Church Record Series, No. 2. 
 
 DIVES AND LAZARUS 
 
 Six Studies 
 
 By 
 WALTER C. WHITAKER 
 
 Rector of Christ Ciiurch, Tuslcaloosa, Ala. 
 
 ^ 
 
 :B52418 
 W578 
 
 Tuskaloosa, Ala 
 
 THE CHURCH RECORD 
 
 I 898 
 
^ PRINCETON, N. J. ^ 
 
 Division 
 
 Section ...A.;...*^.... 
 
Church Record Series, No. 2. 
 
 DIVES AND LAZARUS 
 
 Six Studies 
 
 WALTER C. WHITAKER 
 
 Rector of Christ Church, Tuskaloosa, Ala. 
 
 Tuskaloosa, Ala 
 
 THE CHURCH RECORD 
 
 1838 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. The Ground of Judgment. I 
 
 Thi Key to the Parable ... - - 2 
 
 Dives not a Gross Character ... - 3 ' 
 
 p:;arthly Accidents and Eternal Character - 4 
 
 Selfishness Blind to Stewardship - - - 5 
 
 II. The State ok the Dead. 7 
 
 The Continuance of Personality - - - - 8 
 Each Soul Goes to Its Own Place ... 9 
 The Intermediate State 10 
 
 III. The Nature of Eternal Punishment, - - - 12 
 
 Recognition after Death - - - - 12 
 Hell Internal not External - - - 14 
 
 God's Judgment Infallible - - - - 16 
 
 IV. Eternal Hope. --- 17 
 
 The Chasm between Life and Death - - - 17 
 "The Spirits in Piison" • - - - 20 
 
 Prol)ation Precedes Death - - - - yi 
 
 y. The Continuance of Affection. - . - - 32 
 
 Dead Roots ?nd Dying Branches - - - 22 
 Degrees of Punishment - - • - 24 
 
 Intercessory Prayer in Paradise - - - 25 
 
 VI. Evidence and Conviction. .-....- 27 
 
 The Impotence of Miraclts - - - - 27 
 The Testimony of Revelation - - - • 30 
 
DIVES AND LAZARUS, 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 The Ground Of Judgment, 
 
 Tlierc; was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine 
 linen, and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain 
 lieggar named I.azarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and 
 <lesiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's 
 table. Moreover the dogs come and licked his sores. — .S7. Litke 
 /6: ig — 21. 
 
 The uarrati\e of the rich man and Lazarus inav l)e rey^ard- 
 ed as historic or as parabolic. 
 
 If Christ rehiled an actual occurrence the smallest details 
 of the divine hi'story must be literally true; and nothin<if 
 can be deemed iniimportant. 
 
 If Christ spoke a parable he was teaching spiritual truth 
 in the clothing of an allegory; lie did not profess that the 
 event actually occurred; but tlie relation made its appeal to 
 man's heart, convicting him by his own conscience. Thus 
 Nathan aroused David with the story of the ewe-lamb. 
 Thus Christ. l>y the story of the ten talents, impresses on us 
 the necessity of using our advantages. 
 
 It is not of great importance whether the present narrati\e 
 be looked upon as liistorv or as parable. The saiue lessons 
 are yielded in either case 1 he popular view, however, 
 may tiie more convenientlv be adopted. 
 
 At the outset of these studies we must hold clearlv in 
 
DiVKS AXD LAZARirs. 
 
 xic'W tl;c nature of panibles. Parables are cartoons; not 
 caricatures but pictorial sketclies. As sucli thev teach one 
 central idea to which all details are subordinate. I>ut in 
 parables, as in all well-executed cartoons, every minor frai^- 
 ment has a meaninjj. the disregard of which weakens the 
 pictm-e. and the inti'.rpretation of which must be in harmony 
 with the central teachintr. 
 
 TiiK l\.i;y TO THK I'akaiu.k. 
 
 The names of the two personaf^ros of the narrative J^ive 
 the key to the parable. Their names si<rnify their character. 
 "Diyes*' is Latin for ••rich man''; l^a/.arus. or Klea/,ar, is 
 Hebrew for '"truster in (/od."" 
 
 Dives, as we may call him, is ilevoted to wealth anil the 
 thincfs obtainable with wealth. Lazarus is dominated b\ 
 confidence in God and Cxod's ways as just and holy. 
 
 Dives and I^azarus are not imn. They are chfiractcrs. 
 
 What Christ said of the destiny of these two characters, 
 was not said for the satisfaction of curiosity as to the my— 
 leries of the unseen world. His purpose was to warn men 
 that character, not circumstance, determines eternal destiny. 
 
 This is shown by the incident that called forth the stor\ . 
 The Pharisees had been listeninj^ to Christ as he asserted 
 that men with hearts bent on becoming wealthy are unable 
 to please (iod. They protested that Christ knew nothiny; 
 of the subject concerning \vhich he spoke. They began to 
 be very facetious at his expense. "Being covetous thev lU- 
 vided him." It was then that Christ spoke the jiarable ol 
 the rich man and La/arus. 
 
 Such l)eing the ()Ccasion ol tlie paral)le. we cease to won- 
 der, as many have wondered, why Lazarus is so subordinat- 
 ed in the whole nariati\e thai he is not represented as say- 
 ing or doing an\ thing at all, cither on earth or in -\lira- 
 
DivKs And Lazarus. 
 
 hum's bosom. Christ was speaking to worldly men trust- 
 ing in their worldly circumstances, and he fitly made a man 
 of their own stamp the central figure of the parable. 
 
 Dives Nor a Onoss CriAnACTKK. 
 
 Traditional interpretation has lilinded men to the real 
 cause of the rich man's perdition. 
 
 Nowhere is it intimated that he was an adulterer, an ex- 
 tortioner, a liar, an idolater, or in any way a violator of the 
 Decalogue. If lie were living today he would probably be 
 recognized as "one of our most highly esteemed townsmen, 
 progressive in thought and liberal in purse." 
 
 He is not represented by Christ as being in torment be- 
 cause he had refused to give succor to Lazarus. That idea 
 is ]-)urely an interjiolation of man, and is utterlv without 
 foundation in the parable. Far from driving Lazarus from 
 his gateway he unhesitatingly accepted the universal custom 
 of the Orient. Every day he sent out to Lazarus and anv 
 chance beggars what scraps of food were not consumed at 
 table. Like some men of today who support hospitals with 
 t lie proceeds of wheat corners and railwav reorganizations, 
 he could not allow any sutYering person to leave his door 
 unrelieved. From the latter part of the parable itisevident 
 that he knew Lazarus both by sight and by name; for he 
 recognized Lazarus afar off in Abraham's bosom and called 
 him by name. And from his cry to Abraham to send 
 Lazarus to succor him it is evident that on earth he had 
 shown Lazarus such kindness as. he thought, merited some 
 return. 
 
