The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1912-06-21

the Church, spiritual Israel, tho 144,-
600. q great multitude Will "come up
through great trIbGlation and wash
their robes and make them white In
! the blood Of the Lamb" These Willlbe
honored with place before the
Throne, while the "elect," al the
Bride; will be honored%with Emmanuel
IN His Throne. ., s
This multitude will beigranted palm
branches. representing a,f1nal victory,
but they will never be granted the
crowns Of victory, which, will belong
only to the elect wise virgin" class.
the Bride upon the Throne. The Bride
class will be the Temple, composed Of
living stones; but the Great Company,
the foolish virgin" class, will not be
stones Of that Temple, but\w1ll serve
! God IN the Temple. An honorable
place will thus be granted the foolish
virgins" who finally get the oil and
finally cleanse their robes In the time
Of trouble, but never will they attain
the portion of the Bride. .-.~
In Psalm xiv we have q description
Of the Church I'm glory, the Wise Vir-
gin class. She is pictured as Bride,
all glorious within and clothed in raj
ment of gold and fine needlework. The
Heavenly Bridegroom will present her
faultless before His Father, the Great
King; and then we read, 1.-THE virgins,
her companions, shall follow her; they
shall be brought into the presence of
the King" How glad we are that in
Divine providence their weeping and
gnash1ng of teeth and sorrow and dis
appointment at losing a place in the
Bride Class will eventually work out
for them contridon of heart and a
demonstration Of loyalty which God
can reward with a blessing upon the
Heavenly plane!
= Wailing In Outer Darkness.
,. Another text dealing with "wailing
and gnashing of teeth deserves con-
s1deration here. 1t occurs in connec-
ton with the parable Of the Wedding
t>Garment. That parable pictures the
}. closing time Of this Age, when under
Divine blessing Gods most sanity peo-
pie Will be given greater light on His
Word and be enabled thereby to more
fully appreciate the lengths, breadths,
Its wonderful providences.
These consecrated ones are repre-
scented as being gathered into a great
banquet hall. radiantly beautiful. In
1t they tarry, waiting to be ushered
into the banquet proper, in an adjoin-
, Ing apartment. The light of these
apartments is in the parable wildly
! contrasted with the darkness that pre-
walls outside, which darkness repre-
sents the condition Of the world and all,
of Gods people who have not yet come
into the light Of present truth"
J The parable Is given specially to
show the necessity Of the wedding
garment'-that none may enter into
4 the marriage feast except he acknowl-
edges and uses the wedding. gar
ment-" On such festival occasions in
ancient times it was customary that
all guests should be furnished by the
host with garments of white which
would cover their own garments, and
for the time being, as his guests, this
placed them all on the same footing,
whatever their ordinary station in life.
Thus we have pictured the justification
which all Gods people receive as q
: gift through the merit of their Re-
deemer. Being justified by faith the
consecrated have lot only peace with
God, but they have access to this fig
urat1ve marriage supper"
The parable is laid in the end Of this
/ Age and points out that at this time
an inspection Of the Church may be
expected. when the king came in be-
beheld> man who had not on q we'd
ding garment" The implication is that
the man had put on the wedding gar
ment, else he could not have gone in
at ALL and his appearing later on
without wedding garment" implies
that he had rejected the robe provid-
ed by his host.
Thus he represented a class Of Chris
tians in this our day who, after be-
lieving in the merit Of Christ's sacri-
fee, and accepting it as the passport
to favors and privileges, ultimately
reject it and count 1t common or UNI
important. The parabl shows what is
to be expected now, namely, that the
Great King will command that such
as ignore the merit Of His sacrifice Ibe
cast into outer darkness.
Outer Darkness General.
But let US note carefully that the
"outer darkness" is not something be-
yond death, but that it prevails every.
where, all around US. Darkness COW
ers the earth and gross darkness the
heather" The only ones who are in
the light are the ones whom the Lord
has specially received and specially en-
lightened and specially privileged be-
cause they wear the wedding gar.
ment" Of Christ's righteousness. The
casting out Of the one without the,
wedding garment into "outer dark