The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-04-18

Whatever Csc may 10 lAO tOoSn
ing of this parable, we are sure it does
not teach the doctrine Of endless punish
ment. Even if, in disregard of scholar
ship and common sense, the story is &C.
copied as history and not parable, there
is still no logical necessity of inferring
from its statements that punishment
hereafter is in any case to be without
end-Let us assume that Jesus IN
this story, as some tell us, lifts the cur
tain of the hidden world, and descibes
what he actually saw; let us assume
that he saw into hades, the abode OF
spirits, and that he beheld in one de-
partment OF that realm Dives in
flames, and in another department Lag
arus reclining on Abraham's bosom; let
us assume it to be liberal fact that Dives,
being within sight of Lazarus and Abra
ham, asked of the patriarch to send
Lazarus to him that he might assuage
his anguish. and that Abraham told
Dives he, had had his good things in his
lifetime. as Lazarus had had his evil
things, that now their relative condition
was reversed, that there was between
the two great fixed gulf, across which
there could be no passing either way;
let us assume it to be literally true that
Dives then asked of Abraham that he
be allowed to warn his five brothers who
we're then living in the earth as he had
lived, in order that they might be saved
from doom like his own; let us assume
that Abraham told the tormented Dives
that his brothers had Moses and the
prophets and needed not that one should
come to them from the dead; let all this,
however it strains probability, be in its
strict liberalism accepted. What then?
Can any gulf with sides of granite
or flint be so impossible that it may not
in the cycles of millenniums be bridged
or annihilated? Half millennium ago
it would have. been scientifically correct
to say that the Atlantic is fixed and
impossible gulf; but now the divinely'
inspired ingenuity and.perseverance OF
man have made of the Atlantic high
way Of nations and.races.--Ifin hades
the saved.and the Host are to be near
enough to each other to converse to-
gether, there will be such commingling
of heaven and hell as suggests that
either one must ultimately make con-
quest of the other.--What Christian
indeed if he had power of choice, would
not prefer to be a pitiful Lazarus in
flames rather than a pitiless saint in
Abraham's bosom Even ii Alb
raham could be willing that one of his
sons should remain endlessly in aimless
torments, what warrant have we for be-
lieving that lther Eternal Father can
have a like merciless disposition?
Time.-About January AID. 80, the
same as last.lesson.
Place.-Some place in Perea, the
same as in last lesson.
Golden TeXt.-"Ye cannot SERGE
God and nlammon. LUKE 16 ID.
Universalist Catechism.-XVII.
How was the law set forth by the Sa-
viour? Thou shalt loce the Lord thy
God Nth al. thy. heart, and acith all thy
mind, and auth all ting strength; and
thou shalt love thy ,aeighbor as thyseF.
MARK 70 30.31.
General Survey.-This parable is
section of long address of Jesus. The
Pharisees and scribes Q52) murmured
at Jesus for showing favor to despised
Roman taxgatherers and outcast sim
ners. By the parallels Of the Lost Sheep
and the Lost Piece of Silver he illus
trated the divine value placed upon
each one of these unchurched people;
by the parable of the Prodigal Son he
illustrated the Fathers yearning for
every lost child; in the character of the
elder brother he illustrated the heart
lessness and inhumanity of the Phari-
sees and scribes. By the parable of the
Unjust Steward he taught that the
Pharisees and scribes would be more
wise, according to their own standard,
in making friends of the taxgatherers
and outcasts than in scorning them.
To the covetous Pharisee he declared
Lnat tney Woro UOuuu Wy lno JuseiOo VI
the Mosaic Law; to this Law they had
been married, from it they had never
been divorced. He continued with the
parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.
The manifest teaching of this parable is
that the self-rightsous Pharisees, who
assume a monopoly Of Divine favor, are
actually less esteemed above than the
publicans and sinners they despise.--
Jesus, in our lesson passage, repeats
substantially an imaginative story which
he had learned in Jewish literature.
"a story similar to it is found" says DR..
T. B. Thayer, lin the Babylonian &C.
mara" 1--WE find this very parable"
says DR.. Whitby, lin the Gemara Baby
lonian, whence it is cited by Springheim
in the preface of his Joma.' Jesus EN-
ploys the story to show to the Pharisees
that the outcasts they we're now despis
ing were held in higher regard above
than they were.
LESSON STORY.
Jesus, LET it be carefully observed, is
still aDaakinp 10 the multitude TO which