The Penn's Grove record., 1910-01-14


there are few of US who enter the
other life either SO completely good
so completely evil that the in
ward and the outward sides Of us are
in complete agreement. Either there
are certain opposing evils in the out
ward man which cannot be taken into
heaven, or certain opposing goods
which cannot be taken into hell.
Lazarus must be Invested Of his rags
and sores, and Dives must be stripped
of his purple and fine linen.
And this is the ordeal through
which we see the two men passing
in that feeting glimpse of the world
of spirits Youchsafed to US by the
Great Teacher. The function of that
intermediate stage of the other life
is analogous to that of the stomach
in the human body-the separation
and absorption Of that which is capa-
BILE Of being assimilated by the heav-
emily society and the segregation Of
the rest.
A most painful experience it must
be. Surprising that u inmost mo-
tives have been Godly-that we have
been making a brave struggle to do
Gods will, and supposing that we
have been largely defeated by certain
inherited defects of our outward ma
ture-infl mites of the temper, weak
nesses of the fesh-which we have
not succeeded in wholly overcoming.
These things, because they are super
fetal in US and not central, because
we hate and do not love them, be-
cause, in short, they form no part OF
our secret wills, will be removed in
the world of spirits, and we shall
finally be introduced into some posi-
ton Of greater or less usefulness n
happiness in the innumerable heav-
ems, high and low. But it is far bet
ter to get rid of them here, for here
they can be removed gradually and
painlessly, and being removed by the
exercise of our own will OF good,
their removal is accompanied by q
great development and enlargement
of all our powers of joy and service.
While in that world of spirit, they
are simply cushed out of us, or burnt
out, or pulled out by the roots. 1t Is
what S~wedenborg calls the process OF
vastation-the spoliation and re-
moval, for instance, of the knowledge,
the talents, the cultivation, which
have made part of u natural man
in This world, but which we did not
embody in our secret and real selves
by regarding them, not for u w
glory and pleasure, but for Gods SER
vice. And If we carry any serious
faults with us to that final reckoning
with God, which still have any deep
roots in us-though we reach heaven
at last, we shall reach it though such
Wales of anguish, through such cruel
bles and %threshing floors of torment.
with such tearings and rendings or
the spirit, that we shall look back
upon the very worst of our sunerings
here as the merest pastime.
No doubt Lazarus had been trodden
In his w~ine-press of pain in that In
terval between his death and the mo-
ment when Dives sees him with his
head on Abraham's bosom. But, oh,
the agony of Divesl For it is just In
that process of VISITATION in the vesti-
bule of the bells that we behold
Dives and all his kind-the people
who have great possessions and VIII
not give them to Gods poor ana
| needy in the spirit of lowly and low
ing service. Only that while Lazar9S
is being relieved of all that made his
soul ugly, Dives is being stripped OF
! all that seemed to make his soul beaus
| tifu1. Though the will was selfish
and Goddess the intellect is still full
of the truths of religion, and by thai
falling light his true character is be-
ing revealed to him in all its ugliness,
and he can now fully measure the
horror of his loss and his despair.
His eyes turn inward and he is made
tn know that with all his moral Tir-
tues and amiable traits he never had
a motive that was not selfish, and he
now finds himself spiritually isolated.
It is a time of self-revealing con-
seriousness and remorse. He is still
capable of seeming consideration for
| others. for though in a spirit OF self
justification, he pleads that a warn
ing be sent to his brothers on earth.
The flames of torment are the burn
ing appetftes which he can no longer
crafty. and through the gathering
darkness he feels himself sinking,
while all his hopes and all his dreams,
the ornaments and beauties of that
higher life to which he had aspired.
but which had never entered into a
motive of self-sacrifce, fade from his
grasp as he sinks down, down into
the abvss. 1t is the rending apart
of a soul.
It is of Divine mercy that there
should be no such hell as that-that
the torments of Dives should be but
of the transition only. For Dives for
gets! The mere shell of him in which
he had resided here, all that mighs
have made his life sublime-the I'M
lived truths, the outward elegancies
and powers and virtues, are all
stripped from him. Presently the IN
ternal. animating, selfish soul and
love of him have changed the out
ward appearance to their own hid
e%ousness.
We have before US a most terrible
warming. We know what we now
seem to be, but we know not what
we shall be. Our natural gifts are
but loaned to us for a season. They
are not a part of u permanent pos
| session. unless, in the way OF HIS
service. we build them into the in
most fiber of our most uRselfsh loves.
If used for our own pleasure and d
vancement they will be stripped from
us at last. God help US to use them
from His Spirit and in His service.