THE AUTHOR’S PREFACE

Dear Readers: I am not going to beg your pardon for sending out another book, but I am going to ask you to please overlook my mistakes and blunders, and be just as patient with me as you possibly can. I want to thank all of the dear brethren in the field who have given me any light and help on this remarkable man called Lazarus. I heard one sermon preached on Lazarus, by a Methodist pastor at Omaha, Ill., a few years ago; that is the only sermon I ever heard preached on Lazarus. I also read a little sketch in one of Dr. Carradine’s books on Lazarus, but the man who gave me more help on Lazarus than any other man was Dr. McAmmons, a Methodist pastor in Chicago, Ill. Apart from these three men I never heard a man in my life say anthing about Lazarus; but to me he is one of the most interesting characters that is discussed in the New Testament, and for the past three or four years I have been studying Lazarus as a type of the whole human family, and to my mind he comes nearer being a type of the whole human family than any other one character that is found between the lids of the Bible. There is no condition in life but what Lazarus cover the ground. As a sick man he is a type of the newborn babe with the carnal mind in its heart, and as a dead man he is a type of the child when it comes to the years of accountability, and chooses sin and dies, and is now dead in trespasses and in sins; and as a bound man he is a type of the child when he has gone into sin and has been bound by the devil; as an entombed man he is a type of the sinner when he gives up all hope, and goes into the tomb of despair; as a putrified man he is a type of the old sinner when he becomes sin-hardened and corrupted in his whole moral nature. Lazarus called out of the tomb is a type of the new birth; Lazarus set free is a type of the experience of sanctification; Lazarus feasting with his Lord is one of the most beautiful types of the life of holiness that can be found in the old Book; Lazarus persecuted by the high priest is one of the most striking incidents in the life of every holiness man. Just as sure as you get sanctified you are sure to have the high priest on your trail. It never fails. Just as sure as you get filled with the Holy Ghost and go to feasting with your Lord your testimonies will stir up the carnal mind in the man that has not got a clean heart, and he will become jealous of you, and the fight will be on, O Christian soldier. Lazarus, the soul winner, is a beautiful type of the holiness evangelist of the present day. A Spirit-filled man is a soul winner. It cannot be otherwise. It must be so in spite of men and devils. BUD ROBINSON