What then did Abraham say to him? "Son! thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things," (Luke xvi. 25.) Mark the wisdom----mark the tenderness of the saint! He did not say, "Inhuman and cruel man! full of all wickedness! Having inflicted such evils on this man, dost thou now speak of benevolence, or pity, or compassion! Dost thou not blush! Art thou not ashamed!" But what does he say? "Son," he saith, "thou receivedst thy good things." For it is also written, "Thou shalt not add trouble to an afflicted soul," (Ecclus. iv. 3.) The trouble which he has brought upon himself is sufficient. Besides this, and to the end that you may not suppose that he hinders Lazarus from going to the rich man because of any feeling of revenge for the past, Abraham addresses him as "son," as if he would by this mode of address apologise for himself. "Whatever is in my power," he implies, "I grant to thee; but to leave this place is not now in my power. Thou didst receive thy good things." Why also did he not say "thou hadst" (ἔλαβες), but "thou receivedst" (ἀπέαβες)? Here I perceive a vast sea of thought opening out before us.