LESSON LXXXVI.

DIVES AND LAZARUS.

LUKE xvi. 19—31.

There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day :

And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,

And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also 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.

And he cried and said, Father Abraham, 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 tormented in this flame.

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

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.

Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest 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.

Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

COMMENT.—The saying in the Sermon on the Mount, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon," was repeated after the parable showing the use to be made of riches. The covetous Scribes and Pharisees derided the words, and, in reply to their mockery, our blessed Lord drew back for a moment the curtain from the unseen world beyond the grave, and showed how it there fares with the thoughtless and selfish rich, and the patient poor.

The rich man is not accused of any great crime, only of being

absorbed in his round of amusement, and (apparently) of neglecting the sufferer at his gate. No sooner has death come, however, than the beggar is borne by the angels to Abraham's bosom, the Jewish title for Paradise; and the rich man simply dies, and is buried, but the Hades, hidden place, to which his soul has gone, is a place of torment and bitter recollection. His state is almost exactly described by the 49th Psalm--one of the oldest of all, probably even earlier than David

They that trust in their wealth,

And boast themselves in the multitude of their riches ;

None of them can by any means redeem his brother,

Nor give to God a ransom for him :

(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever :) That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.

For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish,

And leave their wealth to others.

Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever,
And their dwelling places to all generations;

They call their lands after their own names.

Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not:

He is like the beasts that perish.

This their way is their folly :

Yet their posterity approve their sayings.

Like sheep they are laid in the grave;

Death shall feed on them;

And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;
And their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave:

For he shall receive me.

Be not thou afraid when one is made rich,

When the glory of his house is increased;

For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away :

His glory shall not descend after him.

Though while he lived he blessed his soul :

And men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.

He shall go to the generation of his fathers;

They shall never see light.

Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.

Indeed, the story here told reads like an illustration of that ancient poem of the righteous and the wicked which in itself seems an answer to Job's perplexity (Job xxi. 23, 25), why

One dieth in his full strength,
Being wholly at ease and quiet.

And another

Dieth in the bitterness of his soul,
And never eateth with pleasure.
They shall lie down alike in the dust,
And the worms shall cover them.

Alike in the dust; but how unlike-when the rich man looks across the gulf, and calls in vain for a drop of water to cool his tongue-he who had neglected to assuage the thirst of the man at his gates, but had left him to the tender mercy of the wandering street dogs. He might have made himself a friend with his mammon of unrighteousness, who would have received him into everlasting habitations, but who now could not cross the abyss to bring him one drop of water. And now, while the beggar's light affliction, which was but for a moment, had worked him an exceeding weight of glory, the misery of the rich man had begun, and in especial his remorse and terror at the thought of the brothers to whom he had set an evil example, and who, as the Psalm says, might be praising his sayings, “while he was lying in hell like sheep in a pit, with death gnawing upon him."

66

He longed to send Lazarus back to warn them, but the gates of the grave were closed, and there was no going back. They have Moses and the prophets," said Abraham, "let them hear them." "If one went unto them from the dead, they would repent." But, no, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." These Pharisees around our Lord had never rightly heard Moses and the prophets; they had only been the more embittered when one named Lazarus actually had risen from the dead. And they would be only the more hardened, when He who now spake should come back from the dead.

Some call this only a parable, because of the difficulties in it— such as how actual pain and thirst can be felt by a disembodied spirit, and how Abraham could converse from Paradise with the rich man in Hades; but Scripture does not call it a parable, and it seems to be a real and awful picture of the life after death-hard to understand, because of our ignorance, but perfectly true in itself, and bringing with it some fearful warnings, namely, that thoughtless neglect of our neighbour is severely visited by God; that the

thought of the harm that a bad example has set will be a grievous part of the suffering when it is too late to undo it; and that those who will not use their present lessons of holiness must not say that their faults come of their want of spiritual advantages, "for if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."

LESSON LXXXVII.

THE LOST SHEEP AND LOST PIECE OF SILVER.

LUKE XV. I-IO.

Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.

And he spake this parable unto them, saying,

What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.

Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

COMMENT.-There is reason to think that it was still that Sabbath evening in Galilee, when our blessed Saviour had, at the Pharisee's feast, shown how God seeth not as man seeth, but puts foremost those who take the lowest place and esteem themselves meanest and worst of all; that, as would naturally happen, on going forth, He was surrounded by the persons who were looked on as outcasts from society, or else as beyond the pale of the Jewish Law. As they eagerly listened, the old murmur of the self-righteous was

repeated, that He was willing to receive sinners. It was what had been said before in the cases of St. Matthew and of the woman with the ointment, when our Lord had explained that He came not to call the self-righteous, but sinners to repentance. He had spoken the first of these parables some months before in teaching His disciples, to show them that the utmost care and toil is called for from the shepherds to bring home the wandering sheep (Matt. xviii. 12-14). Now He speaks it again, to explain the joy He felt in bringing back the lost. It is the old comparison to the Shepherd, which had been found in so many prophecies, and which He Himself had appropriated and unfolded at the last Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. And now, again, He shows Himself going after the sheep that has strayed from the fold, and bringing it home rejoicing. It is the first of three precious parables with the same refrain, describing the angelic joy over the penitent. It does not mean that the returning sinner is more prized than the innocent, but that joy is more excited at the time of his return, while there is a calmer feeling respecting those that have not erred.

Perhaps the fuller sense of these three parables would be to take the first, as representing Christ's rescue of this world of men, the sheep that went astray while His angelic hosts were stedfast in obedience. The woman, with her pieces of silver, would represent His Church, seeking for some one of His commandments that she has dropped and forgotten for the time; and the prodigal son shows His dealings with the individual soul.

However, each separately can be interpreted of the single soul, and that most closely, whether we think of the searchings of heart, and the outward troubles by which the Great Shepherd seeks to call the wanderer to His breast to be borne home; or, again, of the diligent seeking of His Church after her poor lost ones.

Silver coins were the pleasure and ornament of the women whom our Lord addressed. Strings of them hung round their necks, arms, and ankles, sometimes a larger one on the forehead; and the loss of one would be felt, not only as that of so much money, but of a favourite jewel, for which every corner would be explored. And we are the jewels of the Bride of Christ, stamped with the image of her King, whom she hopes to adorn herself with before Him. Only let us not be "reprobate silver." Let us not fall from her