 The commonly accepted exjilanation that Di\es was pun- 
 ished for his hard-heartcdness to Lvazarus is untenable 1"or 
 two reasons: 1st, It is contradictor\- to the intei-nal evi- 
 dence of the subsequent portion of the narrative; 'Jiifl. U 
 
DrvKs And Lazarus. 
 
 has no sort of connection with the tt-uchintr that the parable 
 is intended to enforce, viz,. That they who worsin'p Mam- 
 mon cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 EAirriii.v AcciDKN rs and Etkknai, Cm a i; ac ricn. 
 
 Sometimes it is representee! that the rich man was tor- 
 mented mereiv because he was rich, and that the poor man 
 was comforted merely because he was poor. 
 
 This is, practically, to adopt the anti-Christian teaching 
 tliat material creation is essentially impure and contaminai- 
 injr; that lucre is always filthy of itself and not because of 
 the manner in which it is secured. 
 
 Is it possible that possession of worldly goods renders one 
 unfit for communion with(j<id.^ Some ofChrist's truest friends 
 were rich men. Certainlv Lazarus and Xicodemus, to go 
 no further, were fit for communion with the express image 
 of the Father. But also some of Christ's bitterest foes were 
 rich men. Some of his followers were j)oor men : and some 
 of his enemies were the oft'scouring of the nation. There is 
 nothing blameworthy in the possession of riches. Thei-e is 
 nothing praiseworthy in extreme poverty. 
 
 If to be rich is to be sinful, then the tramp is the iiighest 
 type of saint. 
 
 Riches stigmatize only when they are unworthily obtained 
 and dishonoral)lv kept. l*oyerty is honorable only when 
 endui-ed from fidelity to principle. I'nder other circum- 
 stances riches and poverty simply register ability and its re- 
 lation to opporlum'ty. 
 
 The other world does not exist in order to level up world- 
 ly joys and sensual gratifications. It is intended to receive 
 immortal souls and give full opportuiiit\ for deyelopnienl 
 of character. 'I'he earlhK accidents of race, age, sex, con- 
 dition, en\irt)nment . op[)ortunity, possessions, that no\v 
 
Dives and Lazarus. 
 
 prevent men from knowinfr, not simply one another, but 
 themselves, will be left behind, and we shall know ourselves 
 as we are known by God. not mistaking our possessions for 
 their possessor. 
 
 Two of the same condition of life are grinding at life's 
 mill ; one is taken and the other is left. Of two beggars one 
 goes into torment, and the other into eternal life. Of two 
 rich men one goes into the region of everlasting want, and 
 the other passes through the needle's eye. 
 
 To look on the Unseen World as but the place where 
 present conditions shall all be reversed and men shall have 
 full recompense for all they have suffered on earth is to 
 assert that this world is still Satan's, and that the Devil is 
 apportioning material blessings. To look on the Unseen 
 World as but the place where proper averages of enjoyment 
 shall be secured is to proclaim that our professed "spirit- 
 uality"' knows not the first principle of Christian ethics — 
 Altruism — and that our wisdom is but a wiser worldly-wis- 
 dom, which is simply waiting for three-score-and-ten years 
 to pass so that it can grasp selfish enjoyments of infinitely 
 greater duration. 
 
 Selfishness Blind to vSrEWAaDSHip. 
 
 It was selfishness that caused the rich man's punishment. 
 He was absorbed heart and mind in the pleasures of earth, 
 in softness of apparel, it mav be, in richness of living, or in 
 the more intangible but not less real luxury of mental effort 
 or of aesthetic dalliance. He was a good natured man, ever 
 willing (o help men and movements, both by wealth and by 
 influence, so long as he was not called upon to surrender his 
 favorite pursuits. His possessions were not held as trust 
 funds from God, to be used in doing God's will. He made 
 his own plans and pursued them steadfastly, resenting anv^ 
 
Dives and Lazarus. 
 
 interference of God's in interruptin<r the necessary concen- 
 tration of enerjifv bv callin<i^ on him to divert an equal por- 
 tion of his thought and aftection to the work of bringing in 
 the Kingdom of God on earth. He abused his trust, and 
 took men's word for it that all was well with him. And 
 when God insisted on a final accounting and deprived him 
 of his stewardship ; lo ! he was a bankrupt. 
 
 Conceivably, the picture might, but for the special object 
 that Christ had in view, have been reversed. Doubtless in 
 reality it is often reversed. Sometimes Lazarus finds him- 
 self in torment, and sometimes Dives is carried into Abra- 
 ham's bosom. 
 
 When a poor good man is saved his salvation is due. un- 
 der Christ, not to his poverty but to his goodness. When 
 a rich bad man is lost his perdition is due not to his riclies 
 but to his \\ ickedness'. 
 
 These truths are threadbare, but men so often forget 
 them. We must hold them clearly in mind as we study the 
 other-world life of Dives and Lazarus. 
 
PART SECOND. 
 
 The State of The Dead. 
 
 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the 
 angels into Abraham's lx)som. The rich man also died, and was 
 buried; and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth 
 Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. — .S"^. Luke i6: 22 and 23. 
 
 Godliness and ungodliness are not called into existence by 
 wcAlth or by poverty. God allows bad men to become rich, 
 and he permits good men to become poor. Also he brings 
 poverty on the evil and gives earthly possessions to the 
 righteous. 
 
 It is of the smallest possible concern to God that a man is 
 either rich or poor in this world's goods. But it is of the 
 greatest possible concern to God that a man shall use to 
 (jod's glory and the good of his fellow-men whatever gifts, 
 great or small, he has received from the Father of Lights in 
 the way of bodily strength, mental attainments, spiritual 
 vigor, worldlv opportunitv. 
 
 God measures a man by the proportion that his deed bears 
 to his opportunity. The widow's two mites aid little, ab- 
 solutely, in maintaining the worship of the Almighty, but 
 in the scales of God they far outweigh the gold-pieces of 
 ostentatious wealth. 
 
 To the poor man that trusted in God and to the rich man 
 that trusted in his riches death came. We will go with 
 them as far beyond the veil as Christ permits us to go. 
 More than once has Christ lifted that veil, and he has lifted 
 
8 DlVKS AND LaZAUIIS. 
 
 it that rt'vcrence may look ami learn. It is profitable for 
 lis to study reverently, without conjecture and without 
 superstition, but with the aid of that reason which God 
 implanted, that state of life unto which it shall please God 
 to call every one of us not many years hence. 
 
