no QUAKER ASPECTS OF TRUTH 



in want* And he joined himself to a citizen of that 

 country^ who sent him into the fields to feed swine* And 

 he fain would have been filled with the husks that the 

 swine did eat, and no man gave unto him* And when 

 he came to himself (hitherto he had not been true to 

 himself, or to that divine sonship which was his 

 inalienable right) he said : '* How many hired servants 

 of my father have bread enough and to spare, whilst I 

 perish with hunger* I will arise and go to my father, 

 and I will say unto him, I have sinned against Heaven 

 and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called 

 thy son* Make me as one of thy hired servants*'' So 

 he arose and came to his father — and when he was yet 

 a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, 

 and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him* And the 

 son said : ** Father, I have sinned against Heaven and 

 in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy 

 son**' But the urgency of the father's affection forbade 

 the son to say more, and the speech which he had prepared 

 so carefully was never finished* For the father bade the 

 servants to *' bring forth the best robe and put it on him, 

 and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and 

 bring hither the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and 

 be merry, for this my son was dead and is alive agam, 

 he was lost and is found*" 



There was no need that anyone should seek to alter 

 the attitude of the father towards the son — that was what 

 it always had been, an attitude of infinite love and 

 tender compassion* To be sure the lad had wandered 

 far from the path of duty and of honour, but the father 

 still loved him with the same inalienable affection, and 

 that, not for the sake of his elder brother, but for the 

 boy's own sake, because he was his son* No amount of 

 sin, no depth of degradation, could alter or destroy that 

 glorious relationship* There was no need for the older 

 brother to plead for the younger* Still less was there 



