blessed revelations, as his most distinguishing possession and preparation for a place at the glorious banquet. Nor is that "word" to be heard, read, and learned only it needs to be professed and lived. To take it, is not only to handle it externally or intellectually, but inwardly and practically to digest it,— to have it incorporated with our being, so as to be the bearers of it in our entire character, words, and works. Hence also the churches are called candlesticks and lamp-bearers. The Savior says, "The seven candlesticks are the seven churches." (Rev. i. 20.) Christians are "the light of the world." (Matt. v. 14.) The Church is "the pillar of the truth." (1 Tim. iii. 15.) All the people of God, therefore, to be such, must be lamp-bearers; and the lamp they must bear is the lamp of truth, the word of God, professed with the lips, living in the heart, and manifested in all the life.

The taking of these lamps, then, points us directly to the Church, and to whatever is implied in becoming a real member of the same.* It is only as we become identified with the Church that we become part of that "pillar" or "stand" which bears the lamp and light of "the truth as it is in Jesus." He who has not confessed Christ before men, who has never been baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, who has never joined in the holy supper to

* So Greswell, "The possession of a lamp is the possession of whatever is necessary to constitute a member of the Church, and therefore to the external profession of Christianity.”—Parables, v. 497.

eat and drink in memory of its Author at the common table of the saints, and who refuses to be known as one of the household and family of the confessors of - the gospel of Jesus according to established order, has not yet begun to equip himself to go forth to meet the bridegroom. Not for one moment dare I consent to that separatism and individualism which sets up against the regularly-organized churches and makes each man his own Church and his own minister. It is, in some sense, to undertake to go to the marriage without a lamp.

And what if there be much deadness, and ignorance, and deficiency connected with many in the regular churches? What if the professions of many be nothing but empty lamps, whilst many others have not foresight and consideration enough to be adequately provided for the emergencies of their position? That certainly cannot excuse us for abandoning Christ's word and appointments to set up for ourselves according to our individual whims. The wise virgins had no right to refuse to take their lamps because the others had such a poor supply of oil, nor yet to separate from their company because they were foolish. No: Moses' seat still claims reverence from Israel, though filled by "scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites." (Matt. xxiii. 2.) Christ's word and ordinances still remain his, though touched by many a polluted and unworthy hand. Gold is still gold, though it be hung upon a harlot's neck. And people need to be cautioned as to how they decry regular Church-connections, or urge separation from them, or

refuse communion in them, lest they be found undertaking to judge before the time, and setting themselves to hew down the very "pillar and ground of the truth,” (1 Tim. iii. 15,) to which they themselves are indebted for the means of that enlightenment which they enjoy, and without which none of us would ever have been brought to know God. There may, indeed, be great churchliness without Christianity; but I know of no Christianity without something of churchliness, both to beget it in the first place, and to nourish and sustain it after it is begotten. A very able commentator has remarked that "in the nature of things it is impossible that any can become or continue a Christian without conforming externally, at least, to the profession of Christianity, in whatever that conformity consists."* It is, at any rate, worthy of careful note, that in this picture of Christ's acknowledged people every one has the lamp of public profession, and that in the regular way of established custom and order.

But in their lamps they also took oil. This is true of the whole ten. Even those who so sadly failed in the end did not go with empty lamps. It is, indeed, said that they "took no oil with them;" but that refers to oil additional to what the lamps contained. Other parts of the record make it clear that they had oil in their lamps, the same as their wiser companions. This is presupposed in the very fact of their having lamps at all, which must have

* Greswell, Parables, v. 498.

been a mere encumbrance without oil. The same is also implied in the fact that they actually "went forth to meet the Bridegroom." This they did at nightfall, when lamps were needed, and with the expectation of his speedy arrival, when their lamps had to be burning. But the point is rendered still clearer by the statement of the eighth verse, that their lamps, by the time the Bridegroom came, had nearly burned out. They rise and say, "Our lamps are gone out." This is a plain intimation that they had been burning, and, if once burning, then also once supplied with oil. Nay, according to the reading of the margin, and the literal meaning of the original, their lamps were even then still burning. They were only "going out." This, then, proves unmistakably that all these virgins had oil in their lamps, and had those lamps lit and burning. Indeed, if I am at all correct as to what the lamps denote, it cannot be otherwise but that all, as all took lamps, must have been possessors of that sacred unction without which they never could have had light, or been candlesticks of the truth.

From this, therefore, I conclude that this parable has nothing to do with hypocrites, tares, or wicked ones. It includes none but real members of the real

* The word oßɛvvvvraι does not mean entirely extinguished, but simply in process of becoming so. The more literal reading given. in the margin renders it "are going out." Bengel translates it "are being extinguished;" so also Dean Alford. Greswell says, “The meaning is, that their lamps had begun to be extinguished, but were not quite extinct; that they had begun to go out, but were not yet gone."-Parables, v. 469.

Church of Christ; that is, real subjects of converting grace. Oil is the fixed symbol of the Holy Spirit.* It was used under the old dispensation in token of consecration to the highest and holiest offices on earth. To have oil in our lamps, then, as Christian confessors, is to be anointed and consecrated by the Holy Spirit, to have "the unction of the Holy One." As all these virgins had oil in their lamps, and so had real substance in their profession, they all had "tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost." They were all true

virgins," and subjects of a genuine work of grace. They were all alike anxious to meet the Bridegroom and to partake of the marriage. And the love, faith, and sincerity evinced by the one class do not appear to have been less or more than in the other. They all had lamps. Each lamp was also amply supplied And all went forth with their torches

for the time.

lit and burning. respects.

But they were not all alike in all

"Five were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them;"

That is, they took no more than their lamps would contain.

"But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps."

These "vessels" I take to be whatever receptivities

*See Ex. xxx. 22, 23; Lev. viii. 12; Zech. iv. 2, 12; Acts x. 88; Heb. i. 9.