Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1909-09-23

the great gulf. And these contra
dictions will go on, for if the prophe-
cies may be accepted as trustworthy,
Jews will yet, as a race, give up their
unbelief, embrace the Gospel and
share the blessings of the Redeemer'
kingdom. The middle wall between
the Jews and Gentiles has been broken
down. All distinctions on account of
nationality have been destroyed, SO
that sinners of all nations stand on
the same ground with respect to the
provisions of the Gospel and terms of
salvation. 'For there is no difference
between Jew and Greek for the same
Lord over all is rich unto all that call
upon him."
1t is, therefore evident that Gods
rejection of the Jews from His cove
nant through unbelief, by which they
were set aside from being His pecu-
liar people fixed no impossible gulf
between them and the church of
Christ on earth. They were broken off
from the good olive-tree by their un-
belief, but God is able to graft them
in again, and when the blindness
which happened to them shall pass a.
way, their conversion will prove to
be the crowning achievement of the
Gospel on earth.
This gulf is so important feat
ure of this parable that we ought to
be sure of our ground with respect to
it, because of its bearing on the gen
eral subject in hand, independently of
the Interpretation we have been con-
sidering
Whatever its nature or import, the
'gulf" is represented as being fixed
between parties that were dead" Alb
raham who appears in this connection,
had been been dead, literally, for hun
dreds of years: Lazarus had died and
been carried by angels into Abraham 8
bosom: the rich man also had died and
had been buried before the gulf ap-
pears. The fact that Abraham was a
real person, and was literally dead, is
not questioned. Nor is it denied that
Lasarus is represented as being
with him. and therefore dead in the
same sense, and enjoying the same
comforts of the same spiritual state
that Abraham was enjoying, No one
can question that that is the represen-
tation of the same state of the dead.
Abraham, who was dead, was on one
:. side of the 'gulf'' with Lazarus, who
had died, in his bosom, or in intimate
fellowship with him; and the rich man
, who had also died and been buried,
was ON the other side of the gulf.
, The gulf was therefore, between the
dead; and if no such separation be-
! tween the dead actually exists in the
3 invisible world, the representation is
: misleading and the parable is based
on falsehood. No matter what appli-
5 cation be made of the parable to things
/ in this world, or how the gulf be met
aphorically used with reference to un-
3 belief or anything else, if the state of
: the dead be not as represented the
, whole thing is worse than fiction and
\ utterly meaningless.
To allege that this representation of
Y the state of the dead is fiction is to
v rob it of its dignity and reduce it to
r the grade of an ill-contrived riddl e.
h The parallels of our Lord were not O.
= nigmatical representations of things
n that existed only in fancy, calculated
$ to bewilder and cOnfound his hearers,
but they were pointed variations OF
. fact, designed to illustrate truth and
S to impress the understanding and the
/. conscience. They were adapted to his
g hearers, the Jews, who knew nothing
IS of the far-fetched ideas No-Hellitei
IS sesk to fasten on this one, and WHIT
J. could not possibly have understood
!, anything of His meaning, neither
e they nor his disciples, if the No-Hell
J. ite Interpretation is correct, nor die
) anyone succeed in guessing it for tn,
n period of eighteen hundred years
y And in this parable, which is not fic
le tion, Christ represented a state o
le suffering or torment in Hades
is This no man calls in question who be
le lieves or interprets the Holy Scrip
p lures And upon this idea of suffer
rs ing in Hades, which his hearers be
10 lieved to be the truth, He founde
e His parable. Then how is il possibl