Page:PracticalCommentaryOnHolyScripture.djvu/617

receive good things in thy lifetime ^[1], and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted^[2], and thou art tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is fixed a great chaos^[3], so that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot; nor from thence come hither.'

“Thereupon Dives said: ‘Then, father, I beseech thee that thou wouldst send him ^[4] to my father’s house; for I have five brethren, that he may testify to them, lest they also^[5] come into this place of torments.’ But Abraham said to him: ‘They have Moses^[6] and the prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said: ‘No, father Abraham, but if one went to them from the dead, they will do penance!’ Abraham said unto him: ‘If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they^[7] believe, if one rise from the dead.’ ”

COMMENTARY.

A glimpse of the future state (12th article of the Creed) is vouchsafed to us in this parable, both for our consolation and as a warning. After this life there is, we learn, a future state — a life where everything is quite different from what it is on earth. Lazarus was poor, despised, racked with pain and hunger while he was on earth; but when he died, angels carried his soul to the abode of the just, where he received consolation, and whence, when our Lord ascended into heaven, he would pass to everlasting happiness. On the other hand, the rich man, when on earth, led what was apparently a magnificent life. He was esteemed and honoured, surrounded by flatterers, waited on by a host of servants, clad in costly clothes, and he feasted luxuriously every day. But all this magnificence lasted only a short time. He died and

1. In thy lifetime. You received on earth an ample reward for all the little good you ever did.
2. He is comforted. By the hope of the coming Redeemer, and of his future reception into heaven.
3. A great chaos. A great, insurmountable gap, which means that the separation between the abode of the just and of the wicked is absolute and final.
4. Send him. To tell them how it fares with me.
5. They also. By leading a life such as I led.
6. They have Moses. God has revealed His will to them by Moses and the prophets. If they believe all that they can learn from them, and live accordingly, they will not be damned.
7. Neither will they. The will to believe is wanting to them; they would not believe though one rose from the dead.