The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1909-06-18
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS
A Forceful Sermon Is Based on the
Moral Character Of These Men.

W
by Rev Frank Onderdonk during the
meeting at the Methodist church was
delivered by him Thursday night He
said he had been endeavoring to
convince the irreligious of the er-
rors of their ways by preaching the
gospel from high plane, but since
it had seemingly been of little effect
in causing sinners to move he had
decided to give them a sermon from
the darker side.
/ The singing of the choir and con-
gregation was up to the usual stand
ard, and just before the sermon
Prof. Ramsay sang beautiful solo
entitled ETERNITY Is Near"
Reports from the various prayer
services showed that two hundred
and fifty-five persons were in at
tendance. 1t was announced that the
business mems prayer meeting Satur
day afternoon would be held at the
city hal.
The home coming service will be
held at the church tonight 1t is hop
ed to make this one of the best ser
vices of the meeting.
Rev. Onderdonk read as scrip
ture lesson a part of the sixteenth
chapter of St Luke, beginning with
the 18th verse Subject, The Rich
Man and Lazarus" Text, two words
from the 25th verse of the 10th
chapter of st. Luke, son, remem-
Der"
The preacher said, 81 want to tell
you that as sure as there is a God i'll
heaven you will have occasion to re-
member these words. | believe the
doctrine of hell and eternal punish
ment is just as much doctrine as
the doctrine of love and faith in Je-
sus Christ. | have heard a great deal
of cheap silly talk about God being
too good and just to permit soul
to be externally punished. You have
Just as much right to condemn your
legislature for enacting laws for the
protection of your property and
homes as to condemn God for pro-
viding a means for the punishment
of the wicked There can be no law
that is worth the name unless at
tached to it there is some kind of
punishment for its infringement
The preacher then discussed the
question of eternal punishment from
the theologian's point of view and
said some authors of works on theol-
ogy claimed that this parable was
used only in a figurative sense. The
language of this parable, he said
may be used figurativeIy, but you
know the figure is only the shadow
of the substance If this is only
figure then what must the real thing
be?
He said this parable was spoken
by Jesus Christ, but ii it had come
from John or some of the apostles
it would have been torn from the
New Testament by critics long
time ago. 1t comes right along fol-
lowing those three wonderful para
bIes on grace. 1t seems to have been
put right over by their side. In this
parable Christ seems to say to sin
ners. | have offered you salvation
/ by grace.
( The preacher spoke briefly Of the
three parallels preceding this one of
the rich man and Lazarus, and said
this one came right from the loving
heart of God. In it Christ pulls aside
the curtain of eternity and shows
what becomes of man who tramples
under his feet the offers of mercy
from the Heavenly Father.
These two characters, he said,
represented two extremes OF moral
life and between these two extremes
may be found all classes Of people
who have lived or who shall ever
live on this earth. The preacher said:
THE first character offered in this
parable is man VINO was unusually
wealthy. He lived in a stately man
sion and had everything the heart
could desire to make life happy. He
had everything but the one great
thing and that was peace with God.
He Jared sumptuously every day,
was clothed in purple and fine linen
and lived in luxury. The next picture
is that of the beggar, He lay at the
rich mans gate and day by day he
was fed with the crumbs from the
rich mans table. His body was COW
erd with sores which were licked by
the dogs-his only friends. Notice
the two extremes. The rich man had
everything except peace with God
The other was a poor man who was
= not able TO engage the services of q
doctor and whose only friends were
) dogs. but he had what the rich mar
-IFil not haye-the love of God the