The Rich Man and Lazarus.

Luke xvi. 19-31.

HERE was a certain rich man, which was clothed
in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously
every day."

Thus the Saviour begins one of the most
solemn, weighty, and instructive lessons in the
Word of God. It is not a parable, but an
authentic and living history,-perhaps known to his
hearers in its outer details, and now laid bare in its
everlasting relations, significance, and issues.

There was no sin in the rich man's faring sumptuously every day. It is not a sin to be rich; it is no virtue to be poor. A man who has thousands may be benevolent, humble, and pious: a man that earns but a few shillings a-week may be proud, conceited, and forgetful of God. It is not circumstances that constitute a man; it is man that consecrates and adorns the circumstances. A good man sweeping a crossing is a great man; a bad man swaying a sceptre is a bad man still.

There was a certain beggar; his name was Lazarus, which means "The help of God." It need scarcely be stated he was not the Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha.

This Lazarus was not only poor and destitute, but also-what aggravated his poverty-diseased. He felt often so hungry that he desired to eat the very crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. It is here, however, that the sin of the rich man comes out;

he could see hunger crouching at his gate, or near his richly-spread table, and yet not feed it; he could gratify his own appetite with all the luxuries of the East and the West, while a poor, hunger-bitten beggar, made by the same God, literally starved.

We read "the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom; the rich man also died," and, it is most significantly added, "was buried." There is contrast here: the beggar died-not a word is said of his burial-he was likely cast into the nearest ditch, or into the meanest churchyard-any way that would save expense. The rich man, however, when he died, was buried amid pomp and splendour.

The poor man died first. Thus early death is not judgment, and long life is not necessarily mercy. It is added by Him to whom the secrets of the other world are known, "the rich man died and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." Thus so far the Son of God raised the curtain, and gave some glimpses of the world to come. It is a picture of realities couched in imagery we can comprehend. It is said of the rich man, "he seeth Abraham afar off;" and he sees also, what he must have seen with horror, the beggar to whom he denied the crumbs that fell from his table, to whom his dogs were more merciful than their master, folded in the He now appeals to him. He now appeals to him. "Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame."

bosom of Abraham.

What an awful apocalypse of the sorrow of the lost! Abraham replied, "Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things." "Remember;" terrible and pregnant truth! The lost in hell retain their memories, and the recollection of opportunities they missed which they might have used, of mercies abused they might have shown, of lessons they learned and wickedly forgot, of

opportunities of doing good which they passed by, because they wished to become richer-all these recollections will rush upon the distracted soul, and "Remember," will stir every latent agony of the miserable and the ruined. "Thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things." "The good you esteemed so on earth was what you should eat, and what you should drink, and wherewithal you should be clothed. Such was the height of your ambition; such was the good-the only good-that you sought, and you have had it. Lazarus had evil things-what you call evil; but he lifted his heart above want, and poverty, and disease, and saw-above all-eternal things; now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.""

The only instance in the Bible of prayer addressed to a saint in heaven is found here; and the petition was refused. It is, then, nó encouragement or authority to pray to departed saints.

But Abraham adds, "Beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot." This refutes the notion of universalism. Universalists say there is no hell; or if there be, it is a sort of purgatory, where sufferings and tears will wash out sins, and all, of every shade of guilt, sorrow, and suffering, will rise to heaven. But surely this conflicts with what Abraham states, and our Lord authenticates, that there is a great gulf fixed, so that they that would go from heaven to hell cannot, and they that would go from hell to heaven cannot; or, translated into the language of the Apocalypse, the doors that keep out and keep in are shut-there is no transference from the lost to the saved; no degradation of the saved to the realms of the lost. There is a great gulf fixed between the two; so that even intercourse is altogether impossible.

The rich man replies, "I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house; for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment." Was this a lingering sympathy of beneficence that sur

vived the condition of the lost in the rich man's bosom? He may have felt for his brethren upon earth; but he also knew that the presence of those that shared with him in his crimes, would only aggravate the torment which was the penalty of those crimes in the region of the lost. Solitude was his only peace; insulation from those he ever had intercourse with upon earth was his only hope of lightening his load and mitigating his torment. It is too probable that it was selfishness which dreaded aggravation of its torment, not beneficent sympathy that sought to save the five brethren that were left behind. But this is conjecture.

Abraham answered, "They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them." What a striking truth is that! "They have Moses and the prophets." "They have got the Old Testament Scriptures." He did not say, "They have got tradition;" nor did he say, "They have got the Church;" nor did he say, "The Rabbis that sit in Moses' seat;" but "they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." If Moses and the prophets-that is, the Old Testament-was sufficient to make wise unto salvation in those days, how much more are the Old and New Testament together able to make us wise unto salvation now! Do not these words also prove that the Pentateuch is part of the inspired Word of God-an integral portion of Holy Writ?

"Nay, father Abraham," adds the rich man, "but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent." That is, if they only see a miracle, then they will repent. He was indeed in error. What effect would such a miracle produce? They might be awed, or struck dumb; but this would not make them repent. If a miracle always were wrought in such cases-always repeated-it would cease to be a miracle, and would be set down in the books of philosophy as one of the regular phenomena of nature; the ceaseless occurrence of what is called a miracle would have no effect-assuredly it would have no moral effect-because the miracle could at most only confirm