What Is the Parable of the Ten Virgins Intended to Teach?
The duty of watchfulness and unworldliness. In the East, to this day, at a wedding ceremony, the approach of the bridegroom's procession is heralded by the cry, "The bridegroom cometh," and those who have been invited come out of their houses to join it, and go with him to attend the ceremony. In Christ's time, apparently, they were expected to carry lamps. All the virgins in the parable slept while the bridegroom tarried; but five of them were prepared with oil to trim their lamps, and the others were not Thus, when the bridegroom came they were ready to meet him, while the others were not. Professing Christians would be similarly divided if Christ were to come to the world now. Some would rejoice and be ready to welcome him, while others, who are leading worldly lives and are not cultivating Christian character, would be unprepared and would be stricken with consternation.
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