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15 :53 ). L ifted up h is eyes. The rich man is thus represented as waking from the momentary unconsciousness o f death to full consciousness, an d th e first object he discerns is Lazarus whom he had seen lying in wretchedness at his gate, reposing in a place of honor beside Abraham . He calls to Abraham , and th is is th e only example in Scrip tu re of th e invocation of saints and does not afford th e least encourage m ent for the practice.— Maclaren. Seeth Abraham . Yet Abraham had died and was buried eighteen hundred years before.— Sel. v. 24. He cried. H ere are some plain teachings about th e interm ediate state of th e unsaved: a. Sense of pain— 7 - tormented. b. Sense of memory— “Son, rem ember.” c. Sense of loss— Seeth Abraham a fa r off. d. Sense of fear— “Send Lazarus.” e. Anguishing thoughts — tormented.— Sawyer. Thek-e are con versations in hades.-—Morris. F a th e r Abraham . The dead cannot communi cate w ith the living and cannot benefit by them (vv. 27-29) p n o r can any in tercessions of th e living alleviate the conditions of th e impenitenf'dead. The Lord Jesus m isrepresented nothing. Though we may not be able to explain all H is statem ents, yet we know th a t th e fire, th e w ater, the gulf, are in tense symbols to express th e intenser emotions of pain, desire and despair which attend the lost in hades.—Need ham. I am torm ented. The children of mammon have bu t reg ret, remorse and shame in the ultim ate outcome of th e ir cherished methods. Their friends can n eith er help them nor be helped by them.-—-Nicholson. Lazarus had asked for crumbs (v. 21). The ri,ch man would be eased in his to rm en t by a mere drop from L azarus’ feast.— Sel. v. 25. Thou receivedst th y good things. He was not lost simply because he was rich. He was lost because he sought his good things in th is life. It is b etter to be a poor man h ere and have Jesus Christ and eternal life th a n to be a rich m an here, faring sumptu ously every day and go to hell here after. The fact th a t man is in poverty and distress of body is no proof th a t God is displeased w ith him.— Torrey. The parable gives no ground for th e in terp retation th a t th e temporal felicity of Dives was a rew ard for any good things he had done or th e misery of Lazarus a punishm ent for his temporal sins.— F a rra r. Of w hat use then is earth ly w ealth, so dearly prized by the covetous, if they are w ithout salvation and spending th e ir wealth only in g rati
fying th eir own selfish desires?— Gray. v, 26. G reat gulf fixed. Not a mere handbreadth only, bu t a g reat gulf, and not merely there, bu t “ fixed” th ere— an etern al separation, a yawning chasm, too deep to be filled up, too wide to be bridged over. Christ moves in th a t world as w ith a perfect fam iliarity, speaking w ithout astonishm ent as of things which He knows.—Trench. v. 27. Send him to my fath e r’s house. We cannot escape the conclusion th a t in the rich man’s words th e re is a cer ta in reproach against God and the Old T estam ent economy for his not having received sufficient warning. The re proach is rolled back by Abraham ’s re ply: “They ARE sufficiently w arded; the fau lt is th eirs if they, too, go to th e place of to rm en t.”.—Robertson. The time to be concerned about th e salvation of th e lost is while we are on earth .— Lewis. v. 29. Moses and th e prophets. A rem arkable testimony from Christ H im self th a t th e canon of th e Old Testament was w hat it was believed by th e Jews to be, th e Word of God. It is intim ated also th a t men came into torm ent be cause they would not hear th e Old Tes tam en t Scriptures. W hat th en w ill be th e condition of those who refuse to h eaf Christ and the apostles speaking in the New?-—Wordsworth. v. 31. Though one rose from th e dead. The unbelieving Jews themselves be came a signal, instance of th is; who w ithstood all the m iracles of Christ, even th a t g reatest of all, H is resurrection from th e dead, no less th a n they had done th e ordinary preaching of the prophets.— Clarke. Where unbelief pro ceeds, as it frequently does, from a vitiated m ind, which hates to be re formed, which rejects th e evidence be cause it will not adm it th e doctrine; in such a case all proofs will be alike, and it will be lost labor to afford new evidence, since it is no t th e w ant of evi dence th a t causes th e unbelief.— Sher lock. The Story of A R ich Man and A Beggar. Luke 16:19-31. Memory Verse.— “He th a t h ath pity on th e poor, happy is he.” Prov. 14:21. Approach.—rDo you boys and girls re member w hat we did a while ago for some little children down in Central America? Charles, why did we bring
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