 TifE CONTINIIANCE OK PeRSOXALITV. 
 
 The first clear teaching that we grasp is ; That when 
 men pass out of this world they maintain continuous con- 
 sciousness and distinct sense of personal identity. Dives is 
 Dives still. La/arus is Lazarus still. 
 
 The body and all its members have served their purpose 
 as vehicles of communication with the physical world. 
 The soul lias left them behind, and w'th other vehicles 
 adapted to different environment is in communication with 
 the spiritual world. 
 
 The personal being that is not discernible in the crumbling 
 body has neither been blotted out of existence, nor (what is 
 practically the same thing) been absorbed into an infinite 
 ocean of life whence shall be drawn the individual life of 
 succeeding ages. The ocean wave, rising from the vast 
 mass of tumbling water, having form and a name for but 
 one instant, and then sinking back with identity forever 
 past, is o;ie thing. The human soul, coming out of one 
 eternity, fretting itself against the narrow-bounded coasts 
 of time, and moving on into another eternity, is another. 
 The two are of dissimilar fate. The wave has not that 
 subjective life apart from its outward form tiiat characterizes 
 the soul. A fortuitous concourse of atoms has not those 
 clearly defined boundaries of being that characterize a uni- 
 fied organism. 
 
 Neither does the soul remain insensible to its surround- 
 ings iti the next world. Were insensibility the soul's fate 
 
Dives axd I.azarus. 
 
 Christ's promise to the penitent malefactor would have been 
 quite meaningless. When we speak of any as "asleep in 
 Jesus," we use the figure of sleep with the thought, that as 
 men rest from their labors at night that they may be fit for 
 the duties of the morrow, so the rest of the dead in Christ 
 is but prelude to the more glorious day when they shall be 
 bathed in the light of the Sun of Righteousness. The 
 thought of sleep necessitates the thought of another day of 
 fuller life ; of toil today, rest tonight, and renewed vigor 
 and increased ability tomorrow. 
 
 Each Soul Goes to Its Own Place. 
 
 The next positive teaching of this parable is : That the 
 •ouls that go out into eternity do not all go to the same or 
 to similar state and place. 
 
 This plain teaching must not be passed over. The ignor- 
 ing of it has too often led men to precipitate themselves in- 
 to the next world with desire and expectation to escape 
 misery and shame. 
 
 But in this world it is not change of localitv that destrovs 
 shame and misery. The soul carries its blighting wretched- 
 ness into the most gorgeous palaces, the most picturesque 
 scenery. The mind will make a heaven of hell, a hell of 
 heaven. 
 
 Therefore, even had revelation been silent, human ex- 
 perience and reason would cause us to determine that a 
 change of the soul's locality, as from America to Europe, 
 so from this world to the world of disembodied spirits, will 
 not change the man's nature. The attempt to flee from 
 one's shadow is vain. Soul character cannot be laid aside 
 with earthly-body. What a man sows he shall reap, from 
 spring to autumn, from this world to the next. He that is 
 unjust will be unjust still; he that is holy will be holv still. 
 
lO Dl\'ES AND I^AZ Alius, 
 
 He that sows the seed of misery in this world shall reap a 
 harvest of misery in the next. He that sows theseedof joy 
 in this world shall reap a harvest of joy in the world to 
 come. 
 
 Many a godless man. upon whose coffin the undertaker 
 has inscribed the groundlessly assumed statement (bought 
 by the gross) that he is "At Rest,'' has found out the 
 limitation of that divine love which proclaims rest to those 
 only who "die in the Lord." 
 
 The Intermediate State. 
 
 The next positive teaching is : That the souls that go 
 Out of this world do not go directly to Heaven or to Hell, 
 but are in what is called "The Intermediate State." 
 
 It is called an intermediate state, not place. None can 
 deny such a state, except those who deny the resurrection 
 of the dead ; for the first state of the soul is that it has a 
 mortal body, the last that it has a resurrection, spiritual, or 
 immortal bodv ; but between death and the resurrection it 
 has neither bt^dy, and, perforce, is in an intermediate state 
 or condition. 
 
 It is a necessary, although unimportant, deduction, that 
 while in this intermediate state the soul must be in a place ; 
 for death does not render a tinite soul infinite. It must al- 
 ways have a local habitation and a name. Lazarus was 
 carried into a place called "Abraham's bost)m" — a phrase 
 which, together with Paradise, was used bv the Jews to 
 signifv that portion of Hades, or Hell, which is occupied 
 In- the l)lessed dead. The other portion of the unseen 
 world — the place of misery — is nameless. It is merely 
 stated that Dives was in Hades in torment, while Lazarus 
 , was in Hades in Paradise. 
 
 This i^lain leaching of Christ's directly traverses both 
 
Dives and Lazarus, 
 
 sectarian and Romish teaching as to the immediate condi- 
 tion of the soul after death. 
 
 The Romish teaching is that the hopelessly evil goat once 
 to Gehenna, the perfectly good directly to Heaven, and the 
 vast bulk of mankind to Purgatory ; and that in Purgatorv 
 they must for indefinite periods suffer an anguish different 
 from that of hell-fire only in duration, not in intensity. If 
 this teaching be true Christ's promise to the penitent male- 
 factor was a mockery; Christ himself was in Purgatory 
 (for according to his own words, wherever the thief was, 
 after death, there also was Christ) ; and the words of the 
 Spirit, that the blessed dead do rest from their labors, their 
 struggles with the assaults and triumphs of sin, are robbed 
 of comfort. 
 
 Sectarian teaching is that Paradise is Heaven. Yet 
 Christ was with the thief in Paradise on Friday, and after 
 he came back from Paradise distinctlv affirnied that he had 
 not yet ascended to his Father. It was not till forty days 
 afterwards that he "ascended into Heaven," as the univer- 
 sally recited Apostles' Creed tells us. 
 
 Unceasing misery and happiness begin immediately after 
 death, but Gehenna and Heaven shall not be reached by 
 any, however good or bad, till the Dav of Judgment. 
 
PART THIRD. 
 
 The Nature of Eternal Punishment. 
 
 And he cried and said, "Father Abrakaui, have mercy on me, and 
 send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool 
 my tongue; for I am tormentsd in this flame." But Abraham said, 
 "Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things, 
 and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou 
 art tormented." — Sf. Luke i6: 24 and 25. 
 
