Year: 1870




With one exception, this Parable of the
Virgins has perhaps more graphic effect than
any other of those spoken by our Lord
That one, the peerless and supreme among
Parables,-the "Pearl of Parallels" Ham
ilton calls its, of course, the Prodigal
Son. In that and in this, almost. every sem
tence is picture.


You see the ten fair young maidens,
chosen out of all the village to do honor to
the Bride by their watching for and well
coming the Bridegroom; no doubt rejoicing
in being chosen, and fully purposed to show
their gratitude for the distinction by their
zeal. You see them gathering at the ap-
pointed place, see their greeting and hear
their innocent mirth as they while away the
hours of waiting But the time is long, the
young eyes grow weary with watching, the
chat and the laughter dies out One after
another they all fall asleep, depending on
the watchman's call to arouse them in time.


We can hardly suppose the Lord would
have called the first five Virgins "wise, - if
their sleeping involved any unfaithfulness on
their part, or stood as the symbol of neglect,
or sin on our part. Plainly, it stands for
that necessary inability to realise the CON-
ing of the Lord before he comes, and the
natural and proper attendance of the mind
upon its temporal duties.


But now we see lights glanciUg under the
treeG, and hear the merry shouts of the
bridegroom's companions as they draw near.
The watchman cries aloud" Behold, the
bridegroom cometh! go ye out to meet him."
i.And they spring up from fhvir sleep; the
lamps of the foolish are gone out, even the
lamps of the wise burn low. They all, wise
and foolish try to brighten them; and the
wise having taken oil in their vessels with
their lamps, succeed; while the foolish fail
and are rightly excluded from the marriage
feast"


Now while | read and pondered these
things, the question rose up in my heart
''If those virgins had been aroused by the
watchman at any previous time, and had
been warned that the bridegroom might
come very suddenly, should we not have
seen the difference between the wise and the
foolish? Would not the wise have been
thankful for the call, and have taken that
opportunity to trim their lamps, and be
ready? And would not the foolish, on
learning that it was only caution and not
final summons, have shown their folly
the amiable, by ridiculing the watchman, and
the unamiable, by railing at him?
But my errand to-day is to the wiser
part, and | remind them of Christ's COM
mand, in the parallel passage in Luke-Let
your lights be burning. Let every call of
the watchman arouse your diligence and in
crease your care.


suppose there has never been time of
greater "slumber" (in the sense of the para
be) than there is now; thousand things, not
| sinful in themselves, dangerous absorbing
influence of the temptations of tae day
And, in degree, God is propOrtionately
multiplying His warnings-both the gentle
and the severe.


That which has especially awakened these
thoughts in my mind has been the tokens of
His mercy, here as well as elsewhere. From
| many parts of the land come tidings of good.
| In one school in South Carolina we have
news of fourteen young hearts given to the
| Lord, and the work advancing. Every
week, the South Western gathers cluster of
lcheering facts of this sort. And we know
that drops of blessing are falling in this city
now; to be, or not to be, the prelude of
mighty food?


Could there be kinder-and at the same
time more solemn-challenge to us, than
this? What mischief one untrimmed lamp
may do! One careless, disobedient, worldly
Christian-one lighthouse unlighted-what
wrecks it may make!-,S. ". Presbyterian.