2D.

When first the grandeur of God's kingdom breaks in upon the unaccustomed thought, through Christian Science, one held by the mortal sense of life, looking into its shallowness, is prone to exclaim, as did Paul, "Who is sufficient for these things?" Overwhelmed and abased by the glimpse one catches of God's glory, he thinks it beyond possibility that man can truly be the son of God. The human sense continually recalls the pathetic speech prepared by the prodigal, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." Inexplicable then to the human mind is the reply, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him."

According to the teaching of Christian Science it is not the false sense of man, characterized by the word prodigal, which is blest; it is the human being who is receptive of truth that is blest. The wandering, erring sense which made the prodigal dwell in a far country of riot and famine, refused and ignored the divine sonship of man; otherwise the prodigal would have stayed content at home. Is it strange, therefore, that divine Love, conscious only of the perfect son, should entirely ignore the speech of the prodigal? The prodigal sense is forgotten, obliterated, destroyed; it is the receptive son who is blest!

Imperfect, unworthy, insufficient as mortal man may seem to be, the fact of the real man's divine sonship is unaltered and eternal. Paul's query is greatly to the point: "It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?" Starting from the unspiritual standpoint that man is full of imperfections, mortal belief is sooner or later confronted with the fact of man's God-given dominion over all, and cries in sudden mortification, Ah, miserable me; who can be worthy of all these things? This, however, is sometimes the basis of a most misleading meekness. Error is quick to take the wrong conclusion, deeming that mortal man is suddenly exalted and honored with dominion! Again we would say that it is not the prodigal sense which is blest, nor is it error's miscreation, mortal man with all his imperfections, who is declared to be the son of God.

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