Matthew 25:5

Matthew 25:5

Maiden Spirits waiting for Happy Life.

I. Men are always discussing questions of time how long the world has lasted, or will last; the day of judgment, questions of futurity in one shape or another; in fact, putting off getting their thoughts away from the present, which contains for them all that is to come. There are three remarkable parables which turn on this unwillingness of man to live in the present, because the future seems far off. They are all spoken by our Blessed Lord in His solemn prophecy concerning the last day, when He is warning us that there are many last days, many waves and tides of judgment fulfilled, all belonging to the same great ocean of judgment. The first parable deals with men in power who think their Lord is out of the way, and misuse their power. The second, of the ten virgins, deals with the enthusiasm and love which sleeps, because the end is not soon. The third deals with the lack of purpose and unwilling heart, the slackness, which will not work when the Master's eye is away. The kernel of all is, that there seems to be delay, that this causes false security, and that an unexpected presence brings to an end the delusion.

II. In the parable of the Ten Virgins we see a happy company of the young, waiting for a happy festival of life, full of love and joy. The Bridegroom is coming, and they are the friends of the Bride. The picture, drawn of life, is bright and triumphant, full of excitement and hope and eager longing; and aft this happiness is to come soon. The lamps imply that all the external agencies necessary were given them; all the outward means of grace, teaching and teachers, religious training, sacraments, Scriptures every outward and visible means by which inward and spiritual grace is conferred; whilst the oil is the inner truth of life, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the real qualities which are kept alive by outward good.

III. So this happy company wait for a happier end. Whether we are stewards in authority, or maiden spirits waiting for a happy triumph of good, or traders set to work with toil and risk, it is all the same: the great Lord tarries long in our opinion, because we know not that an everlasting presence of judgment and life is on us, whether we see it or whether we do not.

E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons,vol. ii., p. 1.

Noble Dreams are True.

I. Our Lord puts before us the unflinching truth when He tells us that all slumbered and slept. The mere enthusiasm and youthful fire does always in all cases die out. When the weary delays and monotonous evils of life come, all that freshness of spirit and untried grandeur of thought, goes. Day after day disappointment and petty trials dim the brightness of early hope; and if there is nothing gained before this takes place, nothing is left. All sleepgood and evil alike. And how striking a picture this is of what we see and feel daily; time drags heavily; nothing great happens; the Bridegroom tarries; every crisis is a sort of coming of the Bridegroom; but there is no crisis. The very coldness of night tends to sleep; the want of light tends to sleep; the tiresomeness tends to sleep; and personal comfort and a certain unwillingness to move naturally comes after the bright activity, and watchful eagerness, and restless longings, of the young earnest life as yet untried.

II. Then comes the great warning of the parable, the dividing line. The dull, tiresome hours pass on, and all seem equally off their guard; when, all of a sudden, an unexpected crisis bursts on these sleepers, and the sleepy hours. The sleepers are called on to act; and all start up and look about to prepare for action! Then is seen the difference between those whose lamps were only lighted for immediate use and show and a little display in the sight of men, and those who have a reserve store of energy and secret power, which they have got together, quietly and patiently, and hidden away out of sight. The deadness of monotonous days does not destroy the collecting power, the storing-up power, the inward gathering of strength, even though it does destroy the freshness of spirit. This is a great truth, this fact of dreary waiting trying the heart, but not in any way destroying the working power, even though all sleep. It is not the high hope of youth, the bridal promise, the happy dream of noble life, that is untrue and false in grain; it is the letting go the hope, the promise, the dream, that stamps the dreamer as fool. He who hopes for the Bridegroom is wise; he who gives up his hope is the fool. The dreamer is true.

E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons,vol. ii., p. 6.

I. The Tarrying of the Bridegroom. Its reasons: (1) He is not willing that any should perish; (2) to fill up the number of His elect; (3) to try the graces of His people.

II. The Sleep of the Virgins. "They all slumbered and slept." (1) How Christians sleep. The eyes begin to shut; the ear does not hear Christ knocking; the sleeper dreams of idols and vain fancies. (2) How hypocrites sleep. They lose all their convictions; they lose their joy in Divine things; they give over prayer.

III. The Coming of the Bridegroom. The time was midnight. We know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man cometh.

R. M. McCheyne, Additional Remains,p. 460.

References: Matthew 25:5. Expositor,1st series, vol. ix., p. 67; J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House,2nd series, vol. ii., p. 608; Contemporary Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 114.