believe in Christ! and most mighty is the influence and power which a majority exercises. Easy; for on all sides there continually arise from among the great mass of mankind, individuals who form, in every respect, the ornaments of their age, and who, by the super-eminence of their spiritual powers, are distinguished above thousands of the non-believing mass; and these exclaim joyfully, "The Lord is God!" and are faithful to the banner of the cross. Thus, conversion is in our time both difficult and easy; so easy, that he who is not converted is guilty of the most sinful obduracy; so difficult, that where a conversion takes place, the glory thereof is attributable to grace alone.

That we find the pious man in the Gospel so poor, whilst the man of the world revels in all enjoyments, results from the various discords of this present life, whose harmonious solution is reserved for eternity. Meantime, however, the discord is not of such a grating nature, that we should straightway misinterpret Providence. Let us only look into it spiritually, and we shall not fail to perceive, that even on this side of the grave, he who is stretched upon his bed of thorns is far more easy than he who revels in superfluity. Let the former still bear the beggar's staff; oh! still is this withered stick clothed with wreaths of vine leaves of spiritual experience of the Lord's presence and faithfulness, the least of which all the gold and silver of the rich could not purchase for him. And if he is abandoned by the whole world, what matters it? The Lord has not forsaken him. He calls him by name, and bears him lovingly upon his bosom. An anxiety of the most tender parental solicitude and attachment accompanies him step by step; and if human hands are withdrawn from

him, then, to the most bitter shame of men, dogs come to his aid, in order, as ministering heralds of the untired goodness which watches over him, to lick his sores, and thereby convey to him a sweet greeting from his Friend in the heavens above. "But only dogs?"" you inquire. Well, do you desire to behold something greater than that? This, then, you shall see forthwith.

Both-each in his particular direction-have passed over the short road of pilgrimage through the vale of the earth. Their sojourn is no longer here below. Death sounds its summons to the one and to the other; yonder, he approaches as an executioner's assistant, but here, as a messenger of peace. One more gasping for breath, one more faint beat of the pulse-then all is ended. We now stand before their bodies, and think: "Poor or rich, what matters it now?" The rich man has now emptied his cup of joy; the poor man has gone through his trials. But one privilege remains to the former; it is the last. He will be "buried" with pomp, and followed by a splendid train, and then a monument surmounts his grave. The other is borne by a couple of poor working men, unnoticed, in the dusk of eve, to the church-yard, and only here and there, from out of some garret window, is he followed by a tear of longing, and the silent, heart-mourning words of separation: "Farewell, beloved brother-soul! May we meet again!" Thus then we stand over their graves, and think: “Are all their differences balanced here!" And what are we to think further? Beyond the grave itself no mortal eye can penetrate. But behold, yonder advances towards us one whose eye soars with eagle-wing even beyond these dark bounds, and dives into the depths of eternity! Jesus Christ, the Lord of heaven. He with sure hand

turns aside for us the curtain which drops over those graves, and—he who has eyes, let him, oh, let him see! They are not phantoms which here pass before our view, but real and true visions; for He who unveils them to us is the truth itself.

The first scene is full of comfort and indescribably delightful. Behold Lazarus, the poor beggar! Ah, who recognises him again? How could such an incomparably beautiful work of creation have been disentwined from the death-folds of such a wretched worm? Behold him ascending upon a path of shining light, kind angels bear him upwards, place him in the bosom of Abraham, and join him in exultation, as if in the person of the poor sinner a King had made his entrance there. And Lazarus knows not what is passing about him. He feels like one in a blessed dream. O what glory shines around him! O the joy and delight with which he is seized! And when he now looks down from this beaming height on the course of his temporal pilgrimage, ah, what must he there observe! Behold, each drop in his cup of sorrow had been to him a drop of salvation. Each step which he made in advance on his path of thorns, was done under the safe conduct of everlasting parental love. Each hour that he had passed there, the most gloomy not excepted, he passed on under the care of Divine mercy, and his whole enigmatically dark existence now presents itself to him, as a skilfully-woven, admirable web of Eternal wisdom. O bring hither the golden harp! His heart is a living book of psalms of flaming letters, and every pulse-beat in his being, and every breath of his mouth is an ecstatic hymn of jubilee, a hallelujah!

Where is the man, who clothed himself in purple and

fine linen, and who lived so sumptuously every day? A second curtain is drawn aside, and-great God! what a spectacle is there presented to our view. A vast wild abyss yawns before us, a gloomy world of death; the abode of the devil and his angels. Dreadful dwelling! where the worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched; fear and doubt bear the sceptre, and no God of grace, no Saviour's heart, no glimmering of hope are longer to be found. Never should I, of my own accord, have ventured to paint such a scene before your eyes. I should fear, by the assertion that such a cell of torture existed in the creation, to offend the love of God. But behold, here stands He himself, who was in the bosom of the Father, and He unveils this abyss, and He presents to us these terrors; terrors, such as the boldest fancy in the wildest raving of fever could not imagine. For what strikes upon our astonished sight? Yonder, amidst the tortures of that gulph, we behold him who was once so grandly magnificent! Into this his career has passed from the velvet pillows of his death-bed. There he stands in benumbing despair. "Father Abraham, have mercy on me," he whines forth, "and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame!" But how is he answered? It is Abraham that replies, for God no longer troubles himself about this man, .. Son, remember, that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented!" Thus then the moaning prayer is refused! No consolation, no mitigation, not even that of one drop of water! It is dreadful, it is horrible! If there Luke, xvi. 25.

1 Luke, xvi. 24.

2

existed only a prospect, that what is refused to-day might, nevertheless, be granted to-morrow, or perhaps after years, or at least after centuries. But what does the answer from above state further? "And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence!" Awful sentence! Making the very hair upon the head to stand upright! O the unspeakable agony, torture and racking, and-no hope of salvation! That is the acme of all imaginable terror. And thus, I cannot cease to repeat it, does Jesus describe the state of the cursed; Jesus, the true and faithful witness; Jesus, who is never accustomed to exaggerate; the mild Jesus, full of love, who would be the last to exaggerate on this subject; He,-He thus depicts hell! And thus, therefore, it is, exactly thus, and no otherwise; or-O what an alternative would follow, if that picture did not agree completely with reality! But hear further what is discussed between Abraham and the outcast man. "I pray thee, therefore, Father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house: for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment !" But how sounds the reply?-O listen to it every one! Abraham answers: They have Moses and the prophets: let them hear them."2 Have you understood it? 'They have the word of God!" says the answer. Not" They have reason. "The word!"-Not "The assertion of philosophy."-"The word!"-Not "This and that book of devotion!" It says: "The strong prophetic word!""They have Moses and the prophets explained, deve1 Luke, xvi. 26. 2 Luke, xvi. 27, 28, 29.

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