lievers. They had been called; they had truly responded; they had made a good confession; they were thoroughly identified with the best of their kind; they were spiritually chaste; they had partaken of all the enlightening, quickening, and consecrating graces of the Holy Spirit; they had faith; they had love; they had turned their backs upon the world for the sake of being with Jesus in the promised feast; they were waiting for him even to the moment of his arrival; the midnight cry found them in their proper places, slumbering no more heavily than their more prudent comrades; they awoke as quickly; and they were no less anxious and active in what yet remained to be done to meet their Lord. And it seems to me like emptying the Savior's words of all propriety, to understand his description any other than true Christians and members of the true Church. I know of no quality of Christian character or life which is not embraced in it. deficiency, as I take it, respects degree, not kind or quality. The foolish virgins had every thing the wise had, felt every thing they felt, did every thing they did; only the measure of oil they took was not arranged with so much discreetness and forecast. They were improvident,―foolish,—but not in the sense of wicked, nor yet so foolish as to go without oil. They had oil. They had also a considerable quantity of it,-enough to keep their lamps burning even to the last moment of the Bridegroom's long and unexpected delay,—but just not quite enough to be in a state of readiness when the cry of his hasty

of

The

approach broke upon them. Every thing that was necessary they had; but their supplies lacked in that abundance which enabled the others to fall in with the procession as it passed, and to go in to the marriage.

By these improvident virgins, therefore, I can understand none other than real Christians, with no stain whatever upon the genuineness of their profession, but whose Christianity lacks that maturity of growth, depth of consecration, and perfection of development which alone can entitle to the highest honors and joys of the kingdom. The Royalties and Priesthoods of the world to come are not to be reached by the common orders of saintship. They are not reserved for such as never rise in their piety beyond the ordinary run of Christian attainment. When God sends out to have kings anointed for his kingdom, he will have none but the Sauls who stand head and shoulders above the masses, and the Davids whose intrepid courage not all the proud boastings of Philistia's mail-clad champion can shake, and the Solomons whose wisdom outshines all common sagacity and discretion. There must be a fulness of self-sacrifice for Christ, a completeness of obedience, a thoroughness of sanctification, an ampleness in all the graces of the indwelling Spirit, and a meekness and fidelity under the cross, resembling that of Christ himself, or there will be no crowns, no thrones, no kingdoms. We must suffer with Christ to be glorified with him. We must overcome in the day of trial, and keep his works unto the end, to sit with

him on his throne. We must be like Christ, and purify ourselves as he is pure, or we never can be with him and see him as he is. And it is the lack of this maturity of grace and holiness, and the absence of this tried thoroughness of sanctification in body, soul, and spirit, with the disheartening and afflictive conviction of this lack settling down upon the soul, that is here set forth by the exhausted and expiring lamps of these unready virgins.

But let us look now at the manner in which they proposed to remedy their deficiencies in the moment of extremity.

"The foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil."

They thought to borrow from their better-furnished companions! I do not know which to consider the more foolish in these virgins,-their want of forecast in providing a sufficient amount of oil, or their attempt to remedy their deficiency in the last hour by applying for the use of what was not theirs. The system of borrowing, except in very rare cases, is never any thing but a very foolish system. seldom works any real advantage either to the lender or the borrower. But the idea of borrowing spiritual and moral qualifications for the marriage-supper of the Lamb, is foolish beyond measure.

It

It would indeed seem very natural that these virgins, seeing their wiser companions well supplied, should ask help of them in their sad exigency; and so men have found very plausible apologies for pray

ing to noted saints and asking them to help by their prayers and intercessions. How natural, they say, that a mother in heaven should pray for her child on earth, and that a son in his need should call upon his sainted father to speak a word for him into the ear of that Savior on whose bosom he leans! How much more likely, they say, that Christ should give heed to the prayers of his own mother, and to the saints whose names the Church wears upon her heart, than to the broken and imperfect petitions of such poor unworthy ones as we! And by arguments like these, as early as the fourth century, and from that onward more and more until this day, have Christian people been persuaded to play the part of these foolish virgins, filling their mouths with Ave Marias and cries to the sainted ones in heaven, hoping thereby to find help for their conscious deficiencies. Nay, more: the Church of Christ was hardly a thousand years old before it came to be held and taught in her highest courts, preached from her pulpits, and set up as a subject of hope and consolation to distressed and anxious souls, "that there actually existed an immense treasure of merits, composed of the pious deeds and virtuous actions which the saints had performed beyond what was necessary for their own salvation, and which were therefore applicable to the benefit of others," who had only to apply for them through the proper ecclesiastics to share all their blessed advantages without subjection to the requirements of a rigid personal holiness. Even to this moment, something of the kind is an

acknowledged doctrine of about one-half of professed Christendom, and is likely to remain so, bearing its wretched fruits, until Christ comes. Saint-mediatorship, and pretended borrowing from the eminently wise and holy, and reliance upon what others are supposed to be able to do for us, still play a large part in the religion of multitudes who, but for what they look to others to supply to them, would needs be in utter despair of salvation. What, indeed, are all the "Hail Mary's of the Romish Manual, and all the self-complacencies of Protestants in the attitude of their churches and champions toward Rome, and that undue dependence of multitudes upon the eloquence of preachers, the absolutions of priests, and the prayers and labors of distinguished men of God, but this very cry of the foolish virgins, "Give us of your oil"?

But, let it take what form it may, it is a miserable and unprofitable prayer. Muster in its favor what arguments it can, it meets no countenance from those to whom it is addressed. And, with all the pleas that it may take from the promptings of natural affection, I cannot for a moment admit its propriety. The question is not as to what appears natural, but as to the real wisdom and value of the thing in the light of experience and God's word. History shows that indulgence in it opens the door for many mischiefs. We look in vain for any encouragement of it in the Scriptures. We indeed read of instances of such prayer. We are told of a certain rich man who got into trouble, and bethought him to ask favors of