ivill find His Clturcli a mixed body, containing evil as ivell as good.
The professing Cliurcli is compared to "ten virgins, who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom." All of them had lamps, but only five had oil in their vessels to feed the flame. All of them professed to have one object in view, but five only were truly wise, and the rest were foolish. The visible Church of Christ is just in the same condition. All its members are baptized in the name of Christ, but not all really hear His voice and follow Him. All are called Christians, and profess to be of the Christian religion, but not all have the grace of the Spirit in their hearts, and really are what they profess to be. Our own eyes tell us that it is so now. The Lord Jesus tells us that it will be so, when He comes again.-''*
Let us mark well this description. It is a humbling
* I think it fair to say, that a different view of this parable is held by some interpreters. They consider that the ten virgins represent true behevers, and that the five fooUsh ones are behevers that fall away — or behevers that are only shut out from certain privileges at the Lord's return, and are finally saved.
I cannot admit the correctness of this view. It appears to me to do great violence to the plain meaning of the conclusion of the parable, to be out of keeping with the general tenor of our Lord's discourse in this place, and to contradict many texts of Scripture.
I believe that the ten virgins represent the two great classes wliich compose the visible Church of Christ, the converted and the uncon- verted, the false professors and the real Christians, the hypocrites and the true behevers, the foohsh builders and the wise builders, the good fi^h and the bad, the living and the dead, the wheat and the tares.
This view is neither new nor uncommon. It is held, in the main, by the following commentators : — BuUinger, Brentius, Gualter, Pelican, Beza, Ferus, Paroeus, Piscator, Muse ul us, Leigh, Baxter, Quesnel, Poole, Manton, Henry, Burkitt, Doddridge, Gill, and Scott.