 We have now learned three facts concerning the life of 
 the disembodied soul : 1st, That when it passes out of 
 this world its maintains continuous consciousness and dis- 
 tinct sense of personal identity ; 2nd, That the souls that go 
 forth into the Unseen World do not all go to the same state 
 and place ; and 3rd, That the souls that leave this world do 
 not go directly to Heaven or to Hell, but are in an interme- 
 diate state of happiness or of misery, in a place called Para- 
 dise or in a place without name. 
 
 These three facts bv no means exhaust the teachings ex- 
 plicitly given by Christ, or legitimately and necessarily in- 
 ferred from His teachings. 
 
 Rkcognition AKTKH DHATir. 
 
 It is taught by Christ that we shall recognize in the next 
 world those whom we knew in this world. Dives, we read, 
 recognized Lazarus, whom, of course, he had known but 
 slightly in the flesh; and he recognized him "afar off." 
 
 Two lesfitimate inferences flow from this statement : 
 
Dives and Lazarus. 13 
 
 1st, That since mere acquaintances are recognized still more 
 clearly shall our loved ones be known ; and 2tid, That 
 since recognition is a fact of the intermediate state men 
 carry with them into the other world the characterestics that 
 differentiated them from other men and rendered them 
 cognizable in this world. 
 
 These characteristics cannot be purely moral. Dives 
 certainly knows very little of the character of Lazarus. 
 Not one of us knows the character of even a loved 
 one so thoroughly that the summing up of the loved one's 
 virtues as revealed in absolute truth would furnish sulhcient 
 data for identification. Moreover, countless millions of 
 souls have the same character ; and, though seeming to dif- 
 fer widely from one another, will be found, when viewed* 
 apart from their earthly surroundings, to differ from one 
 another by less than an}- appreciable distinction. There- 
 fore, even if we knew the exact character of the one we 
 love best we could not by character alone distinguish and 
 recognize him. 
 
 There can be small doubt that the disembodied soul will 
 have its own characteristics strictly answering to earthly 
 characteristics, and perceptible to finite vision, despite the 
 absence of mortal bod}- and physical eye. The disembodied 
 souls of Moses and Elias had form when they appeared on 
 the Mount of the Transfiguration. 
 
 Physical characteristics shall doubtless be reproduced in 
 the disembodied soul and find everlasting expression in the 
 spiritual body. "What we call physical infirmity or de- 
 forniity in this world shall, among the redeemed, be a badge 
 of honor and the passport to divine affection. The scars of 
 a brave soldier, the defective vision, the empty sleeve, re- 
 veal a manhood incomparably more glorious than the un- 
 
14 Dives and Lazarus, 
 
 marred beauty of a cowardly Adonis. Jacoh rejoices at 
 the lameness that came upon him al Peniel. It is better 
 that we enter into life maimed, than havinir two hands to 
 go into hell. 
 
 Hell Intehx al Not Exteux ai.. 
 
 The next teaching tliat emerges is that of the nature of 
 eternal punishment, that it is necessarily of mind and soul. 
 
 Ihe ideas of the invisible and the non-experienced can 
 be conveyed only througii imagerv. As we speak of (iod's 
 eye, and hand, and arm. to signify his knowledge, protec- 
 tion, and power, while we expressly assert that God has 
 not eye. hand, or arm, but is a Spirit that Tiecds not me- 
 chanical helps; so Christ represents Dives as calling for 
 Lazarus to dip his '^ finger' in "u-atcr"' to cool the 
 '"'' tongue' ' of one tormented in "flames,'' while finger and 
 water, tongue and flames, as we know vhem, belong not to 
 the world of the spiritual. The words convey to oi'.r minds 
 the impression of a spiritual suffering as intense in its sphere 
 as the physical suffering arising from fire. 
 
 A physical hell, the mediaeval hell of brimstone and 
 pitchforks, is utterly opposed both to reason and to the 
 divine revelation of future conditions. A hell of bodily 
 suffering has, has an inevitable corollary, a heaven of bodily 
 pleasure. The antithesis of Dante's Inferno and Jonathan 
 Edwards' Gehenna is Mohammed's Paradise of Sensuality. 
 
 Christ gives us the key to the nature of eternal punish- 
 ment in Abraham's reply to the request of Dives : '■'■Son, 
 remember!" 
 
 What a poet sings of mortal existence is true of the soul's 
 eternal loss — 
 
 "A sorrow's crown of sorrow 
 Is remembering happier things." 
 
I)l\KS AM) LaZAIU'S. 15 
 
 Dives could no! but reincmber that on earth he had 
 deemed riches, softness of livinjj^, self-indulgence, the chief 
 good. He had deliberately set as the objects of his higliest 
 desire things that in their very nature must be left l)ehind 
 in the world of matter. His character and appetite were 
 developed and fixed in harmony with the temporal, and 
 must forever remain unsuited to all else. He can but look 
 back on them now. 
 
 While retrospection of past pleasures adds to present joy 
 when all is well with us, it adds to present misery when 
 we are out of joint with the world. Our present condition 
 colors every memory. In the case of a Dives retrospection 
 convicts him at every step of past folly, and in so doing 
 adds to the fire of remorse. 
 
 A man's life invariably sliows what he considers his 
 ••good things.'' Brutes, human beings, and angels are ■.'.1- 
 ways pursuing their ••good tilings.'" We give (iod the 
 measurement of our own souls, by what we the most eager- 
 ly seek, and the reward shall be strictly according to our 
 search. If our chief aim is pleasure, we need not expect 
 to gain an everlasting crown of righteousness. If our pray- 
 er is to gain human applause, we may as well abandon all 
 hope that God will give it the slightest attention. We shall 
 not find anything but that which we seek. In speaking of 
 the Pharisees Christ gave the record that shall be every 
 man's : "Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward" — 
 that for which they strive. 
 
 That is to say : If our chief desires can be satisfied by 
 what the senses or the earthly affections of selfishness can 
 give, we shall receive our reward in this world, and in the 
 next be tormented with the gnawings of satiety and im- 
 possible longings. If we are satisfied with nothing less 
 
i() l)i\ Es AND Lazarus. 
 
 than the praise that comes from (iod. then, whatever we 
 have or have or have not in this world, we shall be com- 
 forted in the next with the words, "Enter thou into the 
 jov of thv Lord." 
 
 (jods Julxj.mkn!- Ixkai.lihle. 
 
 And. as we pursue our s1ud\' of the parable, still another 
 teachin<i; comes into view — the teachinj^ that God makes no 
 mistake in the assignment of abodes to the lost and to the 
 rede^'ined. 
 
