The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1905-08-02
The Use of Wealth,

The Use OF Wealth.
Son, remember that thou in thy life.
time received thy good things. and
likewise Lazarus evil things, but now
he is comforted and thou art torment
ed.-Luke xvi. 20.
The object of the parable of Lazarus
and Dives is not to teach the doctrine
OF the world to come, but to set forth
the evil doing of the unnamed rich
man who was commonly designated as
Dives, and incidentally the infinite
mercy and love of Coo, which will not
suffer misery and wretchedness TO CON
tinue, but will grant to the sick heal
ing, to the hungry plenty and to the
friendless friends
Now precisely what was the fault of
Dives? Is it that be was rich and
| therefore able to clothe himself finely
and live richly? In the heading Of
this chapter, in the English translation
Which we commonly use, the King
James version, this parable is thus de-
scribed: "The rich glutton and Laz-
arus the beggar." But that is quite to
miss the point. Dives is not represent
ed as a glutton; he is not described
Incorporate in any manner. as we
ordinarily consider intemperance. He
dressed handsomely, he Jared well; so
much we are told and no more And
Is there any reason why we should
assume more than that? The point OF
the story is missed if we find Dives
sin in his gluttony or intemperance.
AT his door day by day lay the sick
beggar. That Dives was not un1nar-
itable in the customary sense of the
word charitable is clear from the fnct
/ that N XX.n NJ his -
friends laid him. Such subsistence as
he obtained was derived from Dives.
1t was that which fell from Dives
table, what was superfuous what
Dives did not wish, which was given
to Lazarus. Lazarus was not driver
away or treated with cruelty. as we
ordinarily interpret cruelty; day by day
he was placed at the rich mans gate;
day by day the rich mans super
abundance so far provided for his
wants that he did not starye to death.
We are not TO think of Lazarus rs
being an especially righteous man. 1t
is not on this account that he is re-
ceived into the bosom of Abraham,
but because God is infinitely merciful.
tender and loving. He cannot tolerate
! suffering and misery. His love goes
/ out to him who suffers and is in need;
but as in the natural world God works
through natural agencies. so He does
likewise in the world of social phe-
nomena and social rela ations. God does
not interpose by some miraculous
agency to relieve distress. This He
does through men and women here on
EARTH it is their part to act as the
agents or almoners of God theirs to
feel and show forth the infinite pity
and tenderness of God toward all that
are in need or that suffer, and it is
precisely this which Dives fails to do.
There is none of the pity and tender
ness of God in his dealing with the
beggar; he is not sharer with God;
his conception of his life and the obli-
cations of that life is not the Divine
conception. What he has is his to en-
| joy; what is superfluous and he does
not need may fall to the poor, needy
man who lies at his gate.
In the parable Gods purpose and
Gods opinion are shown in the re-
ception of Lazarus into Abraham's
bosom If we may so state it. 1t was
Gods design that he should have found
love and pity and tender brotherliness
at the hand of Dives, who had been
endowed with many good things that
lit iHlSHl nave Tue supreme ltllclIN OF
blessing and helping those who We're
needy. Dives had taken these boun-
ties of God and used them for himself.
treated them as his own: conceived of
his life as one to be lived for himself,
for his own amusement and satsfac-
tlon; failed to grasp the glorious oppor-
tunity of divine living which had been
given him. and so had disowned God
and the divine in himself: cast him
self out from the company of God;
condemned himself, through his choice
OF the lower course, his denial of the
divine within him. TO the eternal es-
arrangement from God. to Hades and
torment. to use the Jewish phraseology
and picture of the life of the world to
come-Rev DIR. John p. Peters, ST.
Michae's Church. New York, In the
New York Herald.