"Ah, mamma, who would have thought that a bad man's life could teach such a good lesson! Our Lord turns all things to good." "Labour not," replied her mother, in the words of the Bible; "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life." 66 Be ye wise as serpents, but-harmless as doves." READING SIXTEENTH. Largely Thou givest, gracious Lord, He only who forgets to hoard Has learn'd to live.-Keble. "MAMMA, the next picture is of a beautiful palace; the doors are open, and you see into a grand hall, where a rich lord, beautifully dressed in purple and gold, is feasting. Oh look at the lovely grapes, and the glittering golden wine!— and at the palace-gate lies a beggar, and dogs are licking him. It is Lazarus and the rich I know that story quite well." man. "And as it is so familiar to you, Honora, we will read it the more carefully; for we are very apt to overlook a thousand teachings in a portion of Scripture that is so well known to us. Turn to the 16th chapter of St. Luke, the 19th verse, and pause when I tell you to do so." Honora obeyed. "There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day." "He seems to have had every possession he could desire, and to have been very self-indulgent; caring greatly for fine clothes and dainty food. And, Nonie, we do not read of any other fault than this great selfishness and luxury. He was simply an indolent glutton, whose love was all centred in himself." "And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, "And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores." "This poor man was too ill to work, and lying thus immediately before the rich man's gate, was a lasting, daily reproach to him for his unfeeling want of charity. The very pity of the dogs rebuked the man's insensibility. How miserable Lazarus must have appeared to men! Ill of the most terrible disease, hungry and wretched and friendless, while the rich man was an object of envy. But if the veil which hides the realities of life had been drawn on one side, Honora, which of the two in this wonderful picture of contrasts was the happier ?" "Mamma, the beggar! Angels were hovering near him to carry him to heaven. I see now why, in this picture, the gleam of sunshine falls full on him." "The next verse lifts the veil. Go on." "And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; "And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." "That puzzles me sometimes, mamma. How could Abraham hold Lazarus in his bosom ?" "It is one of those allegorical expressions which signify the great love existing between the saints in glory; perhaps it originated in the custom of reclining at meals, and great friends then leaning against each other. You remember St. John is said to be 'the disciple lying on Jesus' breast;'* and as the imagery of a feast is applied to the heavenly kingdom, so this attitude (evidently significant of great love) is used to describe the love and friendship of the holy dead. It must have greatly added to the rich man's sorrow to behold, from his place of torment, the happy kingdom where he, too, might have been if he had chosen. In this parable * St. John, chap. xiii., verse 25. you have a wonderful comment on those words you read yesterday: Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you unto everlasting habitations. Had the rich man, instead of spending his money on eating and drinking and fine clothes, fed and clothed Lazarus, the first to welcome him to Paradise would have been the beggar whom he now beheld afar off." "Mamma, I cannot think how he could have sat eating and drinking sumptuously every day, and the poor starving at his gate. How could he be so greedy ?" "It is wonderful. But pride and selfishness soon, harden and corrupt the heart. The history of the world records many instances of men who spent the riches of a province on a feast. One single dish cost Esopus, the actor, 80,0007.; the Roman emperor, Caligula, spent for one supper 80,000l.; another emperor, Heliogabalus, 20,000.; the usual cost of a daily repast for the rich Lucullus was 20,000.; the fish from his fish-ponds sold for 35,000l. On dress and jewels the same waste of the mammon of unrighteousness has often been practised. Julius Cæsar presented the mother of Brutus with a single pearl worth 10,000l., and Cleopatra, the most wasteful and luxurious of K |