 The rich man's prayer shows that in eternity his charac- 
 ter is still unchanged. The awful proof from experience 
 of what on earth he had, by his life, denied, has effected 
 neither moral nor spiritual change. His Hrst thoujjjht i'.i 
 this world had been for ease and comfort, without reference 
 to his heart's condivion ; and this is his Hrst thout^ht in tor- 
 ment. Of sorrow for his past life he speaks not one word, 
 lie just wants to j^et rid of the sting of remembrance, the 
 gnawing of remorse. 
 
 lie declares the character of manv whose highest concep- 
 tion of life is to be free from pain and trouble ; who drown 
 sorrow for the past, if men, in whiskev or business, if wo- 
 men, in pleasm-e or drugs; who have no sense of responsi- 
 bilitv to (iod their Father, and men their brethren ; and 
 whose wliole life is a shameful exposition of the Devil-writ- 
 ten text : "Everv one for himself." 
 
 There is eternal punishment and men sutfer it. But no 
 one goes to Hell save the irreclaimable. If we could once 
 grasp that thought, the doctrine of eternal punishment 
 would not cause us to criticise God so severelv. 
 
PART FOURTH. 
 
 Eternal Hope. 
 
 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; 
 so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can 
 they pass to us, that would come from thence. — SL Lu/ce 16:26. 
 
 We have just considered the first part of Abraham's re- 
 ply, the teaching that ptmishment of tiie wicked hereafter 
 is inevitahh. Souls that can be satisfied with such "good 
 things" as the world gives form a habit that can have no 
 possible satisfaction in eternity. Annihilation is the only 
 conceivable escape from the torttires of memory and desire. 
 
 The Chasm Between Life and Death. 
 
 The second part of Abraham's reply teaches that punish- 
 ment iiereafter shall be permanent. Tiie memory of the 
 past shall remain to those in misery as well as to those at 
 peace. The waters of Lethe neither rise in the place of 
 wretchedness nor flow near its borders. Between the re- 
 deemed and the lost in the after life is a great gulf, fixed, 
 and, from either direction, impassable. 
 
 The word "gulf," which in process of time has come to 
 convey in popular thought the idea of a vast separating 
 cavity filled with substance that affords possibility of travel 
 from shore to shore, has no such meaning here. Transliter- 
 ated from Greek into English it is "chasma," or chasm ; and 
 it has the exact meaning given nowadays to "chasm" but 
 
iS DiVKS AN'D I^APiAKUS. 
 
 lost from "gulf." A chasm differs from a gulf cliietlv in 
 this respect : That it is empty of all that makes passing 
 possible to man. 
 
 The word "fixed" is the precise word that is translated 
 in St. Luke 9:51, "steadfastly set;" where it expresses the 
 unalterable determination of Christ, now that his hour was 
 at hand, to go up to Jerulalem. 
 
 Therefore, an accurate and more forcible translation 
 of this reply of Abraham's is, "Beside all this, between 
 us and you is a great chasm unalterably set." 
 
 That this chasm is a chasm between places as well as be- 
 tween states of soul, limiting free movement from locality 
 to locality as well as from condition to condition, is suffi- 
 ciently apparent. Man, whether in this worll or in the 
 world to come, will always be a finite being; will always 
 be in a place. 
 
 But whatever may be the geography of Hades, it is, after 
 all, the character of the inhabitants of Hades that gives 
 significance and a reason for being to the metes and bounds 
 of its respective divisions. About the chasm of place we 
 can only speculate. About the chasm of character we find 
 no room for speculation ; we find certainty. 
 
 The great gulfs between varying forms of life have been 
 crossed ; but between all life and death the great chasm 
 that is set is unremovable and impassable. 
 
 Myriads of inorganic particles combined cannot give the 
 germ of even the lowest form of life. The verv lowest 
 form of life never becomes death. Life may disappear 
 from one form, but life, like all energy is indestructible in 
 essence, and is permanent tlirough a thousand forms. It 
 may, for indcdnite ages, run the cycles of vegetable. Ijrule, 
 and human, but it never crosses the chasm that separates it 
 
Dives and Lazauus. 
 
 from death. So, on the other hand, inorg-unic matter may 
 assume conditions of infinite variety ; it may be brought in- 
 to what appears to be living and indissoluble contact with 
 life; it may itself appear to be alive; but at the last it dis- 
 closes itself in its true character as lifeless; it remains be- 
 hind while life moves on. 
 
 Into the kingdom of life only the living can enter. The 
 spiritually inorganic nature is spiritually as incapable of re- 
 ceiving spiritual joy and satisfaction as the everlasting rock 
 is incapable of material perception and enjoyment. ,St. 
 Paul atfirms that truth when he says, "Flesh and blood 
 cannot inherit the Kingdom of God ; neither doth corrup- 
 tion inherit incorruption." Both in the natural 
 world and in the spiritual world we ever hear 
 the living saying to the lifeless : "Between us 
 and you is a great and impassable chasm ; so that 
 what would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can 
 that pass to us that would come from thence." 
 
 This fixed chasm exists in Hades. Spiritual life and 
 death are surely more pronounced realities than physical 
 life and death. In Paradise are tlie souls that on earth died 
 to sin and were alive unto God; and these receive their an- 
 ticipations. In torment are the souls that are dead in tres- 
 passes and sins ; and these are without the organs of spiritual 
 appreciation. 
 
 Against Christ's plain teaching that these conditions are 
 immutable nothing has ever been urged but the desire of 
 the heart, which is no iirgument, and the hardly-twisted 
 testimony of a few obscure lexis, not one of which is in the 
 words of Christy and all of which are susceptible of a con- 
 struction much simpler, much more obvi )us and reasonable, 
 and in entire harmony wit!) tlie Lord's actual words. 
 
Dives and Lazahis. 
 
 It is ;i fact tliat every believer in what is called "Eternal 
 Hope" — a phrase which, it has been suggested, can mean 
 that what is hoped for eternally is never received — and in 
 probation after death, has to quote as authorities the Epis- 
 tles of the New Testament, which, compared with the Gos- 
 pels, he himself holds to be cf secondary degree of inspira- 
 tion, and the Apocrvphd Jiooks of the Old Testament, 
 which he holds to be of no inspiration at all save on the 
 point in question. 
 
 "Tjie vShiuits in Prison." 
 
 The citadel of this teaching is the famous passage 1 St. 
 Peter 3 :i9, wherein it is written that Christ by his Spirit 
 went and preached to the spirits in prison. 
 
