groom cometh," the reality of their grace is shown by their being able at once to trim their lamps, and prepare to meet him; then, how unspeakable the blessedness of standing calm and joyful when all hearts are failing for fear, looking without alarm on Him who sits upon the cloud, and going in with him to the marriage.

It is added, "And the door was shut." We will not consider, in this chapter, the bearing these words have on those without. Our subject leads us to the other side, and we look on the door being shut with reference to those that are within. It is shut to keep them in. "They shall go no more out," is one of the precious promises to the Church in the Apocalypse. Those who enter the marriage will find themselves where they shall never cease to be at home. Shut in from all sorrow, all pain, all curse, all sin. Nothing can come in to cause them anxiety. The enemy of souls cannot find his way through that closed door. Noah was safe in the ark when God shut him in, and so will those be who are admitted within the palace, and sit down at Christ's table in his kingdom. We cannot always here shut out sin and sorrow from our holiest services. But there they cannot enter; and each one of the saved, with nothing to spoil his joy or interrupt his peace, will be shut in for ever from all the power of

the enemy.

We must seek for more grace, that we may ever make our torches burn brighter; and, oh, that he would indeed shut the door, and drive can interrupt our communion with him.

away all that

We would be

with Jesus, and in conscious fellowship with all who

love him. May he grant us a full, deep, realizing sense of his presence with us, and at all times enable us to anticipate the hour when we shall be with him in glory, and with all his saints rejoice together at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

CHAPTER VI.

TOO LATE.

Too late too late-too late, that is the subject we have to think of now. May no reader of this book ever know it in his own experience.

We are told nothing of the proceedings of the foolish virgins during the interval between the midnight cry and the incident before us. They went to buy. In the strict prophetical interpretation of the parable, as we are only told they went to buy, and not that they bought, we are not required to explain the buying. The foolish virgins may have found the shops closed, and in despair of obtaining oil have rushed back to the marriage without it. This is, perhaps, most likely. One thing is certain, that persons may seek grace too late, but cannot obtain it too late; all who have the oil will have it in time to enter into the marriage.

But there is such a thing as seeking spiritual blessings in a wrong way; and though I doubt whether this is in strictness to be drawn from the parable, we will for a moment glance at it. How the wise virgins got their oil we are not told. Nor are we told whether

the advice they gave to the foolish virgins would have been good advice if it had not been too late. Perhaps

no emphasis is to be laid on the fact that they went to buy. It may be that the word is used simply to express the natural way of getting oil. It is so used elsewhere. As in Isaiah, where the Lord says, "Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Or in Revelations, where Jesus uses these words, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.' If the result had been satisfac

tory we need not have gone further, but considering that they did not succeed, we may perhaps ask whether buying oil was the right way of obtaining it.

There are many who do, in fact, go to buy oil. They think that salvation is to be obtained at the cost of something of their own. They will buy it with their efforts, their prayers, their self-denial, their repentance. And when made really desirous of being converted they put off coming to Christ and accepting salvation and pardon, and the gift of his Spirit, until they can bring something with them in order to deserve it.

This is the reason why many who are convinced of their sins remain long without being saved. They go to buy instead of coming to take. This is always the wrong course. So long as it is persisted in no good can possibly come. Nothing we can bring does in the least degree deserve any favour from God. We cannot purchase anything from him. You never will be able to do it any more than you are now. Should you live to the age of Methuselah you would never find a better moment than the present. You have nothing to pay, and so long as you seek to pay you will obtain no blessing. If the anxious sinner would but go to Christ at once as having nothing, he would at once receive from him everything. But if he will wait till he thinks

himself able to purchase, he is sure to be too late. Oh that I could persuade each unsaved one among my readers to accept salvation freely, and not to think to give anything for it. You must indeed come just as you are, and take from him freely what he does so freely give.

When the Bridegroom comes he will find many buying grace, many seeking for salvation in ways not appointed or approved by him. Such will not be better off than others. It is no advantage to be trying to buy what must, if possessed at all, be received freely. And it would be a sad thing when the Bridegroom cometh to be found, like the foolish virgins, gone to buy.

What is it which keeps you at this time from salvation? What are you looking for in order to come to Christ? That is the price which you want to offer for the oil. Be persuaded to relinquish that vain attempt, and at once, now that he is so willing to be gracious, to accept pardon and the gift of the Spirit which he bestows on those who have received him. Then it will never be true of you, "While they went to buy, the Bridegroom came, and the door was shut."

"The door was shut." We considered this in the last chapter, with reference to those within, now we have to consider it with reference to those without. The door which shut the wise virgins in shut the foolish virgins out. We cannot conceal the fact that a door closed by God himself will separate eternally between one and another; and these foolish virgins are not distinguished as being peculiarly careless and peculiarly wicked. They are not any of them avowed enemies of the Bridegroom. The distinction seems a small one, and yet it is a decisive one.