II.—We may as well be without oil as not have enough to endure to the end.
All ten lamps were at one time burning. In the margin of verse 10, we read, “Our lamps are going out.” What a lesson to the backslider! You once were a burning and a shining light, but you did not seek grace to help in time of need, and your lamp is gone out. Better never have made a profession if there be not grace to sustain the flame. Aye, and perhaps you, with a lamp which has gone out, you have been a preacher, or a teacher, and have, before now, enforced this very lesson on your hearers. If there is a sight in this world over which angels might weep, it is a preacher without a light. Better go to hell from a race-course than a pulpit!