 The assumption of ad\'ocates of "Eternal Hope" is that 
 these spirits were in prison — under guard in Hades — when 
 Christ preached to th im. And upon this assumption is 
 based the further as.umption that Christ preached to them 
 between his Crucifixion and his Resurrection, and that the 
 purpose of his preaching was that they might repent. It is 
 strange that only the disobedient souls that lived in Noah's 
 time received this preaching, that nothing is said of other 
 disobedient souls that they shall have another chance, and 
 that the hope that they shall must rest solely upon logic and 
 inference ! 
 
 If any one were to wn-ite to us, "The judge sentenced 
 the prisoners in the penitentiary," would we understand 
 that he sentenced them ^vhik they were in the penitentiary? 
 Would it not be plain that the sentoice preceded the in- 
 carceration f 
 
 Now apply a similar thought to the passage under con- 
 sideration. "Christ, by his Spirit preached to the spirits 
 
Dives and L.\zai?us. 
 
 in ]M-is()n."" Dill he ])i"eac!i while they were in prison? 
 leather, did not their impris(>nnienl ix'sult from a i)rc\ioiis 
 refusal to hear his preachinti^? Tlie s-pirils ;;onin prison arc 
 t'ie very souls that tlie Spirit of the Son of (rod acting 
 through Noah, a .preacher of rii^hteousness, had in vain 
 c.aHetl Id repentance while the Ark was a-preparing. This 
 sarelv is a rational interpretation, and it is in thorough ac- 
 cord with other undisputed facts. The sacred reconl tells 
 us that Christ went into l\u-adise after his Crucilixion. 
 Christ jioniised that he would be in Paradise with the 
 ])enitent malefactor. W'e find no such promise of his in- 
 tended [)resence with the impenitent. 
 
 l*K()i5A'no.\ Preckdks Dkatu. 
 
 Christ".-, explicit statement is tiiat men shall be judged ac- 
 cording to the deeds done "in the flesh."' Deeds done in 
 tile tlesh must be done in this w(udd. Wliat is done after 
 the flesh is laid aside sliall not be the criterion of eternal 
 existence. The opportunitv for repentance is expressly 
 limited to this world. 
 
 They who to into the unseen world unprepared for com- 
 munion with Christ shall find no agency there to prepare 
 them. Every opj)(>rtunity and every incenti\'e possible io 
 (jod is gi\en and addeil in this world. Earth was the 
 theatre of our Creation; it must be the phice of our Re- 
 (.lemption. God himself appeals to men to say whetljcr the\- 
 can imagine greater deterrents froni evil and inciteinents 
 to good than are furnished in this life. *'0 inhabitants of 
 Jerusalem and men of Judah. judge. I pray you, betwixt 
 me and my \ineyard. What could have been dtme nu;rc 
 to my \ineyard, that I have not done in it?"' — W'liat more, 
 indeed, than tlie giving of his Son to die forr.s? 
 
 And God announces his determination : 'T will com- 
 mand the clouds tliat they rain no rain upon it."' Since 
 tlie life is grotesque and lawless, let life cease, and let deso 
 iation and death reign. Rejection en earth, (h;d"s pro^ing 
 ground, is eternal rejection. 
 
PARI FIFTH, 
 '[he Continuance of Affection. 
 
 •'Then he said, I pray thee tlu'reforf, father, lh.it thou woulde.-t 
 semi him to my father's liou.e; for 1 hive five hretliroii; that ht- may 
 ti'slify unto them, lest they also come into this plac of torment." 
 — -Sy. Lu.ke i6:2j ami 3S. 
 
 Mcii luuc drawn very diverse conclusions from tlu- rich 
 man's prayer for his brotliers. 
 
 Some have :ir(rued that the prayer is iiicom[iatible with 
 total depravity ; that it shows a residutim of love which 
 jjfives <rround for hope that in time to C(Mne it may develop 
 intti something hij^her and nobler, into h>ve for (Jod; that 
 tinder the moving power of that love it may repent, and at 
 tlie last be literally saved by the fire of age-long torment. 
 
 Others have argued, with sadder ingenuity, that the prayer 
 of the rich man 's the prayer of total depravity; that it no- 
 where indicates unselfish care for others; tluit it clearly is 
 the petition of one tha.t fears that his own miserv shall be 
 increased by the eternal reproaches of those over whom he 
 ])ad exercised evil influence on earth. 
 
 It is overlooked by both classes, who reach sucli dift'erent 
 conclusions from the common assumption that total dej)rav- 
 itv is necessary to eternal loss, that th'.- assumption on 
 which their arguntents are reared has no probability in its 
 favor, is supported by no analogy of nature, is not deduci- 
 ble from anv revelation from God. 
 
 Dead Roots ani> D^ ing 11k vnchks. 
 
 Tiie human body does n!)t need to be tolallv diseased in 
 
DrvEs AN'D Lazakits. 
 
 evcrv part and incinher thereof before death sie/.es it. Men 
 die with but a simple vital origan diseased and with every 
 other portion of the body perforniintj its functions perfect- 
 Iv. Hut the fate of tliat origan u[)on whicli mortal dis- 
 ease has seized must be the fate of all the members, how- 
 ever healthv, in vital connection with it ; and the stricken 
 organ and the healthv members, wliich. altogether, consti- 
 tute the bodv, sink in the common ruin of death. And as 
 we look upon the dead body we think, "This body is not 
 dead because it was mortally sick, totallv depraved, in all 
 its members. It is dead, and its healthv members are dead, 
 only because de ith overpowered the seat of life."' 
 
 And so it is with the soul that leaves the dead body. 
 Death does not work in it a miraculous transformation of 
 character. Death simply transfers the personal soul to a 
 new sphere of action. The soul's new life begins exacllv 
 where the old life ended. Its character the first instant of 
 eternity differs inlinitesimally from its character the last 
 instant of time, and that diBerence is but the ditYerence tliat 
 conies in the growth of a single instant. 
 
 The test question would not be, Is tlicre a spark of af- 
 fection still living.- The test cpiestion is. Is the s[)ark of 
 atTection growing brighter or colder.^ For almost if not 
 quite ever)' man that ever went into eternity had some spark 
 of good in him. But when mortal elisease has struck the 
 soul the few remaining possibilities for good cannot long 
 exist after the life-giving power is gone from the soul. 
 
 It would be hard in this world to find a criminal so de- 
 praved that he would not warn others to escape his own 
 fate. Misery does not love company for its own sake. An 
 aniinal when sick wants solitude. A human body when 
 sick wants quietude. A soul when sick wants to be away 
 
24 Dives AM) Lazaius. 
 
 from the wliirl of biisincs> and pleasure-. Aiul so with tor- 
 mented souls. 
 
