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THE TEN VIRGINS.

BY THE REV. T. R. STEVENSON.

"Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish."—Matt. xxv. 1, 2.

"THEN!" a favourite word with the great Teacher. He often used it. The world says, "now; "it thinks chiefly of the present. "The life which now is absorbs the attention of most men. Put into plain language, their sentiment is this: "Let us eat and be merry, for to-morrow we die." What a contrast is afforded in Christ! He never lost sight of the solemn hereafter. As His feet trod the shores of time, the monotone of Eternity's ocean always sounded in His ear He pointed to the future. "Then shall the righteous shine forth athe sun; "Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: "Then he that had received the five talents came."

We do not now attempt an exposition of the parable. Our aim less ambitious. Some of the salient, practical lessons we wish to. dicate. In doing this, care will be necessary. There is a churc Normandy which formerly had on the spire a gilded statue St. Michael holding a drawn sword above his head. The turned on a pivot, and was, of course, moved hither and thit! the wind. "The sword of the Spirit" too often suffers a like It is turned about on the pivot of party prejudice and sectaria ment. This is especially true of the parables. They may to mean anything..

For instance, the one in question has been frequently en bolster up a dogma which to a humane heart is simply Preachers and divines have argued that as five virgins we five were foolish, so only half mankind will be saved. Br the parable which immediately follows it? There, out vants, two are represented as having made a good use committed to them. Are we, therefore, to infer that t race will get to heaven? The one deduction is as lag the other. Again, in the parable of the sower, mere seed is spoken of as springing up and prospering. premiss conclude that not more than a fourth delivered from "the wrath to come"? It is qui trine as to the proportion of the saved is t Scriptures. The number of those who will b purified has not come within the Master's sco

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No utterance of our Lord's is more imp perfect word-painter He was. As a certain like Paul, "weak and contemptible "weighty and powerful" in siglt lous would the incidents an maids to a mutual friend.

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searching light of eternity dawns upon us, $ some one has remarked, if you have a handful y manner of doubt as to what kind of seel it is. ad. When it springs up, it will soon tell you all dow. Thus will it be wita msukiud. We may br

his eyes open and his intellect awake, can fail to detect a contrast in his fellows. Obviously, the masses are engrossed with the " seen and temporal." According to their own frank admission, they seldom think of God. They do not profess to feel affection towards Him. The best that you can say of them is that they have a certain amount of reverence for Him. That is all. On the other hand, there is a minority who love Him, who try to do what He wishes, and who humbly trust to His guidance. That they are very imperfect is readily granted. They themselves freely own, and sincerely mourn it. Their characters and lives are far below the great ideal set before them. Notwithstanding, they do honestly try to fulfil God's purposes. Thus, we discover that it is still true that "five of them were wise, and five were foolish.”

A grand distinction between these classes is preparation and nonpreparation for the future.

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Why were five foolish? They "took no oil" for future use. Why were five wise? They "took oil in their vessels with their lamps: they made ready for the future. Iu like manner, some have the vessel of the Gospel, but " no oil of faith in it. They do not say, "My Gospel," My Lord and my God," "He loved me, he gave himself for me." Others have both the vessel and the oil. the Apostle they exclaim, "I live by faith in the Son of God."

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How foolish to ignore the great hereafter! Nothing can equal such folly. Dr. Johnson said that "the man who lives for the future elevates himself in the scale of being." In every sense this is the Look at the savage, then at the civilised. Wherein do they differ? Here the one lives only for to-day, the other is characterised by a wise forethought. The savage is a silly spendthrift. What he gets, goes. To use a colloquial phrase, he lives from hand to mouth." His home is a cave or a hole in the ground. His food consists of shell-fish picked up by the seaside, or animals killed with stones. His tools are rude, his weapons preposterously clumsy. He appears destitute of ambition as regards improvement. He will not bestir or put himself about, not he! What has done for his fathers will do for him. Such is his philosophy. He toils for the supply of to-day's wants, and lets the next take care of itself. Not so the civilised. As Emerson says: "The goal of to-day is the startingpoint of to-morrow." He has an eye to the wants of coming years. Nor is that all. Commonly, we prepare for possible needs as well as certain ones. We not only get ready for ills that must necessarily arise, but also for those which are barely within the bounds of probability. The mere "chance" of an evil is often quite enough to secure precautions in view of its taking place. No captain weighs anchor expecting to see his vessel wrecked, nevertheless he has a life-boat on board. Few householders are kept awake at night by fear of their dwelling taking fire, yet they insure their premises. A policy of peace is, thank God, more than ever the popular demand and the

governmental practice in England, but our war ships are still well equipped, and our forts equal to the emergencies of invasion.

