THE K I NG ' S BUS I NES S In the first half of the nineteenth cen tury the Spirit of God revived the blessed hope and still the cry is heard louder and louder. The next is—“He comes.”—-Anno. Bible. Behold, the bridegroom. What means this cry? It means that the indications of the ap proach of the second advent have be come so striking and so numerous that they cannot possibly be mistaken.— Galthrop. v. 7. All arose. Both foolish and wise are described as arising and trim ming their lamps when the message fsills on their ears. Watching wisely -therefore, we may say, does not mean openly professing to watch at ail sea sons and times.—Preacher’s Com. v. 8. Give us oil. A man can give light but he cannot give oil. This is the gift of God alone. No one can by any means redeem his brother nor give God a ransom • for him that he «should live forever (Ps. 49:7-9).—Mc Intosh. None but the most infatuated could have said to their fellows, “Give us of your oil.” No one who seeks it has truly tasted it as yet.—Horn. Com. Lamps are going out, The difference was not outwardly manifest until the lamps of the foolish began to go out. Many a lamp today has a wick but no oil. The foolish seem to have had.some oil but not supplies to last. They had oil in their lamps but none in their ves sels. One can know a measure of the Spirit's power and yet be lost at last (Heb. 6:4-6). The one who is truly born again will have an abiding supply (1 Jn. 3:9). v. 9. Not so. There is no room in the Bible for application to others of the merits of the saints (Rom. 14:12; Ps. 49:7-9; Jer. 15:1; 1 Pet. 4:18). No one can have any more grace than he needs for himself. It is of Christ Him self that oil must be procured (Rev. 3:18; Is.-55:1), and the Holy Spirit is to be obtained for the mere asking (Luke 1 1 : 1 3 ) Torrey. . v. 10. To the marriage. Rather “mar riage feast.” The happiness of the blest is often described by the image of a great supper (26:29).—Carr. v. 11. Afterward came also. Beware of that idle fancy that things somehow will come out all right, that in a world governed by a loving God there cannot occur those startling, unnatural, deso lating events predicted in God’s Word. The time comes when “whosoever will” shall not be saved, when whosoever is outside the door will there remain.—
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Dods. Lord, open to ns. It may seem hard that the difference of a few min utes more or a few minutes less shoula make all the tremendous difference be tween an eternity of bliss and an eter nity of woe. The foolish will cry, “Lord, Lord, open” because they shrink from the outer darkness of the exclusion and the reproach of conscience to which the> find themselves condemned. v. 12. I know you not. The Lord can never say that of a real Christian. They pester Him so constantly He can not help but know them.—Fullerton. In other words, you have never really been mine. You have only seemed to be such. Salvation is not a thing of the lip nor yet of the look. It is a thing of the heart. It is to be sought for from the Spirit of God.—Lewis. v. 13. Watch therefore. Whatever interpretation may be put on the lesser incidents must be subordinated to the lesson of the parable, which is vigilance, the certainty of the event and the un certainty as to tHe time of its occur rence.—Carr. Being Beady. Matt. 25:1-13. Memory Verse.—“Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” Luke 12:40. . Approach.—Every Sunday morning we have quite a number of empty chairs in our Sunday School at the be ginning of school, but before the lesson is finished those BEGINNERS empty chairs are AND PRIMARY filled. The boys Mabel L. Merrill and girls whose chairs are empty at first are late, and those whose ^hairs are filled are on time. You know some boys and girls are always on time every Sunday and every other day, and some are always late. It is a bad habit to al ways be late and we should try to be early and form the habit of being on time. Of course we can get into Sun day School at any time, but sometime those who ate always late will miss out and be so disappointed. Some of us re member one of our boys who was late to a picnic and missed the train and
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