There are two times of awful solemnity which will be found utterly to extinguish the lamp of a mere Christian profession.
First, will you follow me, dear reader, to the dying-bed of a false professor? It is an awful place! It is an wrenching sight! No hope of glory sheds its brightness around his pillow. There is no anchor within the veil, to which the soul now clings in its wrenchings from the body. No divine voice whispers, in cheering, soothing accents, "Fear not, for I am with you" (Isa. 41:10). No light is thrown in upon the dark valley as its gate opens, and the spirit enters. Coldness is on his brow. Earth recedes, eternity nears, the vault damps ascend and thicken around the parting spirit, and the last wail of despair breaks from the quivering lip, "My lamp is going out."
Second, so it will also be when the Son of Man comes. This great event will fix unchangeably the destiny of each individual of the human race. It will break like the loud artillery of heaven upon a slumbering church and a careless world.
It will find the true saints with "flasks of oil with their lamps" (Matt. 25:4), even if in an unwatchful state.
It will come upon the nominal professor, firmly grasping his lamp of profession, but utterly destitute of the oil of grace, and in a state of as little expectation of, as preparedness for, the advent of the Lord.
And it will overtake and surprise the ungodly world as the flood did in the days of Noah, as the fire did in the days of Lot�"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot�they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all�so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed" (Luke 17:26�30).
The true saints will arouse from their slumber�the spirit of slothfulness and lethargy into which they had fallen. And trimming their lamps by a fresh exercise of faith in Jesus, will go forth as the "children of the light," to welcome their approaching Lord.
False professors, too, startled by the cry which breaks upon the awful stillness of midnight�solemn as the archangel's trumpet�will eagerly feel for their lamps�their evidences of acceptance based upon an outward profession of the gospel�when lo! to their surprise and consternation, they find themselves destitute of one drop of oil with which to feed the flickering, waning flame, and they exclaim in despair, "Our lamps are going out!" And now the intellectual light goes out, and the moral light goes out, and the professing light goes out, and the official light goes out. And while they have fled to human sources to procure the grace they needed�their backs being thus then turned upon Christ�"the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut" (Matt. 25:10).
They return with what they suppose the needed evidences, but now they learn�oh that they should have learned it too late!�that to have had a professing name to live, to have outwardly put on Christ by baptism, to have united externally with the church of God, to have partaken of the Lord's Supper, to have promoted his truth, and to have furthered his cause, to have preached his gospel, and even to have won converts to the faith, will avail nothing�alone and apart from union to Jesus by the Spirit�in obtaining admittance to the marriage supper of the Lamb. "Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.' But he answered, 'Truly, I say to you, I do not know you' " (Matt. 25:11�12).
In view of such a catastrophe, oh, how poor, contemptible, and insignificant appears everything�no matter how splendid in intellect, beautiful in morals, or costly in sacrifice�except the humble consciousness of having Christ in the heart, the hope of glory.
by Octavius Winslow, 1856 (edited for
today's reader by Larry E. Wilson, 2010)
Rejoice, all ye believers,
and let your lights appear;
the evening is advancing,
and darker night is near:
The Bridegroom is arising,
and soon he draweth nigh;
up, pray, and watch, and wrestle:
at midnight comes the cry.
See that your lamps are burning;
replenish them with oil;
and wait for your salvation,
the end of earthly toil.
The watchers on the mountain
proclaim the Bridegroom near,
go meet him as he cometh,
with Alleluias clear.
Ye saints, who here in patience
your cross and suff'rings bore,
shall live and reign for ever,
when sorrow is no more:
around the throne of glory
the Lamb ye shall behold,
in triumph cast before him
your diadems of gold.
Our Hope and Expectation,
O Jesus, now appear;
arise, thou Sun so longed for,
o'er this benighted sphere.
With hearts and hands uplifted,
we plead, O Lord to see
the day of earth's redemption
that brings us unto thee.
(Laurentius Laurenti, 1700: tr. by Sarah B. Findlater, 1854)
