Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1909-09-23
DIVES AND LAZARUS IN HELL

tlcai existence apart from the Jews in
Palestine: nor was there anything in
their condition or circumstances re-
quiring the number five to designate
them. And what is fatal to this hy-
pothesis is the fact that the five breth-
rem were yet at home in their "fath-
er house after the rich man was in
torment. This does not answer to the
condition of the dispersed Jews, scat
tered among the nations. And furth-
er the torment of the rich man is
supposed to consist largely of the dis
persion of the Jews; and if so the
brethren" were in it first. And then
the rich man desired his brethren to
repent, "lest they also come into this
place of torment. But when did the
Jews. or even the priests, desire that
the scattered Jews might repent in or
der that they might escape persecu-
tionp
But We are sometimes told that the
rich man represents the priesthood,
and the five brethren the body of
the Jewish people. This is not less
absurd than what we have just consid-
ed. If the rich man represented a
priesthood, the brethren should do the
, same; but there were no other five
priesthoods. Besides this the priest
hood of the Jews had no national or
political lifo apart from the body of
the people, and consequently it could
not die political death to be repre-
sented by the death of the rich man of
the parable. And further, the rich
man was dead, buried, and in torment
before his brethren were dead; for
they were yet alive, and in his father s
house. and supposed to be in reach of
repentance when he implored Abra-
ham to send Lazarus to them. But
the Jewish priesthood was not ecclesi-
astically or politically dead before the
body of the Jewish people experienced
like calamity. Nor did the Jewish
priests, SO far as is known, ever ex-
press any desire that the body of the
people should repent, especially of the
sin of rejecting the Messiah, which
brought their woe upon them, much
less that Lazarus, the Gentle world,
should be sent to induce them to re-
pent, lest they also should come into
! this place of torment themselves. But
this is enough to show the absurdity
of the statement that "by the rich
man the Saviour represented the Jews,
especially the priests.
2. By the beggar the No-Hellites
claim that Christ represents the Gen
tile world. Is this true' If so all
that is said in the parable about Laza-
rus must in some way apply to the
Gentle world. The relation to the
rich man, in which the beggar is plac-
ed in the parable, fails utterly to re-
present the relation of the Gentiles to
the Jews. The Gentiles never besought
the Jews to relieve their spiritual ne
cessities The begging of Lazarus at
the rich mans gate finds no parallel
in the history of the nations and GER
tainly not in relation to the Gentiles
to the Jews. The Gentiles were not
aware of their spiritual poverty, and
if they had been oppressed with
the consciousness of their destitution,
they would not have gone to the Jews
or the Jewish priests for relief. There
is no sense in which they desired tC
be fed with the crumbs which fell
from the Jewish table.
1t is claimed the death of the rich
man represents the political death Of
the Jews. If so, then the death OF
Lazarus must represent a politica
death also. Then whose politica
death could it represent? The Gentle
world died no political death. The
death of Lazarus bettered his condi
ton, but political death to the nations
is not looked upon as blessing. New
political life may be gained after po
litical death which will be better thar
the old, but this is not the necessar,
nor the ordinary result. We seel
in vain through all the his
tory of the nations for any event t,
correspond with the Jewish polity, o,
to be called political death on th,
part of the Gentiles. But the riel
man and Lazarus both died, the one a
certainly as the other, and it will no
do to assume that one represented
political death and the other som,
other kind of death. This is not al
lowable, and if it were the other kim
of death in the Gentle world is no
discoverable. 1t was not mora
} death for the Gentiles were morall
{ dead before, and moral death does no
, improve the condition of individual
or nations. 1t was not death unit
} sin, for the Gentiles did not die unit
sin. individuals among Jews an
Gentlles died unto sin as they he
g lieved on Christ, but this personal eS
perience does not answer to the deaf
D of the beggar in any ineligible sense
- The event of death is not a suitabl
e figure with which TO represent
4 change of circumstances in indivt
{ uals or nations, which is to result i
the bettering of the condition of tn
Q subject of it. unless the nature of th
$ charge is so distinctly marked as I