Devotionals Book Two

February 16

Wise or Foolish?

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their

lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five

were foolish. Matthew 25:1, 2.

We are not to rest in the idea that because we are church-members we are saved,

while we give no evidence that we are conformed to the image of Christ, while we

cling to our old habits, and weave our fabric with the threads of worldly ideas and

customs....

The ten virgins are watching in the evening of this earth's history. All claim

to be Christians. All have a call, a name, a lamp, and all claim to be doing God's

service. All apparently watch for His appearing. But five are wanting. Five will be

found surprised, dismayed, outside the banquet hall.

We are represented either by the wise or by the foolish virgins. There are

many who will not remain at the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him. They have not

a knowledge of His ways; they are not prepared for His coming. They have made a

pretense of waiting for their Lord. They have not watched and prayed with that faith

which works by love and purifies the soul. They have lived a life of carelessness.

They have heard and assented to the truth, but they have never brought it into their

practical life. The oil of grace is not feeding their lamps, and they are not prepared

to enter into the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Be not like the foolish virgins, who take for granted that the promises of God

are theirs, while they do not follow the injunctions of Christ. Christ teaches us that

profession is nothing. "If any man will come after me," He says, "let him deny

himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." ...

When we stand the test of God in the refining, purifying process; when the

furnace fire consumes the dross, and the true gold of a purified character appears, we

may still say, with Paul, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already

perfect: but I follow after.... This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are

behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the

mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.