THE PRODIGAL SON by Mrs. E. G. White

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 25, 1880

THE PRODIGAL SON.

By Mrs. E. G. White

This young man made a request that his father should give him his portion of the estate, that he might separate his interest from his father, and manage his share as best suited his own inclination. His father complied with the request, and the son selfishly withdrew from his father, so as not to be troubled with his counsel, or advice.

The son thought he would be happy when he could use his portion according to his own pleasure without being annoyed with advice or restraint. He did not wish to be troubled with mutual obligation. If he shared his father's estate, his father had claims upon him as a son. But he did not feel under any obligation to his generous father, but braced his selfish, rebellious spirit with the thought that a portion of his father's property belonged to him. He requested his share, when rightfully he could claim nothing, and should have had nothing.

After his selfish heart had received the treasure, of which he was so undeserving, he went his way at a distance from his father, that he might even forget that he had a father. He despised restraint, and was fully determined to have pleasure in any way and manner that he chose. After he had, by his sinful indulgences, spent all that his father gave him, and the land was visited by a famine, he felt pinching want, and began to regret his sinful course of extravagant pleasure, for he was now destitute, and needed the means he had squandered. He was obliged to come down from his sinful life of ease and luxury to the low business of feeding swine.

After he had come as low as he could, he thought of the kindness and love of his father. He felt then the need of a father. His position of friendlessness and want which he had brought upon himself through disobedience and sin, had resulted in his separating himself from his father. He thought of the privileges and bounties of his father's house, which even the hired servants freely enjoyed, while he was perishing with hunger. Being thus humiliated through adversity, he decided to return to his father by humble confession. He was a beggar, destitute of comfortable, or even decent, clothing. He was wretched in consequence of privation, and was emaciated with hunger.

While at a distance from his home, his father sees the wanderer, and his first thought is of that rebellious child who had left him years before to follow a course of unrestrained sin. The paternal feeling is stirred. Notwithstanding all the marks

of degradation seen in his son, the father discerned his own image. He did not wait for him to come all the distance to him, but hastened to meet him. He did not reproach him, but with the tenderest pity and compassion, hastened to give him proofs of his love, and tokens of his forgiveness.

Although the countenance of his son plainly indicated the dissolute life he had led, and he was clothed with beggar's rags, and his naked feet were soiled with the dust of travel, the father's tenderest pity was excited as the son fell prostrate in humility before him. The father did not stand back upon his dignity. He was not exacting. He did not array the past course of wrong and sin before his son to make him feel how low he had sunken.

The father lifted up his son and kissed him. He took him to his breast, and wrapped his own rich robe about his nearly naked form. He took him to his heart with such warmth, and evinced such pity, that if the son had ever doubted the goodness and love of his father, he could do so no longer. If he had a sense of his sin when he decided to return to his father's house, he had a much deeper sense of his ungrateful course as he was thus received.

His heart, before subdued, was now broken that he had grieved that father's love. The penitent, trembling son, who had greatly feared that he would be disowned, was unprepared for such a reception. He knew he did not deserve it. He acknowledged his sin in leaving his father. "I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." He begged only to be accounted as a hired servant. But the father requested his servants to pay him especial tokens of respect, to clothe him as if he had ever been his own, obedient son, and to make his return an occasion of special rejoicing. His elder brother in the field knew not that he had returned, but he heard the general demonstrations of joy and inquired of the servants what it all meant. It was explained that his brother had returned whom they thought dead, and his father had killed the fatted calf for him because he had received him again as from the dead.

Then his indignation was stirred that this unfaithful brother who had left his father and thrown the heavy responsibilities upon him of fulfilling the duties which should be shared by both, was now received with such honor, and he would not go to see his brother. He had pursued a course of wicked profligacy, wasting the means his father had given him, until he was reduced to want, while he had been faithfully performing the duties of a son, and now his profligate brother comes to his father's house and is received with respect and honor beyond anything he had ever received.

The father entreated the elder son to go and receive his brother with gladness, but he only plead, "Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy command; and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends; but as soon as this thy son came, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf."

The father then told him that he had ever been with him, and all that he had was his, but it was right that this demonstration of joy for his brother should be made, for "the lost is found, the dead is alive again."

This parable was given to represent the manner in which our heavenly Father receives the erring and repenting. The Father was the one sinned against, yet he, in the compassion of his soul, all full of pity and forgiveness, meets the prodigal and shows his great joy that his son, whom he believed to be dead to all filial affection, had become sensible of his great sin and neglect, and had come back to his father, appreciating his love, and acknowledging his claims. He knew that the son who had pursued a course of sin and now repented, needed his pity and his love. He had suffered. He felt his need. He came to his father as the only one who could supply his great need.

The fact that the son had returned, was a source of the greatest joy. The complaints of the elder brother were natural, but not right. Yet it is frequently the course brother pursues toward brother. There is too much effort to make them feel where they have erred, and keep reminding them of their error. Those who have erred need sympathy and help. They suffer in their feelings and are frequently desponding and discouraged. Above everything else, they need free forgiveness.

Mrs. E. G. White.