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"Oh, when, thou city of my God,

Shall I thy courts ascend,

Where congregations ne'er break up,

And Sabbaths have no end?"

Blessed city! And into it do they enter who are ready when the Bridegroom comes.

The object for which they enter is also as glorious as the place. The gladdest thing, perhaps, and the most beautiful, in earthly life, is the celebration of the union of two noble, virtuous, and loving hearts in those bonds of intimacy, communion, and mutual happiness which death only can sever. There gather round it an interest, promise, and joy which we know not how adequately to express. The best robes must then be brought forth, and the best viands set out, and the heartiest congratulations bestowed, and the greatest liberties given; whilst full hearts flush every cheek and speak in every eye, and pour out their treasures in costly gifts, and every one for once seems anxious to make every other happy. But, with all the beautiful feeling and joyousness of such a high festival, it is but an earthly symbol of that for which the saints enter their new-made heaven. There is to be a marriage there such as has never yet occurred, and at which they are to be both the attendants and the Bride. Such a company as will there be assembled, whether for numbers, selectness, congeniality, or joy in each other, as yet hath never convened. Such an array of magnificence, beauty, and glory as shall there be made, no eye as yet hath ever seen. Such thrilling interest, transporting de

light, and heartiness of congratulation, as shall there be shown, no soul as yet hath ever experienced. Such a table of good things, such an accumulation of all that heart can desire, and such an outpouring of all the varied bounties of the blessed God, as shall there be displayed, no imagination as yet hath ever been able to picture.

There have, indeed, been some very magnificent nuptial celebrations. Plutarch tells of one at which the number of guests was ninety thousand. Herodotus tells of one at which a hundred oxen were offered in sacrifice, and the banquet of which was attended by all the people of Sicyon. And Diodorus Siculus tells of one in Agrigentum at which two hundred thousand people were entertained on tables laid for them at their own doors, in the streets where they lived, and during which the whole city was one grand blaze of joyous illumination. But all these vast and astounding marriage-feasts were but mean and ridiculous mimicries played by children, in comparison with that to which the saints go in when the Savior comes.

"There shall love freely flow,

Pure as life's river;

There shall sweet friendship glow

Changeless forever.

There heavenly joys shall thrill,

There bliss each heart shall fill,

And fears of parting chill

Never,-no, never!"

That feast is to be an everlasting feast. Its joys

are as immortal as its guests; and its interest can no more flag than the energies of the glorified can wane. The Savior saith, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out." A place at that banquet once gained, it shall never be lost. When the ready virgins went in,

"The door was shut."

It was the signal of eternal perpetuity to the honors to which they had attained. Henceforward every thing that might mar their joy or ripple the deep flow of their peace is forever barred out. No enemy of their souls can ever follow them there. No improper company can ever disturb them there. The very avenue of return to the state of sin and sorrow and imperfection and waiting, from which they came, is closed to be opened no more. They are now at home,―at last at home,-with Jesus at home,—in all the high honors and prerogatives of "the Church of the first-born" at home,-forever at home.

Survey that blessedness, O man, and rejoice that the invitation is thine to be a partaker of it all. And as thou art called with so high a calling, let nothing keep thee from the preparation needed to take thy place at that everlasting feast.

Fifth Discourse.

THE FATE OF THE FOOLISH VIRGINS-COMMON IMPRESSIONS REFUTED -THEY WERE NOT LOST-AUTHORITIES QUOTED-A SURVEY OF FACTS BEARING UPON THE PROPER EXPLANATION-DIFFERENT CLASSES OF THE SAVED CHURCH OF THE FIRST-BORN"-SOME "SAVED" WITH "LOSS"- -WHOLE CASE OF THE FOOLISH VIRGINS REVIEWED-NO ONE SAFE WITHOUT AIMING AT THE HIGHEST

HONORS.

"Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us. But he answered and said, Verily, I say unto you, I know you not.”—MATT. xxv. 11, 12.

RUDOLF STIER, whose great commentary on the Words of Jesus is so highly esteemed by Biblical interpreters, remarks, that in these words lie hidden general prophetic hints which the future alone will. unseal. He has, therefore, made no attempt to explain the fate of these unwise virgins. He agrees that they stand for true Christians as distinguished from hypocrites and false professors, and that they failed to go in with the Bridegroom to the marriage only on account of an unreadiness at the moment, which they very soon had repaired. He says that they came too late, and were "left behind only for this time." But what became of them he does not pretend to say.

It seems to me, however, that, if the distinguished doctor had undertaken an explanation, he would not have found the subject so closely sealed, after all. Without expecting to clear up every point, or to answer every question that may be raised concerning it, I will endeavor to go through this part of the parable, as I have gone through the other parts, gathering up what rays of light may be brought to bear upon it from other portions of Scripture, and setting it forth in its connections with the general scheme of the Divine purposes. The integrity of this exposition depends in some measure upon a reasonable explanation of the fate of these unready and belated virgins; and the interest which has been excited on the part of some respecting it demands that I should not withhold what I have to say upon it.

It is a common impression that these unwise virgins, having been shut out from the marriage, were lost, or represent such as are finally and forever excluded from the favor of God and the blessings of redemption. Many think that the door' that was shut against them was the door of mercy and salvation, and that Christ's refusal to know them as his Bride was an everlasting refusal to know them in any gracious capacity. But this view of the case so weakens the meaning of some of the most important terms and figures employed by the Savior, and so entirely ignores certain very marked items in the parabolic narrative, and interpolates such terrific penalties where the Author of the parable has in

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