BY G. J. S. (Matthew 25:1-13.)
We have here, in a few graphic sentences, a. parabolic history of this present period, and how it has been and is affected by the hope of the Lord's return. This history is divided into four parts, viz.:
1. They went forth to meet the bridegroom.
2. They went in again to sleep.
3. They again go out to meet the bridegroom.
4. The bridegroom comes!
Three of these stages have been fulfilled, and have become actual history. The fourth is immediately before us-at our very door.
I. THEY WENT FORTH TO MEET THE BRIDEGROOM.
This gives us the first stage of the history. "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom " (verse i).
The company is likened to ten virgins; that is, it is set forth, not in its corporate aspects, but as a company of individuals. It is those who, after the Lord's departure from this world, took up their individual responsibility in connection with His coming back again. Ten sets forth responsibility.
They were a wonderful company, whose affections had gone after their absent Lord, and whose hearts were set on His return.
They took their lamps.-They were, and it was their business to be, the light in a dark scene. Christ had been the light of the world. He said, " I am the light of the world " (John 8:12). And again, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world" (John 9 :5). This the world would not have; it was too bright and searching for it. They caught Him and cast Him out of the vineyard, and killed Him ! But He has not left the world in darkness. He said to His disciples, "Ye are the light of the world." And when He is gone, they become the only moral light there is. "We all, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by [the] Lord [the] Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18, N. T.). Thus we become reflectors morally of the light that shines from His blessed face. As in the case of Stephen, whose face they beheld actually shining as the face of an angel, so it is written, "God . . . hath shined in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).
While it is solemnly possible for one to take a lamp-that is, to profess to be a light in this world- this is the only source of true light. It comes from the face of Christ. All else is mere profession.
They went forth,-They went out of something- out of the world that had murdered their Lord to
meet Him on His return. Their earthly possessions were given up for new and heavenly possessions, which filled their souls to overflowing.
The Holy Spirit came down from their glorified Lord to fill their hearts with heavenly things; and as they are thus filled, they can afford to sit lightly to all earthly things. So it was in the beginning.
This helped to bring out the distinction between this company and the world in those days, which was as sharp and well defined as that between white and black. Alas, now it is all grey!-all commingled! There was also holiness inside. Ananias and Sapphira are judged therefore for lying to the Holy Ghost, who dwells in the Assembly. This prevented those who loved it not from linking themselves where a lie was punishable with death.
On the other hand, "And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women" (Acts 5:14). That which repels unbelief attracts faith. Persecution outside also prohibited any mere professional link with that wonderful company.
In all this we see how distinctly this company was marked off from the world in early days, and how truly they "went forth," taking nothing but a light with them. Blessed men! But the object of their thus going forth was, to meet the bridegroom.
They go to meet Him as those who know Him. They do not go as the bride, but in their individual responsibility, and as those whose hearts have been weaned from the place where He whom they love was murdered, and have been filled with the glories of the place into which He has entered, and into which He is coming to take them also with Himself. It is into this they are ushered when He comes.
There are two sets of terms used as to the Lord's coming. One set is calculated to strike terror into the hearts of His foes; as, "He shall come in flaming fire, taking vengeance; " the other, to draw out the hearts of those who love Him to Himself; as, "I will come and receive you to Myself." Our scripture is of the latter class. They would not be afraid of the bridegroom. They earnestly look to see Him. It will be to them the close of their night's sojourn in the scene of their rejection-the moment of the rising of a Sun that shall never set upon them.
This sets forth the first stage of the history of the present period. It gives the true attitude of those who took up the testimony where the Lord left it. But this state of things soon yielded to the vigilance of the enemy. Man, as ever, failing in his responsibility, the enemy succeeded first in creating division among them in heart, and then in introducing his children among them, so that their condition soon fell to what is described in verse 2, "Five of them were wise, and five were foolish." Into this state they lapse, and at the end are found thus.
The difference between the wise and the foolish is that the foolish took their lamps, but'' took no oil with them. The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps" (verses 3, 4). The lamp sets forth profession ; they who carry lamps profess to have light. Oil is what sustains light, and whenever oil is spoken of typically in Scripture it sets forth the Holy Spirit. He alone can sustain God's people as a light here. Profession is not enough. This is the crucial test of the difference between the wise and the foolish:Have they the Holy Spirit, or have they not ? "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." May we here ask our reader, "Are you a wise virgin, or a foolish one ?-a professor merely, or a possessor ?" All eternity, for you, hangs upon the true answer to the above question.
The second stage in this parabolic history is contained in the next verse:"While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept" (verse 5).
