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Sea. Someone has used 'this incident as a parable of truth, saying that the maiden is the Church, the Lover, Jesus, The Holy Land, Heaven. The report that He is dead, the teaching of unbe lief, the beacon fire, the flame of love and hope, the sea. beyond, the misty future, the rocks and waves are nature’s discouragements to a steadfast faith “and there, age after age, thro all the night of her affliction stands the noble maiden Church by her love-lft fire bend ing forward to hail His 'coming, who has pledged Himself to make her His happy bride, and she shall not be dis appointed. The Bridegroom shall come.” v. 1. Kingdom of heaven. The par able describes Christendom and what will take place at the close of this age.—Gaebelein. Ten virgins. In this p a r a b l e t h e COMMENTS FROM church is n o t MANY SOURCES viewed so much Keith L. Brooks in her position as t h e b r i d e o f Christ but as virgins waiting for His re turn (Luke 12:36), teaching that our attitude toward His return should be ex pectant and longing (Tit. 2:13; 2 Tim. 4:8; 2 Pet. 3:12, 13).—Torrey. Meet the bridegroom. The word used for the meeting of two parties from opposite directions —- “meeting and returning with,” occurs only here, in verse 6, Acts 28:15 and 1 Thess. 4:17.—Comp. Bible. v. 2. Five were wise. The wise vir gins are the true believers, the oil sym bolizing the indwelling with the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9). The foolish are the mere professors as is evident from the words “I know you not” (v. 12), and “took no oil” (v. 3). The parable sets before us that testing of Christian pro fession which the coming of the Lord will reveal.;—Gray. Five were foolish. There are tares as well as wheat in the kingdom of heaven. There are the true and the false, the genuine and the counterfeit, the real and the hollow, in professing Christianity, and this is to continue unto the end of the age, until the Bridegroom comes. If all are to be converted before the Lord comes, whence come these foolish virgins?—- McIntosh. It is not a distinction be tween the perfect and the imperfect, for they were all imperfeet as all of us
are. They all slept. The body over came them all. There are those who seem to live yet they are dead. A man may carry a lamp and bé foolish. He may taste the heavenly gift and yet be a foolish man. The five foolish liked to be with the wise. You may like to be with Christians, and by and by you may go out from them because you are not of them.—Fullerton. v. 3. Took lamps. In a sense they were looking for the bridegroom but not with true intensity. They were not equipped for long and patient expecta tion. It is a rebuke to shallow re ligion that dies away when the excite ment passes.—Camb. Bible. Took no oil. There iS the outward profession but no inward reality, no spiritual life, no unction, no vital link with the source of eternal life, no union with Christ—nothing but the lamp of pro fession and the dry wick of a nominal head belief.—C. H. M. v. 5. Slumbered and slept. Literally “became drowsy.” The word for ‘‘slum bered” is used only here and in 2 Pet. 2:3.—Comp. Bible. Five were watching in a way that was wise and sensible and five in a way that was not. Where did the difference lie? We can say on the one hand where it did not. It did not turn on the question Of sleep for they all slept. Watching does not necessarily mean being always on the stretch, having the attention fixed con sciously on that which is looked for. What was required was the power of getting ready the moment the necessity for it arose. The foolish, not having oil were unable to get ready. This was being unwatdhful or unpreparable, if we may use such a word.—Booth. This seems to mean no more than that all, having made such preparation as they judged sufficient, calmly and securely waited the approach of the bridegroom. But the security which is excusable and the repose which is necessary to one con dition, is in another utter- madness. Learn from the slumber of the wise' as well as the rash sleep of the foolish. There is a kind of sleep in which the sense of hearing at least is on' the alert and this sense takes note only of the one sound it waits for so that the' sound of a watched for footstep arouses to' the keenest watchfulness, but there is some thing terrible in the'false security of the foolish, maintained up to,the last.— Dods. | v. 6. At midnight. The midnight cry is arousing entire Christendom again.
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