4. "And while they (the foolish virgins) went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage; and the door was shut."
How solemn! How awfully solemn! Those who were ready went in, and those who were not ready were shut out. Those who have life in Christ, who are indwelt by the Holy Ghost, will be ready. But the mere professor—the one who has truth in the head and on the lip, but not in the heart; who has the lamp of profession, but not the Spirit of life in Christ—will be shut out into outer darkness—in the everlasting misery and gloom of hell.
O beloved reader, let us, as we take a solemn leave of you, put this question home to your very inmost soul, "Art thou ready?"
"HOLY BRETHREN"
"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus" (Heb. iii. 1).
"And let us consider one another, to provoke unto love and good works" (Heb. x. 24).
The two passages we have just penned, are very intimately connected. Indeed, they are bound together by the simple fact, that the inspired writer makes use of the same word in each; and, further, that this word occurs only in these two places throughout the whole of this marvellous treatise.[4]
We are to consider Jesus; and we are to consider all those who belong to Him, wherever they are. These are the two grand departments of our work. We are to apply our minds diligently to Him and to His interests on the earth, and thus be blessedly delivered from the miserable business of thinking about ourselves or our own interests: a morally glorious deliverance, most surely, for which we may well praise our glorious Deliverer.
However, before proceeding to the great subjects which we are called to consider, we must dwell, for a little, on the wonderful title bestowed by the Holy Spirit upon all believers—all true Christians. He calls them, "holy brethren." This, truly, is a title of great moral dignity. He does not say, we ought to be holy. No; he says we are. It is a question of the title or standing of every child of God on the face of the earth. No doubt, having through sovereign grace this holy standing, we ought to be holy in our walk; our moral condition ought ever to answer to our title. We should never allow a thought, word, or act, in the smallest degree inconsistent with our high position as "holy brethren." Holy thoughts, holy words, holy actings are alone suited to those upon whom infinite grace has bestowed the title of "holy brethren."