2. THEY WENT IN AGAIN TO SLEEP.
This state of things is described in Rev. 2:13:"I know where thou dwellest, where the throne of Satan [is]; . . . where Satan dwells" (N.T.). The world, with its attractions and offers of a present rest, was too much for hearts in which the glories of heaven were growing dim through lack of faith and patience; and they yielded to the serene world, and are found here again within the sphere where Satan is god and prince, where also he makes his abode. Here, alas, they dwell together. Satan dwells there. They dwell there-at a place which offered escape from the exigencies and asperities, the pressure and distress of the night vigils, and into which, with disloyalty of heart to their Lord, the virgins turned.
That they did go back into the world to sleep is evident; for when the midnight cry was raised, they had again to "go forth" to meet Him. Indeed, there was no sleep for them elsewhere. Maintaining a position of separation from the world, they could know nothing but its hatred and persecution. The only hope of escape from this was to answer to its seductions and enchantments, and faithlessly yield to its embrace. And this, helped on by the foolish virgins, who, in that declining state, had found easy entrance among them, produced the condition described in these words:"While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept."
This answers to what transpired in Constantine's days, by which time the so-called bishops-man-made-clamored for the honors and emoluments of this world. Being made great men in the empire, they put their hands upon each other's throats in shameless rivalry as to who should hold the highest places, albeit many of them were godly men and yielded their lives for the truth, as indicated by Antipas, God's faithful witness, who was slain among them where Satan dwelleth.
The world then fawned upon the Church in order to be accredited by it; and the Church smiled upon the world in return for its favors. The world lifted up its hand from its low moral platform, and the Church falsely gave its hand to the enemy of her Lord from off its high spiritual platform, and common ground was taken upon which the murderers of the Lord and those who should have testified against them, could walk hand-in-hand together. This, no doubt, was an elevation for the world, but it was a lowering of both standard and crest for the saints, and this to the falsest of friends-their most murderous enemy! Meantime, while the Bridegroom tarried, His eye was upon them and His heart yearning over them still. His Spirit was still with them to sustain and comfort them! Their eyes and heart had, alas, ceased to be wholly occupied with Him; and while He who loved them tarried, they allowed that which had sprung from the heart of the wicked servant of the previous parable, '' My Lord delayeth his coming," to enter into their hearts. The effect of evil communications soon makes itself apparent, and a listlessness and sleep, as death, seizes upon them.
Oh, why did they not maintain their position ? Why did they yield to the enemy ? Ah, why ? Alas for human hearts!
They did not maintain their position. They yielded to the enemy. They went back into the world from which they had come out, to go to sleep!
All, all alike, wise and foolish, they ALL slumbered and slept. Very little difference between them while all were thus asleep. Very little use to Him for whom they waited would sleeping virgins be, even though they had oil for sustaining light. A sleeping man is all as good as dead for any practical purpose.
Sleep! And all is lost. Sleep! And a wily enemy that never sleeps has gained his point, whatever it may be.
Sleep! Aye; and while men slept the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way, well satisfied with that day's work (Matt. 13:25).
Sleep! And the hearts of true men give up hope even as the hearts of fools! All that should distinguish and characterize them is yielded, and Christ, the Coming One, has no more a testimony held for Him in the scene of His rejection. Light may shine from His blessed face, but it shines in vain for those who are asleep, even as for those who have no eye. The eye, given of God to discern, is thus practically put out.
By the same means wherewith he holds sinners from coming to Christ for salvation does the enemy hold saints from practically taking their place in expectancy of His return.
Here's a good place in the empire for you, my lord bishop. Go to sleep! Go to sleep!
Here's a gold mine for you who love the glitter of the perishing metal! Go to sleep! Go to sleep!
Here's a general managership or inspectorship for you. Hushabye! Go to sleep! Go to sleep!
Here's a farm (five yoke of oxen) for you; a good business (a piece of merchandise) for you; a wife for you. Hushabye! Hushabye! Go to sleep!
And all slumbered and slept while the bridegroom tarried. And there, all alike are held in sleep as in death. With lamps indeed, but all untrimmed. With light, but hidden under a bed, or under a bushel. A lamp alone will do when all are asleep; no light is needed then. And so the foolish are as good as the wise, and the wise, alas, upon a common practical level with the foolish.
These were "dark ages " indeed-ages in which the light that was in them was darkness. The coming of the Lord is indeed found in the rubrics of those times, but it is relegated to "the end of the world." He delays His coming! Even then it is known only as the coming of a Judge, before whom all, even His own, must stand, to know there, and for the first time, whether they are His or not!
If any were true, they were lost amid the crowd, or persecuted for the truth's sake, and Christendom, that vast professing thing, sailed on as if they were not.
History repeats itself, and that which is true of the company becomes true at various times of the individuals that form that company. Many a man has in later years gone brightly forth to meet the bridegroom, and by reason of the same tarrying has gone in again to go to sleep in that world from which he came out.
(To be concluded next month, D V.)