ittle in His story of the
Rich Man and Lazarus. The "story" I say, not the "parable." It is no
parable. A parable is the statement of an analogy between visible
things and invisible. This is a direct statement about the invisible
things themselves. Jesus is telling what happens after death. Indeed,
many in the early Church thought, and many to-day think, that this is a
direct historical account by Christ of the life of a certain selfish
rich man in Jerusalem whom He knew and of a certain beggar that lay at
his gate. They died and were buried, and those who followed them to
the grave could see no further. But the Lord is watching them still as
they pass into the land which He knew so well. Whether this was the
story of a certain man, or only a general statement about all such men,
does not matter. Christ was telling of what happens just after death,
when the "I," the self, has laid aside the body and gone out into the
Unseen.

I do not mean that this story is intended as a revelation of that life.
If it were it would doubtless have been more complete. It is simply a
passing reference to it in warning against the danger of a selfish
life. But it lifts the curtain a little bit.

Section 2

Be quite clear about this--that our Lord is not speaking of the FAR
Hereafter--of the final stage of human life at the end of the world, in
which after the Final Judgment come Heaven and Hell. He is speaking of
the near Hereafter, the life immediately after death. We have seen
that there are three stages in our history: 1st. This Earth life,
where the "I," the self, has a body woven around it. 2nd. The
Intermediate Life before the Judgment, into which I go at death without
my body into my second stage of being. 3rd. The final stage at the
end of the age in which come the Final Judgment and Heaven and Hell,
which stage is still in the future for all humanity.

Clearly our Lord is speaking of the Intermediate Life, of the unseen
life existing to-day, running on side by side with the earthly life.
For you see the men He speaks of are not long dead. Dives' brothers
are still living here. Dives is quite conscious that the ordinary life
of men is still going on on earth side by side with that other life.
Clearly Jesus is telling of the present stage in the life of the
departed--that life in which all our dear departed ones are living at
this moment.

Section 3

Next I notice that that life in its inmost experie