The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-08-04
THE TRUE SELF.

When the prcdigal son in the Scrip
ture rose up out of his filth and degre-
dstion and general unworthiness, and
came to clean, humble, dutiful life,
the parable says, ''he came to himself"
This phrase ''came to HIMSELF is full Of
meaning, though we do not always
realize it in our common usage. While
under the influence of intoxicants a
man may commit crime, but when he
comes to HIMSELF as we say, terror at
the memory of what he did while under
the influence of the evil demon, almost
drives him mad with dismay and dis
pair. Sometimes fitof anger or passion
will carry one SO far away from him
self-his true self that he is conscious
of nothing but the wild passion surg
ing within. This evil spirit, this wick
ed impulse is not ourselves. 1t is a
power which, for the time, has control
of our true selves, taking us captive
and working its evil will through us.
The disobedient, unflial, debauched
spirit which, for the time, had posses
sion of the prodigal, which may get pos
session of any of us, is not our rightful
self. We can only manifest our right
full self by coming out from under the
influence of this spirit, and coming
under that of a filial obedient spirit,
and so finding our way back to the heart
of the Father. While this unfortunate
young man had been living under bond
age to his wrong and mistaken notions
of things, he had not only been lost to
the peace and plenty of home, to the
family joys, to the guidance and affec-
ton of his aged father, but he had
been lost to himself; he had been drawn
away from his true, rightful self, and
had made his bed with the false and
temporal self which had usurped the
throne of his mind as of his affections.
When he broke loose from this bond
age, when he rose up in the strength
and inspiration of better manhood,
when he cast out the false self, he came
into the joy of the true divine self which
was his natural inheritance.
When this undutiful, mistaken boy
bethought him to go back to the father
whom he had so grievously wronged, he
had thought of the one thing he could
do. He could not undo the past; he
could not restore the money he had
wasted in riotous living; he could not
bring back the days spent in vice and
debauchery and reclothe himself in the
innocency of his early years; he could
not compensate the father for the weary
nights and sorrowful days lived through
on his account; he could not wipe away
one tear which that father had shed in
his loneliness and anxiety; he could not
blot from his own memory the wrong
he had done; but one thing he could do,
he could arise and go to his father. He
could seek that father till he found him,
ask his forgiveness, and expiate,s 80 far as
possible, by life of loyal and dutiful
service, the evil he had done. When he
arose to 60 to his father he had set his
heart on the one thing it was in his
power to do; to right the past. Neither
circumstance, nor distance, nor poverty,
nor sin could prevent his going back to
a life of humility, obedience and filial
affections if he chose to do so.
This, it strikes US, is the one thing
we can all do for the Father in heaven.
Through past experience and the grace
Of God we can live better than we have
ever lived before. We can be more
faithful to duty; more obedient to the
inner voices of the spirit; we can love
purity, and truth, and virtue, more this
day than we ever did before in our
lives. This life which grows out of
this truer, nobler selfhood is religion.
Religion is an ''ennobling conception of
man as being of high origin, born for
great enterprise in the triple realm of
thought, feeling and action" and the
life of duty and affection which grows
out of such knowledge. In spite of any
present, or of any past, we can 'arise and
go the Father" in the penitence and
humility of true selfhood, and, be-
hold The Father comes forth to meet
US; for every right action touches a
chord that vibrates through the uni
verse.