The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1911-07-10


Y courses from the
RUSSELL Stext, "And in he'll
lie lifted up his
eyes, being in torments. and seeth
Abraham afar OF and Lazarus in his
BOSOM GukesxRlg 80. Addressing the
public under thetausplces Of the In
ternational Bible Students Associa-
1tion, the speaker said
am not choosing my topic for this
occasion according to my own prefer
ences, nor do l wish to do so. Realiz'
ing that a great cloud Of superstition
and erroneous Interpretation Of Gods
WORD, acts as an earth,Gorn cloud to
shide tie heavenly Father from our
eyes OF faith. am continually address.
ling myself to the. removal Of this bar
ricr, to the intent TINT the light of
the knowledge Of the glory Of God as
sc shines in the face of Jesus Christ
our Lord may shine into the hearts of
alf OF Gods dear people more efful-
gently than heretofore; to the intent
that, with the clouds removed, our
eyes may behold the King in His
beauty, and our hearts be drawn to
Him: as to a Father as to a God of
love, as to an Almighty Savior.
Time and again as have delivered
( an address Setting forth the Divine
Plan;of the Ages from the Bible stand
lSpolnt, / have been approached after,
ward BY Christian brethren who said,
you say, Pastor Russell, is
Hcheering, is God-like, is just what our
Hhearts are hungering for and crying
for; but-but l cannot accept it. be-
cause Of the Lords Word respecting
the Rich Man and Lazarus, and his
description of theIrtfates.p
What Eisay. to these privately never
reaches the ears Of others who have
the same query and the same obstacle
tto meet, hence l take this as my topic
on this occasion. not only for the bene-
ct Of this audience, but for the bene-
ftsuf the larger audiences to whom
I speak weekly through the columns
Of the press Of this land and Great
Britain and Australia mil
lions. all need to have this stumbling
stone removed from their pathway, and
by Gods grace we will remove it. He
will remove 1t, using our stammering
lips for the purpose,
Literal or ParaboIic-Whieh7
It is not sufficient that l declare that
in the Scripture under consideration
the great Teacher was giving parable.
It's not sufficient that quote, with
out parable spake lie not unto the
people" Some dear, earnest children
of God would object, saying. at reads,
there was n certain Rich Man, ETC."
I must, therefore, prove that it is n
parable and not n literal statement by
showing that, considering IT as lit
eral statement, 1t would be untrue and
absurd After thus proving It to be a
parable will discuss 1t as such.
II It be a statement Of literal facts
then all the facts must be taken lit
orally. This would mean that because
certain man was rich and Jared
bountlfully every day and was clothed
In, purple and fine linen lie would go to
an eternity of torment, without sin
gle charge being made against him
along the lines of murder, or injustice
or blasphcmy. for in the account moth.
ing. Of tile kind appears Furthermore,
nothing is said Of the poor man MS be-
ing q godly man, saint, but merely
that he was poor, full Of sores, which
the dogs licked; and that he ate the
offaI from "Thc Rich Mans" table.
II those be the grounds aud condi-
lions upon which any Of us have had
hope for eternal bliss, surely a com
3paratiyely small number could claim
It Did we ever have such expert.
enees? If not. what ground have We,
according to this teaching, for q hope
tof reaching AbrnhRm's bosom? And,
additionally, IL the statement is lit
eral one, Abrnham and his bosom must
be considered literal also and If only
two or three Who were bcggars like
Lazarus were before us, what hone
would we hive for room in Abrnham's
bosom? But enough Of this! We see
CLEARLY that the statement is parnbolic
and we must look for such an interpre-
tatlon as win fltJaH conditions. And
here It is!
Viewed as a Parable,
Viewing the matter as a parable, our
difficulties oil disappear rs soon rs we
get the key. The grent Teacher in
this parable was critlclsIng the lead
,ers of the Jewish nation and fore.
telling their fate. BE Himself was an
Iouteast, SO were His disciples and SO
have all been since who have become
Z g /.