BROTHER BEEBE: Brother J. J. GILBERT, of KY., has requested my views, through the "Signs" on the parable of the ten virgins, as recorded in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, and I have taken my pen in hand to try to comply with his request, but I do so with a deep sense of my weakness, and want of ability to expound the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven ; and particularly do I hesitate and feel to tremble in view of this parable from the lips of the son of God , wherein seem to be set forth in metaphors things both sublime and awful, both glorious and yet mysterious. I am not at all satisfied that my views are correct in every particular, on all the bearings of this subject; but my mind is settled in respect to some of its intended application, and I shall venture to give such impressions as I have, earnestly asking for wisdom from above to direct me right.

I understand this parable to have been put forth by the Savior to represent the condition and surrounding circumstances of the kingdom of heaven at the time of his first coming, or the day of final judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

This coming in his kingdom, or coming of the Son of man, as repeated often by Christ in his parables, I understand to allude in most, if not all the parables to the time then present, and to the immediate future, embracing the period of his public ministry, his death and resurrection, his ascension, and the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, and destruction of Jerusalem, &c. I understand over half of the parables of Christ to be intended to embrace the state or condition of the Jews, as a nation, at the time of Christ's coming among them, and the condition also of those among the Jews who were prepared to receive him; for it should be observed in reading the parables, that most of them present two or more characters, the one always represented as ready for the great event of the coming and marriage of the King's Son, and the other always represented as being taken on surprise, as not being prepared for the event. Many of his parables were so literally and clearly applicable to the scribes and Pharisees, as the representatives and rulers of that unfaithful and blinded people, that they acknowledged themselves to be meant, and complained of the reproach cast upon them; while in many others there was a deep and spiritual significance designed, the mysteries of which could not be fathomed by those that were without. If I am correct in my views of the time of the coming of the Bridegroom, and of his subsequent marriage to his bride, fixing the one event at the time when Christ made his public appearance to his people at Jordan, and the other after his resurrection when he was crowned with glory and honor, and with the crown where with his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, then we can see the bearings and the application of this ( the ten virgins ), and many others put forth by his sacred lips; but if we fix the marriage of the Lamb and his bride at some future and distant period in the history of his kingdom, we are utterly at a loss to understand the import and application of more than one half the parables.

I shall attempt to show, by a very brief reference to several of the parables, and other scriptures, That the first appearance of Christ into the world, and the glorious coming of the Spirit after his ascension, to be with his bride and comfort her, are to be understood as having been fulfilled at those periods, and cannot so well be placed at any other time, either preceding or succeeding those times.

It was a time of midnight darkness to Israel, and to the world when John the Baptist made the Cry, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh." "Behold the Lamb of God!" John said. "I am not the Christ, but I am sent before him. He that hath the bride, is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice." John 3:28,29. John here acknowledges that the bridegroom has come, and himself announces the Fact to Israel, saying, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matt. 3:2.

John not only announced the coming of the bridegroom, but was sent of God to "make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Luke 1:17; and they that were born of God received the bridegroom, and were ready to go in with him to the marriage.

The Jewish kingdom, or the kingdom of Israel was the floor that Christ was going to thoroughly purge, and gather his wheat into the garner (the gospel church), and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Neither wheat nor chaff was left on the floor, so the elect of God among the Jews were removed from off the legal platform into the gospel church, and the wicked Jews were "as stubble to be burned up root and branch," or to be removed from off the land, and their nationality destroyed. The unjust steward who wasted the lord's goods, and was rejected, represents the unfaithful Jews again, and their rejection; and Christ tells them that when they should fail, as a nation, to look out for a habitation among the Gentiles, the mammon of unrighteousness. Again, Jesus says, "many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, And Jacob, in the kingdom of God. But the children of the kingdom, shall be cast into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matt. 8:11,12. These children of the kingdom doubtless had reference to the wicked descendants of Abraham, after the flesh, who were cast out of, or denied the further enjoyment of their national privileges, by and by, and against whom the gospel door was shut "When once the Master of the house is risen up, and has shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are."And again, "and you yourselves thrust out." Luke 13:24,30. This parable certainly shows that when Christ had called out the remnant according to the election of grace," from amongst the Jews, he would rise up in holy vengeance and shut to the door against all who were not made ready to enter in.