Is this the case? Are we careful to provide against mere contingencies and casualties? Great indeed, then, is the folly and sin of unbelief. Death is certain; judgment is sure; no haze of doubt hangs over it. Shall we be unprovided for it? Can we be so blind to our interest and so deaf to duty as to ignore it? Surely not. Men and brethren, beware! Mind lest you be guilty of gross and fatal inconsistency. You sometimes talk of the poor as improvident. Again and again you have dismissed the beggar from your door on this very ground. You have refused aid in spite of pitiful tales and pitiful countenances. Be it so, your conduct is not to be gainsaid. At the same time, are you not guilty of the evil you condemn? Yes, if you reject the Gospel. "Physician, heal thyself." Improvidence is your You are speeding near and nearer to an eternity for which you are unprepared.

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At death and the judgment this distinction will be manifested. For a time the ten virgins seemed alike. A radical and marked difference there was, but it did not appear. Possibly the foolish maidens had the advantage in certain respects. It may be that they were more beautiful in countenance, graceful in demeanour, costly in dress than the others. But "at midnight "the vast and essential distinction became apparent. There was no ambiguity then. hour it was perfectly clear who was wise and who foolish.

In that

"So also is the resurrection of the dead." All uncertainty will be rendered impossible. Each human being will stand forth in his true character. Now and here we cannot be absolutely sure about our fellow-creatures. None of us is infallible. We oftentimes prove poor judges of one another. Sheep and goats are occasionally confounded.

"The look, the air, that frets thy sight,

May be a token, that below

The soul has closed in deadly fight

With some infernal, fiery foe,

Whose glance would scorch thy smiling grace,

And cast thee shuddering on thy face.

"The fall thou darest to despise

May be the slackened angel's hand

Has suffered it, that he may rise
And take a firmer, surer stand;

Or, trusting less to earthly things,

May henceforth learn to use his wings."

But when the strong, searching light of eternity dawns upon us, all will be revealed. As some one has remarked, if you have a handful of seed, and are in any manner of doubt as to what kind of seed it is, cast it into the ground. When it springs up, it will soon tell you all that you want to know. Thus will it be with mankind. We may be

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in uncertainty in reference to some, but all such uncertainty will pass away in the world to come. "The day shall declare it."

To close the parable plainly teaches our responsibility in the matter of salvation. The five foolish virgins could have procured oil had they chosen to apply for it. Their exclusion from the feast was

not only their misfortune but their sin. Nor is it otherwise with us. Full provision is made for our security. In one of his lectures Mr. Ruskin says, "You talk of the scythe of Time, and the tooth of Time. I tell you, Time is scytheless and toothless; it is we who gnaw like the worm-we who smite like the scythe. It is ourselves who abolish -ourselves who consume; we are the mildew and the flame, and the soul of man is to its own work as the moth that frets when it cannot fly, and as the hidden flame that blasts where it cannot illumine. All these lost treasures of human intellect have been wholly destroyed by human industry of destruction; the marble would have stood its two thousand years as well in the polished statue as in the Parian cliff— but we men have ground it to powder, and mixed it with our own ashes. The walls and the ways would have stood-it is we who have left not one stone upon another, and restored its pathlessness to the desert; the great cathedrals of old would have stood-it is we who have dashed down the carved work with axes and hammers, and bid the mountain grass bloom upon the pavement, and the sea-winds chant in the galleries."

Something akin to this may be said of man's highest interests. They are sacrificed to his own perversity, and fall at the stroke of his infatuated unbelief. No iron inflexible fate hurries him on in the fatal path to perdition. Does he perish? It is an act of suicide. None is to blame but he. "Thou hast destroyed thyself."

It need not be. Opportunity yet remains. The golden gates of salvation are flung wide open. Enter! Linger outside no longer. Pass through them to share the honours of the New Jerusalem. Colombo.

"SEEKING A PULPIT.”*

WHILE Andrew Macdonald, pastor | Yes, bring him right in. Sam is a of the Church at Basking Shore, was noble fellow." looking through a bunch of letters, he heard a gentle tap at his study door, and said, "Come in."

"A gentleman is waiting in the parlour to see you-shall I ask him into the study?" said the pastor's wife.

"Did he give you his name?"
"Yes-Mr. Samuel Berkley."
Sam Berkley! God bless him!

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Andy made the Rev. Samuel Berkley feel at home at once-he had that way with him; he said, "The man I want to see is the man who wants to see me." The men were old college friends.

Berkley was a man of solid worth and knowledge, and stood well as a theologian. The wonderful system of theological truth he understood

*This article is of American origin. But it is possible that it may contain a hint or two

for some nearer home.

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