The Life of Duty, volume II | Page 5

grief! Of the beggar's burial place we know
nothing. But the sharpest contrast of all is in the world beyond, from
which for a moment Jesus draws back the veil. He who had pampered
his body and neglected his soul is now in torment; he who never
listened to the whisper of his conscience, is forced to hearken to its
reproaches now; he who had great possessions is worse off than a
beggar--he had gained the whole world and lost his own soul. And
worst of all, he sees Paradise afar off, and Lazarus resting there, where
he may never come. That beggar whom he had despised and neglected,
to whose wants he had never ministered, is comforted now, and the rich
man is tormented.
Oh! awful contrast! Dives in his misery of despair looks up, and for a
moment sees--
"The Heavenly City, Built of bright and burnished gold, Lying in
transcendent beauty, Stored with treasures all untold.
There he saw the meadows dewy Spread with lilies wondrous fair--
Thousand thousand were the colours Of the waving flowers there.
There were forests ever blooming, Like our orchards here in May;
There were gardens never fading, Which eternally are gay."
Saddest of all fates indeed must it be to gaze on Heaven and to live in
Hell. Then Dives remembers his brethren in the world, who are living
the old life which he lived in the flesh, spending his money perhaps;
and, still selfish after death as before, he asks that the beggar may be
sent from his rest and peace to warn them. The answer comes that they,

like Dives himself, have Moses and the Prophets to teach them, if they
neglect them nothing can avail them. And so the curtain drops over this
dreadful scene. Let us, brethren, hearken to some of the lessons which
come to us with a solemn sound from the world beyond the grave. In
the first place, let us learn that being respectable is not a passport to
Heaven. No doubt the rich man of the parable was very respectable. If
he had lived in these days, and there are many of his family with us
now, he would have worn glossy broadcloth instead of purple, and have
held a responsible position in his town and parish. He would have gone
to church sometimes, and have been very severe with the outcasts of
the gutter and the back slums. And yet we find that all this outward
respectability, these salutations in the market place, were no passport to
Heaven. The man lived for himself--he was a lover of himself. He had
no love for his brother whom he had seen, ay, every day, lying at his
gate; and so he could have no love for God whom he had not seen. The
sin of Dives, remember, was not that he was rich, it was that he was
utterly selfish and worldly. A poor man may be just as sinful. The man
who makes a god of his body and its pleasures, the man who makes a
god of his work or his science, or of anything save the Lord God
Almighty, the man who lives for himself and does nothing for the good
of others, be he rich or poor, is in the same class with Dives in the
parable. Next, there comes a thought of comfort from the story of the
beggar Lazarus. There was no virtue in his being poor--but he loved his
God, and he bore his sorrows patiently, and verily he had his reward.
Jesus tells us that blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be
comforted; that all who have borne hunger and thirst, and persecution,
or loss of friends for His sake, shall hereafter have a great reward. You,
my brethren, who are any ways afflicted or distressed, who have to bear
sickness or poverty, who have few friends and few prospects in this
world, and yet are patient, and trustful, and believing, look beyond the
veil, and be sure that there, if not here, you shall have your good
things--such good things as pass man's understanding.
Again, we learn that death does not deprive us of memory. One of old
said wisely that they who cross the sea change their sky, but not their
mind, and that no exile ever yet fled from himself; and even after we
have exchanged this world for the unseen world to come, we do not

escape ourselves, our thoughts and memories are with us. The rich man
was bidden to remember his past life. It must have been a terrible
picture as seen in the clear understanding of the spirit world. Once his
life had appeared pleasant enough, harmless enough; now Dives saw it
in its true colour, and understood the