DISCOURSE XIV.

THE TEN VIRGINS.

MATT. CHAP. xxv. ver. 8.

"Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out."

It is a well-known maxim among the sons of commerce, and indeed among all who are wise after the flesh,- never defer till the morrow what can possibly be done to-day." I could wish this maxim were as readily adopted and observed by those who would be wise after the Spirit; for, certainly, as nothing is more injurious to our temporal interest than that procrastinating disposition, which indolently neglects a present opportunity, and postpones a necessary work to "a more convenient season," so is nothing more fatal to our eternal welfare, than that slumbering resolution, which satisfies itself with good inten

tions, but will never rouse to vigorous exertion, till time and occasion have irretrievably passed away.

A creature like man, sensible of religious and moral obligation, responsible for his conduct, yet conscious of repeated and continual transgression, must see the necessity of repentance to warrant any hope of pardon: nor, indeed, is it disputed by any one, who makes the least pretension to religion. Repentance, however, being not merely regret and sorrow, but a change of mind, and consequently of manners,-a change, implying a renunciation of all that the world calls pleasant, and an indifference to all that the world calls great, the bulk of mankind cannot bring themselves to make such a sacrifice, in the ardour of youth and the prime of manhood; and therefore look about for some excuse to defer, for the present, what they know must be done at some time or other; and continue to journey on, not wholly losing sight of the sanctions of religion, though little influenced by its prohibitions; and purposing, though not immediately, to submit to them hereafter,--in old age, in sickness, or, at the worst, on the near approach of death.

Errors, of every kind, are to be carefully

avoided; but those which directly tend to endanger our eternal welfare are, more especially, to be marked and refuted by the pastor, whose province it is, "to watch for your souls."

I am therefore most anxious to show, as far as I am able, the fallacy of those hopes, which fraud or folly have set afloat, and which the corruption of human nature greedily imbibeshopes, which have little support from reason or Scripture; I mean, in particular, the fond expectation of finding grace, when all the ordinary means of grace have been neglected or despised, and of obtaining remission of sin on the bed of sickness and death, (after a long course of vanity and vice,) by what is termed, in the familiar and disgusting gabble of fanaticism, "laying strong hold on Christ,"-"bathing in his blood,”—and "hiding in his wounds."

Almost every one must have observed with what undiscerning eagerness the mass of mankind will catch at any thing, which may be made to countenance their wishes, or stifle their fears. Among other expedients to quiet their consciences, they search the Scriptures;-for Scripture is as often explored with a view to evade, as to observe, its obligations. One of their strongest

holds and places of refuge is the instance of the penitent thief; which I have already shown, and I trust to your entire conviction, to be altogether irrelevant to the point in question, a post utterly untenable. His case has no analogy, not a shadow of resemblance, to that of the departing sinner who quits the world in the common course of nature. The former was converted, as soon as the means of conversion were afforded; the latter neglects all those means which are continually within his reach, till the day of trial closes, and that night cometh, which precludes all work. The former turned to a Saviour, as soon as a Saviour was revealed; the latter (to whom he had always been known, and in whose streets that Saviour had taught) slights his person, violates his laws, or, at best, slumbers upon his post, till the cry is made" Behold, the bridegroom cometh !"-Can this slothful, this unprofitable servant, then, at the midnight watch,

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prepare to meet him ?"—His oil is spent,-his lamp extinguished.

The whole tenor of revelation,-the Law, the Prophets, the Gospels, the Epistles, all urge and demand an immediate, not a remote, repentance ; nor can I find the least ground on which a

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dilatory Christian can lay any permanent foundation, can build any rational assurance.

In the chapter preceding that from which the text is taken, our ever-honoured Master strongly impresses on the minds of his followers the necessity of constant vigilance and preparation, from the consideration of their total ignorance of the time when they should be called to their great account. "Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh." He then describes "the faithful and wise servant," as one who is continually occupied in discharging the duties of his station; and pronounces him blessed, "whom his Lord," at his sudden return," shall find so doing." But if, in the vain confidence of security, he begin to oppress and misuse his fellows, or plunge into vice and sensuality, "the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,-and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites." This solemn exhortation he then proceeds to illustrate by two parables, one, of talents, distributed unequally, but all to be improved, " according to each man's several ability," and the other, of the "ten