The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-11-15
PEOPLES FORUM
Mans Everlasting Memory?

Slr-ktndly allow me. through your columns
to express my views in regard to a sermon
preached last Tuesday night November 3, in
one OF our churches on MANS Eternal and
Everlasting Memory" or. THAT Mans Thoughts
Are Not Destroyed at Death"
AT the outset this would hardly be possible
In the lace of so many scriptures to contradict
it For instance, the Psamist speaks of death
as Land Of Forsetfuness,' Psalms S. II
and IL, and as "A place of Silence" Psalm lf5,
IL In the iieth Psalm. verses and T. It states
that His breath goeth forth. he returneth to
his earth; in that every day, his thoughts per-
ish." -
Solomon also treats this same subject in sew
erai places in Ecelesastes namely, 9Th chapter
9TH verse. The dead know not anything; 9th
chapter 10th verse, For there is no work nor
knowledge. nor wisdom, nor device In the grave
whittier thou goest,' and furthermore: in Fc-
clesr 3rd chapter, 10th and goth verses he states
tilat man hath no pre-eminence above a beast:
that all are dust and all go to one place" If
this be true, and man retains his memory n fter
death, then the beast also retains its memory
after death which viii have to admit is very
absurd.
There are still number of references made
by the Prophet Job, In Job. 7th chapter 8 and
Il, he refers to it: and in Job IA 81, the prophet
states His sons come honor and he knoweth
1t not, they are brought low, but he percei4eth
1t not Of them
In the face of these scriptures, we can readily
that when a man dies he In sirnplv deaa
ionl until the resurrection. when all that are
In the graves shall hear Jesus voice and come
forth" John 8: 20 and 30.
. Again, If man has memory that is indestrtct-
ihle and II at death in this world they go into
another world and alive than ever
before as is the popular belief, wouldn't 1t
have been the most natural thing for Lazarus
(Mary's and Marthas brother), the widow of
Mains som and +'Jarius daughter all of whom
Jesus raised from the dead, to have told their
friends what they remembered seeing ..in the
other world and ii that so-caled state of the
dead was so much more glorious than this
present evil world, 1t would surely have been a
matter OF record in at least of these cases,
where they would have expressed a desire to
return, But the record seems bear out the
fact that they received their dead back to life
with much joy and they were happy to have
been raised from the sleep Of death" and re-
turned to their relatives The brother who de-
livered the discourse, took for his text, 1.-The
Parable Of the Rich Man and Lazarus" and
drew from it the lesson that the rich man re-
membered being in torments" when the scrip
ture states that "he died and was buried"
For the assistance of Bible students and 9TH
ers will endeavor here to give brief synopsis
of the parable in question THE Rich Man and
lazarus Luke 10: 1881. This parable does
not refer to the condition of two individuals. as
is commonly supposed but to the condition of
two nations Of people. the Jewish and Gentle
The great difficulty of many In reading this
scripture is that though they regard 1t
parable. they reason 1t and draw conclusions
from II II ii were a literal statement. To
regard a literal statement involves several
absurdities for instance. that the rich
went to hell" because he had enjoyed many
earthly blessings and had given nothing but
crumbs to Lazarus. Not word is said about
his wickedness. The word "helP' Is translated
from the Hebrew word "Sheo' and from the
Greek words "Gehenna, '"Tartarso" and
''IadesL" "Hades" as all Bible students admit.
signifies 1.-The grave and is translated grave
great many times in the New Testament.
In fact. the only Greek word that grave is
translated from is "Hades.' SO we find that
the rich lifted up his eyes in "Hades
tgrave). and We readily how absurd it
would be for man to lift up his eyes in the
grave
Again. if thia parable is taken literally,
great many people do, Lazarus blessed not
because he a sincere child of God, full OF
faith and trust; not because he good. but
simply because he poor and sick With
"A literal Interpretation. the only logical lesson
to be drawn from it is, that unless we are poor
beggars and full of sores we will never enter
into future bliss and now If we wear any pur-
pie and fine linen, and have plenty to eat every
day we are for future torment. Again.
the coveted place Of favor Is "Abraham's bos-
om" and II the whole statement be literal. the
bosom must also be literal and it surely would
not hold many of earth's millions of sick and
poor. But why consider absurdites7
As a parable, 1t fs easy of Interpretation, In
parable, the thing said is the thing
meant. We know this from our Lords own ex-
rlanation of his parallels. When he said
wheat no meant children OF the kingdom"
when he said "tares' he meant children OF the
devil when he said "reapers" his servants
10 be understood, etc Matt. 49, The
same classes were represented by different
symbols in different parallels. Thus the wheat"
Of parable corresponds to the faithful
servants" and the wise virgins" Of another. So
In this parable, the rich man represents
class and "IAzarus'' another class Abraham
represented God the purple, Israels royalty as
chosen nation. and the fine linen their typical
righteousness by their yearly sacrifices which
made them holy trighteous) nation. Rev. 10: 8.
The beggar, Lazarus, represented all the Gen
tiles cast off from divine favor under the law;
his sores, their sin sick condition.
The crumbs which he desired to be fed with
were the crumbs OF divine favor. which fell from
IsraeIs table Of bounties of which the Lords
words to the Syro- Phoenician woman gives us
the key. He said to this Gentle womn: "It IL
not meet (proper) to take the children CIsrael-
ites) bread and cast II to the dogs ttsentiles),"
and she answered. Truth Lord, but the dogs
eat the crumbs that fall from their masters
table," Matt 10: rs and 27.) jesus hGaled