 The criminal tlial dra;j;s others down with him hv cov- 
 fession or false accusation does so either fri)m fancievl in- 
 jury, from hope of g)od, or from vagiu s.'ns,> of injustice that 
 he should sufl'er while others equally L^'uilty shoulil escape. 
 r»ul when reven^v. selfis'.iness, fancied injustice, do not 
 urge on there is no criminal so mean as not to warn hi> 
 loved ones or his confederates tliat lhe\' mav escape. 
 
 l>ut doi's this warnin-^ chan;^-e the crinn'nal's characler.- 
 llus it any connection whatevei* with the crime for which 
 he is to sulVer.' Doesit ha\e any tendency to elevate his 
 moral standartl, and to make him more thoULjhtful of prop- 
 erty and life ? 
 
 So in torment shall be found men who. wilh.out ho]")e lor 
 themseKes. shall still desire that their kinch-ed on earth 
 shall not come to the same place. Men ' do not become 
 malignant devils the moment thev feel the Jiangs of suiTer- 
 ing for a mis-sj)enl. selfish,, (jodless lil~e; 
 
 P'rom the thought of the rich man in torment as si ill car- 
 ing, to some extent, for his brothers on earth we are ieatl 
 on to two other teachings inferred trom this. 
 
 I)k<;kkks ok Pi nishmknt. 
 
 The first teaching is : That in the world to come there 
 are degrees of punishment. 
 
 This teaching is elsewhere explicity made by Christ. 
 when he speaks of some as being jiunished with few strijies 
 ami ol hers with man\ . 
 
 As men go out of this world, so thev go into the next ; to 
 \arving degrees of happiness or of miser\ . S(,me forever 
 
Dives and Lazauus. 
 
 separated from Christ were led into temptation, and sone 
 were the leaders. And inasmuch as eternal punishment is 
 not arbitrary, but is commensurate with character, the 
 memory of the actively malignant will be more heavily 
 loaded and his cons.'cjuent remorse more bitter than the 
 memory and the remorse of him who, it may be, lived and 
 died "not far from the kingdom of heaven." The punish- 
 ment of Caiaphas is greater than that of Pilate. 
 
 "Thou hast destroyed thyself" is God's asseveration to 
 the lost. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
 reap" is the Apostolic description and measure of any 
 man's destruction. While the soul exists seed-time and 
 harvest shall not fail. In eternity a man will reap just the 
 same kind of hell that he sowed on earth, and he will reap 
 as much of that kind of hell as is proportionate to the 
 amount of hell he sowed on earth. The man who despite 
 the greatest opportunities rejects the highest good shall 
 reap the lowest hell. It is for this reason that, of angels, 
 Satan, and, of men, Judas, stand for all time the two 
 supreme exampleg of infinite despair. 
 
 How much each man that has crossed the limit is doing 
 of Satan's seed-sowing even he himself cannot teJl now, but 
 when he wakes in torment his harvest of punishment will 
 declare it infallibly. 
 
 Intercessory Prayer in Paradise. 
 
 The second inferential teaching fi-om the rich man's 
 cai'e for his brothers on earth is : That if the lost can still 
 care for us much more do the redeemed care for us. 
 
 The activities of Paradise are not entirely hidden from 
 us. The highest of earthly Christian duties shall 
 not cease there. 
 
26 Dives and La/Jaijus. 
 
 The blessed dead who prayed for us on earth still pray 
 for us in Paradise. 
 
 It would be strange if they did not, strange that the 
 nearer they stand to Jesus Christ, and the clearer their in- 
 sight into God's love, the less they should pray for us who 
 they know are so easily beset with sin. 
 
 Every loved one dead in the Lord, and resting from his 
 strivings with sin, is a power that draws us closer to God; 
 for if tlie effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man, him- 
 self compassed with infirmities of flesh and mind, availeth 
 much uttered from earth, much more will his prayer avail 
 when, with thousandfold intensity, it is uttered in the 
 regions of the Blessed. 
 
 "More things are wrought bj- prayer 
 Than this world dreams of." 
 
 They that thus constantly pray for us. as one of the very 
 conditions of their own unfettered growth in the knowledge 
 and love of God, may not see us here, and may not know 
 how it fares with us, for they are still but finite beings, A 
 passing friend mav tell them. Perchance, (who knows.'') 
 the blessed Lord himself may tell them. 
 
 They may hear from us, but we cannot in this world 
 hear from them. The passing is all in one direction. W3 
 know not how far, how near, they be, in realms of space. 
 But one thing we do know, unless God-given reason plays 
 us false, and that is, that the love of those whom we have 
 loved long since and lost awhile never weakens in intensity 
 but grows more effectual for our good with the passing 
 years. 
 
 "For so the whole round earth ir. every way 
 Biund by g")ld chiins ab^ut the feet of God." 
 
PART SIXTH. 
 
 Evidence and Conviction. 
 
 AVjrahani saitli unto him, They have Moses and the Prophets; let 
 them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Al^raham: but if one 
 went unto them from the dend, the}' will repent. And he said unto 
 him. If the}' hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be 
 persuaded, though one rose from th.- d^ad. — S/. Liikc 16: 2g — j/. 
 
 The parable of Dives and Lazarus does not have to do mere- 
 ly with the condition of souls :ii the Intermediate State. It 
 has to do with their condition in this world. 
 
 The rich man's ])lea for his brethren still living on earth 
 brings our thoughts back from the future, to theconditions of 
 present life. All is over with Dives, His doom is sealed. 
 
 But what about his brethren? How can living men be per- 
 suaded? How is it possible for them to learn the truth, and 
 learn it fo that it shall become a constant force in their lives 
 that selfishness has hell as its inevitable end? 
 
 Two answers have aWays found favor. Their correctness 
 is indicated by their origin. The voice from the place of tor- 
 ment cries out for a miracle, that one should rise from the 
 dead. The voice of our spiritual father, Abraham, asserts 
 that miracles do not convince where the ordinary testimony 
 appealing to reason is still neglected. 
 
 The Impotence of Mir.vcles. 
 
 Will a miracle convince the incredulous, and turn the sinner 
 to repentance? Will the greatest of miracles, the return from 
 the dead, change the moral nature of living men? 
 
 The Phc-irisees seemed to think that it would. "What si^n 
 showest thou?" they asked of Him whose authoritv was 
 
^8 Dives and Lazarus. 
 
 plainly enough manifested by his moral suhlimitv. 
 
 And the same question is asked by men today. "If there be 
 a life after death." they say, "a eonscious personal existence, 
 eternal life with tjod for the good, and everlasting [)unishment 
 in hell for the wicked, let us have some positive proof. Let 
 one rise lrf)m the dead and give us that testimonv of experi- 
 enc-.' which is our only ground for belief." 
 