The wicked husbandmen who abused and stoned the servants sent unto them, and finally killed the only Son of the owner of the vineyard, were to be miserably destroyed by his armies, and the vineyard let out to others. "Therefore, say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruit thereof." Matt. 21:33-43. Here, again, is set forth the rejection of the Jews, and the letting out of the gospel vineyard to the Gentile, shutting the door against the former, and opening it to the latter and with them entering the bride chamber where the solemn gospel nuptials are performed.

The parable of the tares and the wheat also shows the condition of the Jewish kingdom at the end of the world, or of the legal dispensation. That was the harvest time when Christ sent forth his angels, or ministers of his word, to gather together his chosen, and to gather out all the tares to be burned, and to be cast out I into outer darkness; thus we see again the closing of the door against, and the rejection of the wicked and rebellious Jews, and their great tribulation. Matt. 13:36-43.

The net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind, shows the condition of the Jewish kingdom at the coming of Christ. It was then full, the time was fulfilled, and the nation was called to account, the Refiner commenced the awful purging process, and he "gathered the good into vessels, (gospel churches,) but cast the bad away." Matt.13:47-50.

At the marriage of the King's son, they were bidden, but all rejected the feast, and refused to honor The King or his son; but when the king heard thereof he was wroth, "and he sent forth his armies and Destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." Matt. 22:7. How literally and awfully was this fulfilled upon the rulers of that nation, who had been bidden through the oracles of God to look for the coming and marriage of his Son, but who had stoned and killed the prophets, and now rejected and dishonored his only Son!

How miserably were they destroyed by his armies, under Titus, and their city burned, let history tell.

That the gospel kingdom, in all its essential doctrines and ordinances, was established and set up by Christ himself before his death, I think is clearly manifest from the language of the Savior, who said to The Pharisees, "Behold, the kingdom of God is within you," or among you, as in the margin. Luke 17:12. The present tense is used here, as also in Matthew 21:31. "Publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." "Again, "The kingdom of God is come unto you." Matt. 12:28. But though Christ preached the kingdom of God, and as the head of the church and supreme lawgiver over Zion, promulgated and ordained all her laws and ordinances, yet no gospel church was organized to do business as a council until after his death and resurrection. We should bear in mind that what is set forth in this parable, of the ten virgins, and many others, as taking place all at once, in an hour, or a day, are not intended to be so understood, and cannot be so applied; for in the case of the marriage of the king's son, the first call to those that were bidden, embracing the restricted command to the apostles to go only to the house of Israel, and the second and third sending out of servants, certainly covers the period of time elapsing from the first sending out of the twelve until they were sent to the Gentiles,or to all the world. In the case of the ten virgins and what occurred at the marriage they expected to witness, I understand a length of time reaching from before John the Baptist began to preach to the establishment of the first gospel church after the ascension of Christ. The parable begins with, "then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened," &c., and if the word then is used here as an adverb of time, we are to understand it as meaning at that time, at the time of the coming and marriage of the Bridegroom with his bride the new covenant or gospel church.There was a time when they "all slumbered and slept," all the ten virgins, who I understand, means Israel after the flesh, had been looking for some time for the coming of the Messiah, or bridegroom of the parable. They are all called virgins, and were so nominally, all were of Israel, after the flesh, and were the children of Abraham in this sense, but "five of them were foolish," and had no oil in their vessels, or grace in their hearts. It was the custom in ancient times, and is yet the custom in some eastern nations, to celebrate marriages as the parable presents this case; particularly was this so in marriages among the rich and noble, or of the royal line. (See Biblical Antiquities, vol. 1., chap. 6.) The time was thought to be about up for the coming of the Bridegroom, but while he tarries till the "fullness of the time was come," they wait and slumber, but the wise took oil with them," and hence their lamps continued to burn till the announcement was made at midnight, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh!" Old Simeon was "waiting for the consolation of Israel," and he lived yo see the "salvation of God" in the person of the divine Bridegroom of his soul. Old Anna also had waited long to see the expected Redeemer of Isreal, and was made ready to recognize and receive him. God's regenerate people, his true virgins, who have grace, in their hearts, whether they "wake or sleep" are prepared to live with him. 1 Thess. 5:10. Whether they "live or die" they are the Lord's. Rom. 14:8. " I sleep, but my heart waketh; it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled." Songs 5:2. Every true and undefiled virgin is ready when the voice cries in the wilderness of Jordan, or of Judea, and goes forth to meet the Bridegroom, having her lamp trimmed and burning. She confesses her sins, is baptized, and is ready to go out and meet the Bridegroom, and join the procession and enter into the bridechamber to the marriage.

