employed Jewish metaphors, and the imagery of
the parable is such as would most directly appeal to the official
expounders of Moses and the prophets. While as a practise it would be
critically unfair to deduce doctrinal principles from parabolic
incidents, we cannot admit that Christ would teach falsely even in
parable; and therefore we accept as true the portrayal of conditions in
the world of the disembodied. That righteous and unrighteous dwell apart
during the interval between death and resurrection is clear. Paradise,
or as the Jews like to designate that blessed abode, "Abraham's bosom,"
is not the place of final glory, any more than the hell to which the
rich man's spirit was consigned is the final habitation of the
condemned.[977] To that preliminary or intermediate state, however,
men's works do follow them;[978] and the dead shall surely find that
their abode is that for which they have qualified themselves while in
the flesh.

The rich man's fate was not the effect of riches, nor was the rest into
which Lazarus entered the resultant of poverty. Failure to use his
wealth aright, and selfish satisfaction with the sensuous enjoyment of
earthly things to the exclusion of all concern for the needs or
privations of his fellows, brought the one under condemnation; while
patience in suffering, faith in God and such righteous life as is
implied though not expressed, insured happiness to the other. The proud
self-sufficiency of the rich man, who lacked nothing that wealth could
furnish, and who kept aloof from the needy and suffering, was his
besetting sin. The aloofness of the Pharisees, on which indeed they
prided themselves, as their very name, signifying "separatists,"
expressed, was thus condemned. The parable teaches the continuation of
individual existence after death, and the relation of cause to effect
between the life one leads in mortality and the state awaiting him
beyond.

UNPROFITABLE SERVANTS.[979]

From the Pharisees, Jesus turned to His disciples and admonished them to
diligence. Having cautioned them against unguarded utterances or actions
at which others might take offense, He proceeded to impress the absolute
necessity of unselfish devotion, toleration and forgiveness. The
apostles, realizing the whole-souled service required of them, implored
the Lord, saying: "Increase our faith." They were shown that faith was
less fitly reckoned in terms of quantity than by test of quality; and
the analog