The parable of the Prodigal Son furnishes a beautiful illustration of the truth of Christian Science. Man in Science, at home with his Father, has every necessity of his being met. He is not only in the enjoyment of his rights as a son, but he is a partaker of all that belongs to his Father, and to his brother-man. Under the parental government, nothing is kept from him that could minister to his well-being. Apart from this delightful state of man's existence lies the supposition of error, that by the law of opposites there may exist a condition of things outside of the harmony of being, that is capable of giving man more enjoyment than what he has.
Now I can imagine that when mortals first conceive an error of thought, it does not impress them with the sense that it is truth, but simply that it may be employed to advantage; but, entertaining and dwelling upon the thought, they conceive it to be capable of giving them enjoyment greater than they before possessed. It-grows in their conceptions, until in belief it has all the appearance of a reality; just as when Eve is said to have looked upon the forbidden tree, until she concluded or believed it was good for food and pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise. Mortals take of the fruit of their own conceptions, and eat, and thus are caught in their own delusion,— that a higher state of being or happiness exists outside of God.
So it was with the Prodigal. He looked upon the mental mirage until it seemed to him a reality, and then his actions reflected his thoughts, for he desired his patrimony; and away he went with it into the far-off country, seeking in a variety of ways to realize what he supposed was a reality. Had it been a reality, and not a dream or illusion, he would not have sought happiness in vain: but the more he sinned, the farther he strayed from his Father's house, the abode of Spirit, the nearer he came to the fact that he was deluded, that he had been walking in a "vain show;" until "he came to himself," woke to the perception and consciousness of his former self, or true being, and the realization that all which had seemed real to him, from the time he left his Father's house, was a delusion, a cheat, a lie.
