Hints to Preachers

Verse 2.—I. The common needs of rich and poor men. II. The common privileges of rich and poor saints. III. Their common service. IV. Their common heaven.

Verse 3.—The deep things of God are intended, I. To exercise our minds to understand them. II. To try our faith by believing them—“incline” implies a submissive mind. III. To excite our joy as we grasp them—“upon the harp.” IV. To employ our faculties in explaining them to others.

Verse 5.—I. The effects of our sin remain, 1. In ourselves. 2. In others. II. In a time of conviction they “compass us about:” better to do so in this life, than to haunt us as ghosts for ever. III. When they are pardoned we have nothing to fear.—G. R.

Verse 7.—1. Implied. The soul needs redeeming. 2. Denied. Wealth, power, learning, none can redeem. 3. Supplied—a ransom by Jesus. 4. Applied—by the Spirit to our actual deliverance.

Verse 12 (last clause).—Wherein the ungodly are like beasts, and wherein different.

Verse 12.—Here is a twofold thwarting or crossing of the purposes of the ungodly worldling. I. The first is, he shall not be that which he ever wished to be: he shall not continue in honour. II. The other is this, he shall be that which he never desired to be: he shall be like the beasts that die. He shall miss of that which he sought for, and he shall have that which he looked not for.—S. Hieron.

Verse 14.—In proportion to the prosperity of the ungodly here, will be their misery hereafter: as sheep from the fat pasture led to the slaughter-house. II. In proportion to their luxury here, will be their corruption hereafter—“Death shall feed on them:” they have become well fed for death to feed on them. III. In proportion to their dignity here, will be their degradation hereafter—“The upright shall have,” etc. Oh, what a contrast between the rich man and Lazarus then! IV. In proportion to their beauty here, will be their deformity hereafter. “Art, thou become like one of us?”—G. R.

Verse 14.—Sheep, how far they image the wicked.

Verse 14.—“In the morning.” See the various Biblical prophecies of what will happen “in the morning.”

Verse 15.—1. Return to the dust I shall. 2. Redeem from the dust he will. 3. Receive into heaven he will. 4. Rejoice for ever I shall.

Verse 17.—The loaded and unloaded sinner.

Verse 20.—I. Men of spiritual understanding without worldly honour are higher than the angels of God in heaven. II. Men in worldly honour without the true wisdom are worse than the beasts that perish.—G. R.