Matthew 25:7

Matthew 25:7

I. Our parable teaches that, however long and deeply a man may sleep, he is sure to awake at last. "Then." Is it not true that to every soul comes the time when God calls calls plainly, audibly, loudly, "Then"? (1) There are epochs in an age when all things seem to call to arise and trim the lamps; and when the Bridegroom seems so near. There are times when events in an age seem to muster so rapidly; when iniquity abounds and love waxes cold; and when voices and events seem in the air, saying, "Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain and may be ready to die." (2) Healthiest lives need warning. They all arose I notice then that holiest souls have fears, need vigilance, and must use means.

II. Instrumentality. We are taught that however excellent an instrument a lamp may be, it is only an instrument. No lamp is its own end, and the profession of Christianity is not its own end, and none of the means employed by God are their own end. Lamps are to give light, and for progress, and duty, and comfort. "Their lamps." There is (1) Faith. Faith is a lamp, and yet faith may not save. It may be wanting in the love which purifies the heart, and it may be the gift of logic, and not the gift of God an intellectual apprehension, and nothing more. Arise and trim this lamp. (2) Knowledge. Knowledge is only instrumental. A creed about Christianity will not do. A philosophy of Christianity will not do. Deeper, deeper "I know whom I have believed." (3) There is experience. This lamp needs the oil. What is experience without it? It has no evidence, cold, dead, a memory without a light or flower. Therefore do you trim this lamp.

III. Every privilege brings duties; to every necessary act there is a responsibility. "They all arose and trimmed their lamps; they had all slept. From few things are we more in danger than from sleep. There is a state of the soul, spiritually so called. It is when we fall into the arms of indifference and carelessness; it is when the too fatal rest calls us, when spirits tempt us with their unhallowed opiates. Therefore, let us trim our lamps let us go from analysis to duty. Consideration calls to discretion. Consider the time how brief. We have no time to sleep. You have a lamp to trim a soul, a faith. Immortality is entrusted to you. What vigilance is needed!

E. Paxton Hood, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxix., p. 43.