Neither of these men represented in the parable took his moral state, or received his everlasting reward, from his earthly lot. But it does not follow that he had been immoral, nor that he was under judgment for crime. On the other hand, Lazarus was a beggar, and frightfully diseased. The rich man is not offered as a luminous exhibition of personal worth (see vers. THE ALLOTMENTS OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE ON EARTH ARE NOT ALWAYS EVENLY BASED UPON A REGISTER OF HUMAN DESERT.ġ. Have we regard to the day of trial and the future of retribution (see Matthew 25:41-46)? - C.Ĭ. The sorrow and the sin of the world must be upon our heart as a serious and heavy weight, and we must be ready to make an earnest effort to soothe the one and to subdue the other.Ģ. We must have a heart to pity the poor and needy a soul to sympathize with them and share their burdens ( Matthew 8:17) a generous hand to help them ( Luke 10:33-37). We must go a very long way beyond that infinitesimal kindness. Are our lives governed by the spirit of active benevolence? To throw the crumbs to Lazarus is far from "fulfilling the law of Christ" ( Galatians 6:2). "In hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments " "There is a great gulf fixed." Jesus Christ was not now unveiling the future world for curious eyes he was simply using current language and familiar imagery to intimate to us that the man who has lived a selfish and worldly life will meet with severe condemnation and grievous penalty in the next world a penalty in regard to which he has no right to expect either mitigation or release.ġ. Selfishness and worldliness characterized his spirit they darkened and degraded his life, and they sealed his doom. It was nothing to him that there were treasures of a better kind than those of house and lands, of gold and silver that there was an inheritance to be gained in the unseen world enough for him that his palace was his own, that his income was secure, that his pleasures there was no one to interrupt. It was nothing to him that outside his gates was a world of poverty, of which poor Lazarus was only one painful illustration that sad fact did not disturb his appetite or make his wines lose anything of their relish. His spirit was radically and utterly selfish his principles were essentially worldly. If he parted with a few crumbs which he could not feel the loss of, that was an exception so pitifully small as to serve no other purpose than that of "proving the rule." It went for nothing at all. But he was expending them wholly upon himself, or rather upon his present personal enjoyment. God gave him his powers and his possessions in order that with them he might glorify his Maker and serve his brethren. He was living an essentially selfish and worldly life. He was so far from this that he consented to the beggar being placed at his gate, and (it may be taken) that he allowed his servants to give the suppliant broken pieces from his table he was not at all unwilling that the poor wretch outside should have for his dire necessity what he himself would never miss. It is not a monster that is here depicted not one that took a savage and shameful pleasure in witnessing the sufferings of others. There is no trace of drunkenness or debauchery here.ģ. He may be supposed to have entered on his large estate quite honourably.Ģ. He is not brought forward as the type of those whose very possession of wealth - because ill-gotten - is itself a crime and a sin. He brings its sinfulness and its doom into bold relief.ġ. 1-15), is a very striking confirmation of the doctrine delivered by Christ concerning selfishness and worldliness. Clarkson This parable, taken (as I think it should be), not in connection with the immediately preceding verses (16-18), but with those that come before these (with vers. Worldly Gratification and its Terrible Mockery The Rich and the Poor, Here and Hereafter The Request of Dives for His Five Brethren The Present Life as Related to the Future The Moral Effect of a Visit from the Dead The Influence of Memory Increasing the Misery of the Lost The Divine Authority and Sufficiency of the Christian Religion That a Standing Revelation of God is Evidence Sufficient Scripture-Evidence Sufficient to Make Men Religious Natural Affection Distinguished from the Faith and Love of the Gospel Memory as an Element in Future Retribution Materials for a Future Judgment in the Constitution of the Human Mind A Spectre Would not Produce Conviction in SinnersĪ Standing Revelation the Best Means of Conviction
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