nts
and capabilities in the world to come, I shall learn all when I enter
it. It may be quite true that there is not a flame like that which we
are accustomed to see, and not a body, previous to the resurrection,
that may be burned in it. But he who gave the word is my Friend; and he
is true; I shall trust him. He knows what I understand by a flame; he
knows how I am affected by the thought of the pain which it inflicts.
Knowing all these, he has employed that word in order to apply the
terrors of the Lord for my warning; he has done all things well. The
minute features of the dialogue all serve to give point to the main
conception. The request for a drop of water contributes to bring out the
intensity of the suffering; the answer of Abraham shows that, beyond the
boundary of this life, there is no hope of relief. Jesus Christ came
into the world to save sinners--it was to this world he came; but no
Saviour goes to that other world to win back the lost who have
permitted the day of grace to run out. Christ is the way unto the
Father; but there is no way of passing from death unto life, if the
passage has not been made in this present world.

Interpreting the rich man's intercession for his brothers on the same
principle, I do not know and cannot learn here, whether those who have
passed through death into the next world unsaved, remember the character
of the relatives whom they left behind on earth, or whether, remembering
their condition, they will or can make intercession in their behalf. All
that I gather certainly on the subject from this parable is, that
although a brother may permit his brother to abide in sin without
instruction or reproof, while all are living here and walking by sight;
yet, if the fate that awaits the impenitent were adequately believed and
realized, he who believed and realized it, could not refrain from effort
to arouse the slumberers, and lead them to repentance. Again, as in
previous parts, I am taught here not what I shall wish when I shall be
in the world of spirits, but what I should do now while I am in the body
and under grace. I should get the message sent to every heedless brother
who is wasting his day of grace, while a messenger of flesh and blood
may be found, and there is a way by which I may reach the objects of my
solicitude.

By aid of the same machinery--the dialogue between the rich man and
Abraham--another lesson is brought from the world of spirits to the land
of living