‘HEAR HIM.’
The rich man personates all the thoughtless
and uncoverted who die in their sins, his wealth
can neither bribe death nor hell; he is stricken,
and descends to misery with the bitter, but
unavailing regret of having neglected the great
salvation. He had taken no personal, prayerful
pains to search the sacred Scriptures for
himself; he had disobeyed the gospel, lived in
revelry, and carelessness of his soul; he had
ploughed iniquity and sown wickedness, and
reaps the same. ‘By the blast of God he
perishes, and is consumed by the breath of his
nostrils.’ ‘They have sown the wind, and they
shall reap the whirlwind.’
The opinion universally prevails, although
the voice of infinite wisdom has declared it
false, that miracles, or a messenger from the
invisible world could awake the dead in sin.
The world’s eyes are shut, and its ears are
stopped from seeing and hearing that most
illustrious celestial messenger of mercy— ‘God
manifest in the flesh’—who still speaks to us in
his words. He revealed, and he alone could
have revealed, these solemn, these heart-stirring
facts—He performed the most astonishing
miracles—His doctrines were truth—He
required holiness of life to fit the soul for
heaven; therefore He was despised, tortured,
murdered. In the face of all this, the poor
wretch cries, ‘send Lazarus.’ What refined
cruelty! He had borne the cross and received
the crown. Uncrown him, and send him back to
lie at my brother’s gate, and if he dares to tell
him the truth, that my soul was in hell, even
while the splendid funeral was carrying my
body to the tomb, he will hurry him to death.
Poor fool! are not thy kindred as hardened as
thou wast? Send Lazarus from the dead! That,
as Bunyan justly says, would be to make a new
Bible, to improve the finished salvation. No, if
they will not hear Moses and the prophets, our
Lord and his apostles, they must all likewise
perish. This is a very meagre outline of this
solemn treatise; it is full of striking illustrations,
eminently calculated to arouse the thoughtless,
and to convey solid instruction to the
thoughtful.
This was the third volume that Bunyan
published, and, with modest timidity, he
shelters himself under a strong recommendatory
preface by his pastor, who, in the Grace
Abounding, he calls ‘holy Mr. Gifford.’ So
popular was it, as to pass through nine editions
in the author’s lifetime.2
The preface, by John
Gifford, was printed only with the first edition.
As it gives a very interesting account of Bunyan,
and his early labours in the ministry, which has
never been noticed by any of his biographers,
and is extremely rare, it is here reprinted from a
fine copy in the British Museum, and must
prove interesting to every admirer of John
Bunyan. I close with two short extracts—may
they leave an abiding impression upon our
minds. ‘God will have a time to meet with them
that now do not seek after him.’ ‘O! regard,
regard, for the judgment day is at hand, the
graves are ready to fly open, the trumpet is near
the sounding, the sentence will ere long be
passed, and then,’ it will be seen whether we
belong to the class of Dives, who preferred the
world, or to that of Lazarus, who preferred
Christ; and then, O then! time cannot be
recalled.
GEO. OFFOR.
The rich man personates all the thoughtless
and uncoverted who die in their sins, his wealth
can neither bribe death nor hell; he is stricken,
and descends to misery with the bitter, but
unavailing regret of having neglected the great
salvation. He had taken no personal, prayerful
pains to search the sacred Scriptures for
himself; he had disobeyed the gospel, lived in
revelry, and carelessness of his soul; he had
ploughed iniquity and sown wickedness, and
reaps the same. ‘By the blast of God he
perishes, and is consumed by the breath of his
nostrils.’ ‘They have sown the wind, and they
shall reap the whirlwind.’
The opinion universally prevails, although
the voice of infinite wisdom has declared it
false, that miracles, or a messenger from the
invisible world could awake the dead in sin.
The world’s eyes are shut, and its ears are
stopped from seeing and hearing that most
illustrious celestial messenger of mercy— ‘God
manifest in the flesh’—who still speaks to us in
his words. He revealed, and he alone could
have revealed, these solemn, these heart-stirring
facts—He performed the most astonishing
miracles—His doctrines were truth—He
required holiness of life to fit the soul for
heaven; therefore He was despised, tortured,
murdered. In the face of all this, the poor
wretch cries, ‘send Lazarus.’ What refined
cruelty! He had borne the cross and received
the crown. Uncrown him, and send him back to
lie at my brother’s gate, and if he dares to tell
him the truth, that my soul was in hell, even
while the splendid funeral was carrying my
body to the tomb, he will hurry him to death.
Poor fool! are not thy kindred as hardened as
thou wast? Send Lazarus from the dead! That,
as Bunyan justly says, would be to make a new
Bible, to improve the finished salvation. No, if
they will not hear Moses and the prophets, our
Lord and his apostles, they must all likewise
perish. This is a very meagre outline of this
solemn treatise; it is full of striking illustrations,
eminently calculated to arouse the thoughtless,
and to convey solid instruction to the
thoughtful.
This was the third volume that Bunyan
published, and, with modest timidity, he
shelters himself under a strong recommendatory
preface by his pastor, who, in the Grace
Abounding, he calls ‘holy Mr. Gifford.’ So
popular was it, as to pass through nine editions
in the author’s lifetime.2
The preface, by John
Gifford, was printed only with the first edition.
As it gives a very interesting account of Bunyan,
and his early labours in the ministry, which has
never been noticed by any of his biographers,
and is extremely rare, it is here reprinted from a
fine copy in the British Museum, and must
prove interesting to every admirer of John
Bunyan. I close with two short extracts—may
they leave an abiding impression upon our
minds. ‘God will have a time to meet with them
that now do not seek after him.’ ‘O! regard,
regard, for the judgment day is at hand, the
graves are ready to fly open, the trumpet is near
the sounding, the sentence will ere long be
passed, and then,’ it will be seen whether we
belong to the class of Dives, who preferred the
world, or to that of Lazarus, who preferred
Christ; and then, O then! time cannot be
recalled.
GEO. OFFOR.
