Testimony to the Church

The Prodigal Son

My attention was called to the parable of the prodigal son. He made a request that his father should give him his portion of the estate. He desired to 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, that he might not be troubled with his counsel, reproofs, or advice. PH159 123.1

The son thought he should 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. PH159 123.2

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, the land was visited by a famine, and he felt pinching want, and he 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 life of sinful indulgence to the low business of feeding swine. PH159 123.3

After the prodigal son had come as low as he could come he thought of the kindness and love of his father. He felt then the need of a father. His position of friendlessness and want he had brought upon himself through disobedience and sin, which had resulted in his separating himself from his father. He thought of the privileges and bounties of his father's house, that the hired servants of his father freely enjoyed, while he who had alienated himself from his father's house was perishing with hunger. He was humiliated through adversity, and 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. PH159 124.1

While at a distance from his home, his father sees the wanderer, and his first thought is of that rebellious son who had left him years before to follow a course of unrestrained sin. The paternal feeling is stirred. Notwithstanding all the marks of his degradation he discerned his own image. He did not wait for his son to come all the distance to him, but he hastened and met his son. He did not reproach him, but with the tenderest pity and compassion that he had in consequence of his own course of sin brought upon himself so much suffering, he hastens to give him proofs of his love and tokens of his forgiveness. PH159 124.2

Although his son was emaciated and his countenance plainly indicated the dissolute life he had passed, and although 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. He 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. PH159 125.1

The father lifted up his son and kissed him. He took the rebellious son to his breast, and he wrapped his own rich robe about the nearly naked form of his son. He took him to his heart with such warmth, and evinced such pity, 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. PH159 125.2

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. PH159 126.1

The father made the return of his son an occasion of special rejoicing. The elder son in the field knew not that his brother 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. PH159 126.2

The brother then was angry, and he would not go in to see or receive his brother. 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, should now be received with such honor. 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. PH159 126.3

The father entreated his elder son to go and receive his brother with gladness because he is lost and is found, was dead in sin and iniquity, but is alive again, he has come to his moral senses and abhors his course of sin, but his eldest son pleads, “Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment; and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends; but as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.” PH159 127.1

He assured his son that he was ever with him, and all that he had was his, but it was right that they should show this demonstration of joy, for “thy brother was dead, and is alive again, and was lost, and is found.” This fact overbears all other considerations with the father, The lost is found, the dead is alive again. PH159 127.2

This parable was given by Christ to represent the manner 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 his 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. PH159 128.1

The fact of his son's returning 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. These who have erred need pity, they need help, they need sympathy. They suffer in their feelings and are frequently desponding and discouraged. Above everything else, they need free forgiveness. PH159 128.2