We should notice that the marriage does not take place at the time of, nor in the place where the virgins meet the Bridegroom, but afterwards, and in the bridechamber; so all the wise virgins of Israel, who were born of God, made ready by John's preaching and baptism to receive Jesus, met him before he entered into the church state of his kingdom, and went with him into the marriage which took place after his resurrection. Christ must fulfill the first covenant before he can enter into the second; must fulfill the law and become dead to it, and it to him, before he can marry another. He does not put away the first wife by divorce - he hates putting away - but lives under her claims till she is dead to him, and he rises from the dead with immortal life, and enters into holy wedlock with the new covenant church, the New Jerusalem which comes down from God out of heaven, adorned as a bride for her husband. Many important and deeply interesting things present themselves here to the mind, which I would notice, but for the length this article is about to assume, and I shall only refer Brother Gilbert and others to a few passages to show that the marriage of the Lamb must, of necessity, be placed at the time of the setting up of the gospel church in her present state. Consult the following places, vis: John 3:29; Matt. 9:15; Gal. 4:22-31; Heb. 12:22-24; Rev. 21: 2-3; read the whole chapter, and you will see that it must refer to her militant state and Rev. 19:7-8; 2 Cor. 11:2; Rom. 7:4. But five were foolish, and had no oil in their vessels, nothing but their lamps, their profession of holiness derived from ritual observances; and when they rose and trimmed their lamps, or tested their claims to join the royal procession, and to enter into the marriage chamber, they learned the mortifying fact that their lamps had "gone out" for want of oil. Their claim was found by John to be founded on the fact that Abraham, a good man, was their predecessor; but he calls them a generation of vipers, and informs them that they are destitute of the proper qualifications to enter or join the marriage procession. Christ told these foolish virgins that they were like whited sepulchres which appeared "beautiful outwardly, but were within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." Matt. 23: 27-28. Paul says they "have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge," that they were "going about to establish their own righteousness." They were told to go and buy oil for themselves, but one tells them that, "to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt." Rom. 4:4. The wise had no oil to spare; "for if the rightous Scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly, and the sinner appear?" 1 Peter 4:18. "He that gathereth much had nothing over." - Exod. 16:18. "And while they went to buy, the Bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut." While the self-righteous Pharisees were seeking to be justified by the works of the law, and paying their tithes of "mint and anise, and cummin," and making clean the outside of the cup and platter, Jesus, the Bridegroom, enters with his disciples into the marriage.

The procession of the Bridegroom and his attendants continued its march from the baptism of John till the Bridegroom entered into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for them; or until he rose from the dead, ascended on high, and assumed the headship of his church, or bride which he had brought out from under the first covenant. As soon as the "remnant according to the election of grace" was called out of Israel, and conducted into the quest chamber of the Bridegroom, the "door was shut," against the foolish virgins, against the wicked nation of the Jews, and the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost. As soon as they had filled up the cup of their iniquities, by killing the prophets, and stoning them that were sent unto them; by mocking, deriding and murdering the immaculate Jesus on the cross; by making war with his holy apostles and followers, and shedding their blood, then it was that the cloud of God's long gathering wrath burst in awful fury upon Jerusalem, and upon the nation of the Jews. That generation did not pass away till Jerusalem was surrounded with armies, her temple destroyed, her oblations stopped, her people slain, and the nation whose capitol she was, lost over a million and a third of its sons and daughters. I should have noticed the twenty-fourth of Matthew, as I proceeded, but I saw that it would extend this article to too great a length; and I should also be better satisfied, if I had time, room and ability, to apply this parable, in its secondary import, to our own times, and to the end of time, particularly that of the foolish virgins.

The above is submitted, as a mere synopsis of the subject, and as being some of my present impressions, imperfectly set forth. The article is submitted to you, Brother Gilbert, and if printed, to Brother Beebe, and others, in love.