The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 67

,vould find the reason for his present woeful him to my father's house : for I have five state. It wns no startling record of vice and brethren; that he may testify unto them ; crime, or even of folly, that the father of the lest they nlso oome into this place of tor- faithful calls attention to. He quietly re- ment. The condemned acquiesces in this calls to the rich man's memory that on earth dread fact; convinced of the utter impossi- he had lived a life of princely splendour and bility of any interchangr1 of sympnthy be- luxury, 1md that Lazarus, sick nnd utterly tween him and the dwellers in the reulme destitute, lay at his palace gate, and was of bliss, he ceases to pray for any alleviation allowed to lie there unpitied and unhelped. of hie own sad nnd wretched state. But And because of the studied moderation of another wail of woe quickly rises from the its language, and the everyday character awful solitude. What means this second of its hero Dives-for he, the rich man, not prayer of the doomed man? Are we to Lazarus, is the ree.l hero, the central cha- read in it the first signs of a new and noble racter of the great parable-lesson - the purpose in the lost soul, the first de.wning lesson of the parable goes home necessarily of loving thoughts and tender care for to many more hearts than it would have others? It seems, perhaps, unkind not to done had the hero been a monster of wicked- recognize this; but the Divine Speaker evi- ness, a cold calculating or else a plausible dently had another purpose here when he villain, a man who shrank not from sacri- put these words into the mouth of the lost ficing the lives and happiness of his fellow- rich man-he would tee.eh the great lesson men if their lives or happiness stood in his to the living that a selfish life is inexcusable. way. Dives we.a merely a commonplace On first thoughts, the rich man's request to wealthy man of the world, with self-centred Abraham appears prompted alone hy his aims, and the sin for which he wna con- anxiety for the future of his brothers who demned to outer darkness was only that were still alive; but on examination it would everyday sin of neglecting out of the me.m- seem, to use the striking words of Professor mon of unrighteousness-in other words, out Bruce, that he wished rather to justify his of his money-to make for himself friends own sad past by some such reflection as who should receive him into the eternel this : " Had only some one come from the tents. dead with the calm, clear light of eternity Ver. 26.-And beside all this, between llll shining in hie eyes, to inform me that this &.n.d you there is a great gulf :fixed : so that life beyond is no fable, that Paradise is a they which would pass from hence to you place or state of unspeakable bliss, and Clallll.Ot ; neither oan they pass to llll, that Gehenna a place or state of unspee.kable wonld come from thence. Although the woe, I should have renounced my voluptuous, whole thought which runs through this selfish· ways, and entered on the path of pa.re.hie is new, and peculiar to Christ, yet piety and che.rity. If one had come to me the colouring of the picture is nearly all from the dead, I had surely repented, and borrowed from the great rabbinic schools ; BO should not have come to this ple.ce of one of the few exceptions to this role being torment." this chasm or gnlf which separates the two Ver. 29.-Abre.ham saith unto him, They regions of Hades. The rabbis represented have Moses and the prophets ; let them the division as consisting only of a wall. hear them. The reply of Abre.he.m was " What is the distance between Paradise especially addressed to those Jews who were and Gehenna? According to R. Johane.n, e. standing round him and even asking for a wall; according to other teachers, a pe.lm- sign. They had all read and heard e.gllin breadth, or only a finger-breadth" (' Midrash and age.in the Books of Moses and the on Koheleth '). What, asks the awestruck records of the prophets ; if these guides had reader, is this dreadful chasm? why is it failed to show them the right way, a special impassable? will it be for ever there? will messenger sent to them would be quite use- no ages of sorrow, no tears, no bitter heart- less. felt repentance succeed in throwing a bridge Vere. 80, 81.-And ha said, Nay, father o.crOl!B it? Many have written here, and Abraham: but if one went unto them from kindly sonls have tried to answer the stem the dee.d, they will repent. And he so.id -;iuestion with the gentle, loving reply ~~eh unto him, It they hear not Moses and the tueir souls so longed to hear. Wbat 1s un- prophet■, neither will they be persuaded, po>!Bible to the limitless love of God ? though one rose from the dead, The Master Nothing, wistfully says the heart. But, not only wished to drive home this momen- when interrogated closely, the parable and, tous truth to the hearts of the group of varied indeed, all the Master's teaching on this ranks and orders listening to him then; hie point preserves e. silence complete, impene- words were for a far larger auditory, so he trable. prolongs the dialogue between Dives and Vera. 27, 28.-Then he laid, I pray thee Abraham. " If Lazarus from the dead therefore, father, that thou woulde■t 11Snd would only go to them," pleadod the lost mt. xv,. 1-81.J THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 69