 It is intimated in tliis demand that such a miracle will 
 leave no loop-hole of escape from belief; and that insufficic iCy 
 of proof and devotion to truth are the (mly obstacles to faith. 
 
 Yet the experience of ages does not bear out this conten- 
 tion. 
 
 The many miracles that Moses wrought in the Egyptiatk 
 court afitected Pharoah but for the moment; and after each 
 one, and after all, the steadfast j urpose of his heart remained 
 unchanged. 
 
 The only beneficiaries of these miracles, the people cho.sen of 
 G(m1, saw the water bursting from the rock, fed upon the an- 
 gels' food that came down from he.iven, and rejoiced at going 
 dry sliod through the waves that overwhelmed their oppress- 
 ors; but so little were thev affected at heart by these wonder- 
 ful works that they rebelled ag linst their leader, murmured 
 against their God, and for generation after generation mani- 
 fested a well-nigh ineradicable love for the lascivious idolatry 
 of the surrounding herthen. 
 
 Jesus raided one whom he lf)ved, the brother of Mary and 
 Martha, from the dead; and tiiough one did come back from 
 the dead the chief efitcct on the unbelieving Jews was that they 
 sought to kill both Lazarus and Jesus. 
 
 Christ himself came back from the dead; and the result de- 
 monstrated the truth of his words in the parable as spoken by 
 Abraham; "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither 
 
Dives and Lazarus. 29 
 
 will they be jX'rsuadetl,thou<j;h one should rise from the dead." 
 
 And this failure of miracles to convert is nothing remarka- 
 ble. Miracles do not touch the heart. When Christ wrought 
 wonderful cures the people did not conffss their sins; they 
 brought other sick for him to heal. To their minds, untrained 
 but full of the unformulated fundamentals ot philosophy, 
 Christ's healing ot the sick proved — what? That he had won- 
 derful power to heal the sick. 
 
 As the supremelv wise Man, Christ could not trust the con- 
 version of men to the effect produced in their minds b_\ that 
 break in the observed order of cause and effect which we 
 term miracle; for each man would question with himself the 
 truth of wh.'it he had seen, and take refuge in an}' of the half- 
 score plausible explanations that presented themselves. Even 
 if convinced his conviction would satisfy oily himself; God 
 would be compelled to repeat miracles for every man's con- 
 version (and thus overthrow for all time the strongest natu- 
 ral evidence of his power, intelligence, and love — the stability 
 of nature), or men would be compelled to take the miracle at 
 second-hand, and thus after all, rely on the accounts gi . en by 
 others. 
 
 It was not miracles but parables that Christ relied upon to 
 convict men of sin, righteousness, and judgment. "Without a 
 parable spake he not unto them." 
 
 The miracle startled men; the parable convinced them. 
 
 The miracle made them question the permanence of cause 
 and effect in nature; the parable taught them the unity of the 
 natural and the spiritual and the fixedness of their laws under 
 one Law-Giver. The storv of a little ewe-lamb brought living 
 waters out of David's stony heart, which a year of signs 
 could not touch. The parable of the Prodigal Son has con- 
 verted manv a man that sees nothing: but natural causes at 
 
30 Dives and Lazakus. 
 
 \v4)rl< in the rise find fall of nations, and the crash of falling 
 thrones and the iiprcaring of new dynasties in state and in- 
 tellect. 
 
 Miracles confirm a faitli already living, hut it never calls 
 unbelief to life. One has come back from the dead, but men 
 whose lives are centered on other than what he commanded 
 and commended still refuse to believe. 
 
 Miracles, the greatest of miracles, will not do that wliich 
 existing revelation fails to accomplish. 
 
 TiiK Testimony of Revelation. 
 
 Christ said through Abraham's words in this paral)le that 
 "Moses and the Prophets" — what we term the Canon of the 
 Old Testament — \Nere sufficient witness to anv man of the 
 blessed and the sad realities of the life after death. A fortiori, 
 the testimony ot the New Testament superadded to the d 
 must be sufficient proof. 
 
 This assertion of Christ's teaches us two things: 
 
 i.st. The authority of the Old Testament. 
 
 2ncJ. The sufficiency of Scripture for Salv.'-ition. 
 
 1st. It is a wide-spread tendency among Christians as well 
 as unbelievers to belittle the authority of the Old Testament. 
 The most radical view is that it is nothing but a national 
 encyclopedia of histor\^ .science, and poetry. The least de- 
 structive of erroneous views is that the Old Testament is, 
 so to speak, a back-number of Inspiration ; that it is now 
 shoved entirely aside by the fuller development of the New ; 
 that it was good enough for those who lived in the semi- 
 obscurity of Judaism, but is utterly unworthy of serious con- 
 sideration in these days of the man-indwelling Spirit. 
 
 We look in vain for any w^ord of Christ's or of his Apos- 
 tles' that teaches other than the absolute equality of Old and 
 New Testaments. "They have Moses and the Prophets; 
 
Dives and Lazarus. 31 
 
 let them hear them," is Christ's own attestation of their 
 full authority. "They are able to make thee wise unto 
 salvation," was St. Paul's testimony of their sufficiency. 
 And the testimony of Biblical experts is that one of the 
 surest demonstratio-ns of the divine origin of Christianity 
 would be cast out should we disregard that testimony of 
 prophecy from Moses to Malachi to which St. Peter bids us 
 take heed t'll the day star rise in our own hearts. 
 
 2nd. It flows from this that all Holy Scripture contains 
 everything th it men need to know for their eternal safety. 
 In the Bible the humblest individual finds all that is reveal- 
 ed to the wisest scholar of God's will and purpose. 
 
 Men may read it wrongly and get erroneous views and 
 frightful errors from it. They frequently do. But if they 
 need that calmer and better balanced and more thoroughly 
 equipped minds shall open up the Scriptures for them, as 
 Philip opened them for the Ethiopian treasurer, they yet 
 have the original befoi^e them and human reason within 
 them, and by the conjoining of the two are able to discern 
 whether the explanation of man has made God's word of 
 none effect. 
 
 The internal evidence of Scripture to its authority suf 
 fices for all but the prejudiced ; for whom no proof is pos- 
 sible. Its harmony with human reason testifies to its truth- 
 fulness about future existence. As we read the works of 
 Shakespeare we exclaim "It is the revelation of a genius." 
 As we read the Sacred Scripture we exclaim. "It is a voice 
 of God';3." 
 
 THE END. 
 
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