mistake. “Go ye," go and ask him for that which he is so ready to bestow. Does not conscience bear witness that your lamp is going out now, and that you have no oil? Do you not feel assured that your lamp will not burn when the Bridegroom cometh? Then wait for nothing, but go at once and buy oil of him who sells without money and without price.

Each one for himself must buy. We cannot in this supply each others wants. We may, indeed, pray for each other, and God does wonderfully hear the prayers which are so made, but there must, in each case, be a personal receiving of grace for one's self. Be sure you do not rest content without it. Have you some dear father or mother, or brother or sister, who has oil in the lamp while you are without it? And can you bear the thought of finding that when they trim their lamps to meet the Bridegroom yours will be extinguished? Some have lately filled their vessels, and is yours still empty? Will you wait till the midnight cry to go on a fruitless errand to get oil? Go now; go while there is yet time; go while too many are asleep; go while the Bridegroom tarrieth; go and get the oil, and then when he does come he will find you ready.

And, lastly, how earnestly should all who have oil say to those who have none, "Go ye to those that sell, and buy for yourselves." You know, in some little degree, the importance of this matter. Now, your advice may be useful, whereas when the Bridegroom is come, it will be useless. It is sad indeed to have to say, "Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you," when it is too late to get more. But now there is enough and to spare. Oh, leave not the entreaty till then, when it sounds almost a mockery. But now tell all whom

you can influence to go and get oil. Tell them that the Bridegroom is coming, and that if they have no oil they must be shut out. Tell them that in this matter you cannot help them; that salvation, and pardon, and grace must be personally theirs. Tell them they must have the blessing for themselves or perish, and beseech them to seek what those who seek shall find, that when the Bridegroom comes they may be found ready, and enter into the marriage supper of the Lamb.

CHAPTER V.

THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB,

The Church is an

WHAT is the hope of the Church? affianced bride waiting for the marriage day. She is represented in the Apocalypse as having put on her marriage attire, and made herself ready for the Bridegroom's coming. And when St. John saw in vision the bride, the Lamb's wife, and heard the songs of the saved, he felt constrained to say, "Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb."

I do not think that in the book of Revelation, the bride, and those who are called to the marriage supper, constitute two distinct classes of persons; but that both are emblems of the Church under different aspects; and in the same way, in this Parable of the Ten Virgins, the wise virgins are the Church, and the bride is not mentioned, as if mentioned she would have been an emblem of the Church also.

The marriage supper of the Lamb is looked on in our text with reference to the invited guests. It is the final consummation of this present state of things, the entrance of the Church on her glory, and the commencement of her eternal blessedness. What we have to do is to try and take a glimpse of these glorious things, and just, for a little moment, to look within the veil and see what is awaiting us at the coming of our Lord.

The part of the parable before us is very simple, and unencumbered with difficulties. We have seen that its prophetical interpretation does require us to suppose that, during the Church's midnight, in the midst of that tribulation which appears to be rapidly approaching, there will be in some way deeply impressed upon the minds of all who profess to be Christians, whether really so or not, the nearness of Christ's advent; but that it will be then, which it is not now, too late to make ready for it. There will be, it would seem, something like that general conviction which, in times of revival, so strangely spreads among the masses, only probably more intense, produced by the cry, however uttered, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!" but unaccompanied by conversion, or the possibility of it. In our parable the foolish virgins are represented as going to buy during this interval. This is, I think, the meaning of our Lord's words, "Many, say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able." Now, all who seek find; none who ask for the oil of grace are denied it; but the hour of giving will terminate before the hour of asking; a time will arrive when it will be too late to begin. The foolish virgins did begin, but they began too late; they went to buy, but they did not find it possible to obtain the oil in time. While they went to buy the Bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage. As soon as the procession approached, each with her burning lamp joined it, and accompanied it home. They went in with the Bridegroom, and, as the last entered, the door was shut; all who were to enter had entered, and immediately the door was shut.

I

And so it will be at Christ's appearing in the clouds

of heaven; his own people, those made wise by the Holy Spirit who are ready for his coming, will be caught up to meet him. We know, from St. Paul's Epistle to the Thessalonians, that just at the same time, or rather immediately before, the saints who have fallen asleep in Jesus will rise from their graves-" For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent those that are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." This gathering of the saints, both the raised and the changed, to meet the Lord in the air, is their entrance into the marriage supper. With their lamps burning, each of them enters the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem; not one of them is absent; and when they have entered in, and the last of all the train has crossed the threshold of glory, then those gates which opened to receive the King of glory close again. No more admittance there, and no more danger of expulsion thence; for to keep those who are there in safety, and keep all others out, the everlasting doors will roll back on their hinges, and be for ever shut..

Let us look in for a moment, while they remain open, and see some of the glories of the place.

There is the completion of a long expectation; it is to the marriage supper of the Lamb the Church has ever been looking forward; but the hope has been long deferred, and while it has been deferred there has been

F