in communion with the Father of mercies, while lying before the threshold of Dives, which neither the incessant hurry of visitants passing to and fro, nor yet the ungracious remarks of idle passengers moving by, were sufficient to interrupt. How little was the busy stranger then aware, while hastening by the rich man's mansion, that the unsightly beggar prostrate at his door, was, at that very moment, mingling with blessed spirits, and holding sacred intercourse with the almighty Ruler of the universe! Yet so it was. Even in these unfavourable circumstances, without the help of preachers, books, or conversation, his thoughts were often taking their upward course, and never without bringing back a vast increase of heavenly consolation.

He was not only a man of faith and prayer: but in him resignation and patience had their perfect work. As clay in the

hand of the potter, so Lazarus lay in the hand of a faithful Creator, ready to take any form, and to fill any place, at the divine appointment: anxious only that he might finally be fashioned into a vessel of honour, and rendered meet for the Master's use.

And thus, without fainting, he endured unto the end; still secretly longing for the day, that was to put a final period to all his complaints. That day at length arrived; and it came to pass that the beggar died. His dying day found him enfeebled and worn down, yet patiently waiting the good pleasure of his Lord-when, suddenly, the welcome call was heard, and he was summoned away, like an almost exhausted labourer, to receive his hire. After bearing the burden and heat of the day, it exhilarated his languid spirits to observe the shadows of the evening gathering thickly around him. From early morning to the closing in of night, he had laboured without ceasing; and now was glad to lay aside the implements of his toil, and quietly betake him thither, where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest.

The funeral honours of such a man, it may well be imagined, were exceedingly insignificant and mean: but there awaited him honours of a far more satisfactory kind. As he had acted a part in life, which exposed him to more than ordinary difficulties and distresses, a guard of angels were com

missioned to receive and bear him

away in We are told,

triumph to his great reward. that the angel of the Lord encampeth about them that fear him, and delivereth them. A guardian band of this description had long been stationed about the cottage of Lazarus they had silently watched at his door, and tenderly hovered over his dying bed--and now they bear him on their wings to the house of his Father above. His filthy rags and inconvenient dwelling he has done with for ever his groans are all hushed, and his oppressive trials are passed away like a fearful dream when one awaketh. He must now away to a scene of

repose, to a paradise of delights, to a throne of glory—

Ready winged for their flight

To the regions of light,

The horses are come,

The chariots of Israel to convoy him home."

He was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The kingdom of heaven is here set forth, as in various other passages of Scripture, under the figure of a festive entertainment. Lazarus is conveyed thither as an invited guest, and honourably placed at the upper end of the table. As the beloved

John is said to have lain on the bosom of his Lord, because he generally occupied the nearest place to his Master; so Lazarus is said to have been carried into Abraham's bosom, because he was placed near that Father of the faithful, and admitted at once to the society of patriarchs and prophets, as a person trained up for equal heights of dignity and happiness with themselves. In such a place, and associated with such a company, the beggar Lazarus has now taken up his abode; far away from the neighbourhood in which Dives dwelt, and on the other side of that impassable gulph which separates him from every evil.

Such is the representation which our Lord himself has seen good to give us of a poor man's case. And among other reasons of his doing so, this probably was one-that he might powerfully excite both our sorrow and our shame, who, in circumstances abundantly more favourable than those of Lazarus, are still found unfaithful, unthankful, and unholy. The greater part of us are placed in states of ease and abundance, in the midst of friendly connexions, and surrounded with

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