Article November 12, 1938 Issue

"When he came to himself"

DELLA M. WHITNEY

Through the unfoldment gained by studying and applying Christian Science, we find the beautiful stories in the Bible presenting manifold lessons. One student who had learned much from the story of the prodigal son gained a rich new thought in studying it again. The parable shows that when the prodigal son came to himself, he said, "I will arise and go to my father." What happened when he came to himself? Apparently he began to realize the desirability of good and the futility of evil. So do we come to ourselves daily and hourly, in the measure that false beliefs are supplanted with right ideas.

One's real self, in the likeness of God, eternally expresses that likeness. So one's coming to himself could be only a spiritual process of recognition of what is and has always been true about man, as God's image. Sometimes the process of coming to oneself seems to begin with a sudden spiritual light, which causes the individual to turn his back upon old, sinful ways of thinking and living.

When Paul thus came to himself, we are told that "he fell to the earth, and heard a voice" speaking to him, and he said, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" His obedience to the spiritual direction then given to him, his purification, humility, and vision, equipped him to render valuable service in the cause of Christianity. After his first experience of being awakened in some degree to the allness and goodness of God, he continued coming to himself, gaining higher visions of the omnipotence and omnipresence of God; and, in the trials which he experienced, he triumphantly applied his clear realization of man's true selfhood, inseparable from God.

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