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emotions of pain, desire and despair which attend the lost in hades.—Need ham. I am tormented. The children of mammon have but regret, remorse and shame in the ultimate outcome of their cherished methods. Their friends can neither help them nor be helped by them.—Nicholson. Lazarus had asked for crumbs (v. 21). The rich man would be eased in his torment by a mere drop from Lazarus’ feast.—Sel. v. 25. Thou receivedst thy good things. He was not lost simply because he was rich. He was lost because he sought his good things in this life. It is better to be a poor man here and have Jesus Christ and eternal life than to be a rich man here, faring sumptu ously every day and go to hell here^ after. The fact that man is in poverty and distress of body is no proof that God is displeased with him.—Torrey. The parable gives no ground for the interpretation th a t the temporal felicity of Dives was a reward for any good things he had done or the misery of Lazarus a punishment for his temporal sins.—-Farrar. Of what use then is earthly wealth, so dearly prized by the covetous, if they are without salvation and spending their wealth only in grati fying their own selfish desires?—Gray. Subject Illustrations.— It is said, if a working man today could earn $1000 per day he would have to work until he was 547 years old and never take a day off in order to LESSON be as wealthy as ILLUSTRATIONS s o m e Americans W. H. Pike are today. I f A d a m h a d lived 6000 years and saved $20,000 a year, he would only haye ac cumulated- half as much wealth as several men in America have man aged to accumulate in the short space of forty years. Bible Illustration.—Mark 10:23-31; Matt. 19:16-26. Riches must be held subject to God’s will. We must control our possessions for the glory of God and the good of others or they will con trol us. History Speaks.— “According to Lord McCauley, at the close of the 19th cen-
made right use of the riches of the world and trusted in the Lamb of God.— Trench. Rich man buried. What hap pened to the carcass of the poor man is passed over in delicate reserve.—Mor ris. v. 23. In hell. Literally hades,, the place of departed human spirits between death and resurrection, the equivalent of the Old Testament sheol. Hades ac cording to Scripture was formerly in two divisions, the abodes respectively of the saved and of the lost. The for mer was called paradise and Abraham’s bôsom. The lost were separated from the saved by a great gulf fixed. There has been no change of place or condi tion so far as the unsâved are concerned, but a change has taken place since the ascension of Christ which affects para dise. Paradise since the ascension is referred to as in the immediate pres ence of God. Eph. 4:8-10 indicates the time of the change. During the pres- 'ent age the saved who die are imme diately “a t home with the Lord.” The wicked dead in hades and th e righteous dead a t home With the Lord alike await the resurrection (Job 19:25; 1 Cor. 15:53). Lifted up his eyes. The rich man is thus represented as awaking from the momentary unconsciousness of death to full consciousness, and the first object he discerns is Lazarus whom he had seen lying in wretchedness a t his gate, reposing in a place of honor beside Abraham. He calls to Abraham, and this is the only example in Scrip ture of the invocation of saints and does not afford the least encourage ment for the practice.—^Maclaren. Seeth Abraham. Yet Abraham had died and was buried eighteen hundred years before.—Sel". ■y, 24. He cried. Here are some plain teachings about the intermediate state of the unsaved: a. Sense of pain— tormented, b. Sense of memory—“Son, remember.” c. Sense of loss— Seeth Abraham afar off, d. Sense of fear—• “Send Lazarus.” e. Anguishing thoughts — tormented.—Sawyer. There are con versations in hades.—Morris. F ather Abraham. The dead cannot communi cate wiith the living and cannot benefit by them (vv. 27-29 ), nor can any in tercessions of the living alleviate the conditions of the impenitent dead. The Lord ‘Jesus misrepresented nothing. Though we may not be able to explain all His statements, yet We know thart the fire, the water, the gulf, are in tense symbols to express the intenser
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