THE LESSON TO-DAY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 276, 18 May 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE LESSON TO-DAY.

What are we men of like passions with Dives to learn to-day, in the torrent of our twentieth century life, from the picture drawn so long ago by the great Teacher? Now, it is clear that the parable cannot he interpreted merely on the surface. The conclusions on that plane wouhl be absolutely non-moral. It is inconceivable that Dives should go to 'hell because he ivas rich, and that Laza l rus should go to heaven because he was poor, and vet nothing is said of either of them except that one was rich and the other poor. Surely the picture is intended to stimulate thought, and to clear the mind from illusions, and to teach the supreme lessons that character continues after death, and that our Father has various schools of character beyond this life. The first illusion from which the Jewish mind might have been cleared, from which we must clear our own Tilings, was the illusion of salvation by ancestral privilege. "We have Abraham to <>ur Father," was the nation's boast. 'Die curtain is lifted, that they may see how little ancestral privilege will do fojr them in the coining life. Abraham acknowledges the sufferer's kinship. He calls him "son," but he will not offer him the j.slightest mitigation of his remedial discipline, and the moral for us is that external -respectability, membership with a church, will not stand the human sjoul, instead of character in the searching light of our Father's judgment. SWEEPING AWAY ANOTHER

ILLUSION. Another illusion which is swept away is the illusion which pervades crude unthinking] socialism, namely, that selfishness is ]jhe peculiar vice'of the rich. I took as| the subject of this address, "Dives (|>r Lazarus: which is the better man?" ijnd if you really think into this picture-lesson you will probably come to the couj'lusion that at the moment the story closes Dives is the better of the two; ayp. and in the better position, and that your heaviest judgment falls upon Lazarus; He and his life are taught that egotism, worldliness and indifference to 1 the needs of others are l/ot the monopoly of the well-to-do. This lesson, the lesson "know thyself." had to be taught to Lazarus in the other world. It is not , unnatural that the modern Lazarus, the Lazarus especially of the countries of the old world, lying at the rich man's gate, disfigured by the traces of hereditary pauperism, wrecked bv his environment, overwhelmed by the drink temptation, judging only from the surface experience of life, should envy and condemn the rich, and while he points with scorn to the scandals in their lives, should forget that

HUMAN SELFISHNESS is only ;i question of degree, and that on his plane of life selfishness is as rife as amongst the wealthy. The laborer who drinks half his wages while his children need food; the loafer who will not do a real day's work is as selfish, as truly a voluptuary in his sphere of being as any self-indulgent millionaire. Doubtless Lazarus thought, perhaps honestly thought, wlien he saw Dives pass by in his purple and fine linen, "If only the conditions of our several lives were reversed, it is not crumbs or broken meats I would give my suffering brother, nor would I leave him to be ministered to by dogs. I would share my wealth with him." How little. Lazarus knows ■himself! In the after-life the conditions are reversed, and how does he act? Dives is deprived of all his possessions, and is more grievously afflicted than ever Lazarus has been, while Lazarus is in greater ease and security than Dives ever was. In the former life Lazarus was at least somewhat the better for the wealth of Dives, and now Dives appeals to him in direst agony for only a drop of water, and his piteous cry is answered not only by refusal, but by a mocking taunt. True, the taunt and refusal are made by another, but Lazarus acquiesces in it. If love and pity ruled in his heart, if the true principle of socialism, which is not "What can I take from another," but "What can I give him," were there, he would tear himself from the bosom of Father Abraham to help a suffering brother. THE GULF OF WANT OF LOVE AND PITY. I know there is mention of a gulf, ami a gulf, indeed, there was, the deepest gulf that ever separated man froin man, the gulf of want of love and pity—the gulf that can always be bridged by svmpathy. Nothing would persuade me that Abraham and Lazarus are intended to represent purified saints of God. That cannot be heaven where the inhabitants can witness the direst suffering without the eager desire to mitigate it. The earth is better than that. Dives is in a better state than tlfa't, for he can think with compassion and pray for his brothers on earth. If Abraham's bosom in this history is intended to represent heaven, I can only say, "From such a Heaven good Lord deliver us, even though the alternative be the Hades of Dives."' "I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink," said Jesus Christ, and in those words identified himself for ev?r with the human race. He identified himself with Lazarus as on earth he sat poor and helpless at the rich mail's gate and spoke those words to liini who passed him by. He Who identified Himself with Dives as he passed through the discipline of Hades surely spoke, too, those words to the callous soul who looked down on him, "Inasmuch as ye did it not to that pleading soul ill Hades, yet did it not to Me." My brothers, that man is the better man. who, whatever his circumstances may be, is conquering through much pain and sacrifice, that clinging parasite of the human soul—selfishness—and selfishness can only be cured by it perfect comprehension of the great truth that Christ constantly taught, that man coming from Cod being a sou of Cod. | has Cod dwelling in him.

THE " BROTHERHOOD OF .MAX " is a fraud and a delusion. It is not a ic-iil thing at all, apart from the "Fatherhood of God." Look at that man for example—a wretched loafer, utterly weak in character, a drink-sod-den wastrel, a low, vicious, sensual animal. What is that man to me? A brother? Mere clap-trap. You may tell me lie is my brother, you may din it into my ears, and T shrug my shoulders and reply, "from such a relation good Lord deliver me." The State may compel me to support him, and -his wife and children, and that very faet may only produce in me a sense of irritation, and intensify my repugnance to him, for an Act of 'Parliament cannot change the heart. But, if I believe that God is our common Father, and that Christ died for us both, ami that God Himself is in that man. however far out of sight lie may be. then the term "brother" has a new meaning for me. There is some reality about it then, and I may not pass bv that man in silence and disdain without Very deep thought about him. without considering how best lie may be helped to set his feet on the path of progress. Apply that principle to all the men and women you meet, not only to the sick and suffering who seem to have a direct claim 011 von. but to the people who are "apart" from you, between whom and you there is a "great, gulf" fixed. To the weak people you despise, to the stupid people who bore you, to the unusual people who offend you, 'to the unusual

people who bewilder you, to the. people who think differently to you on all sorts of subjects, to the people whose temptations are 'different to vonr own—apply that principle. There is that "great gulf" fixed. Throw the bridge of love and sympathy across that gulf. And l remember, because we are all children of one common Father, because (foil dwells in us all, because it is His will that all His sons should come to Mini, the cup of cold water is not only given for Christ, and ill the name of Christ, but to Christ Himself.