peremptorily refusing to share their store of
oil with their improvident companions.[52]

[52] They turn themselves to the wise, whom, perhaps, they had
lately laughed at, with the prayer: "Give us of your oil, for our
lamps are gone out." They betake themselves, if they are Catholics,
to the dead saints, if they are Protestants, to the living, whom
they have been accustomed to revere as their guides on account of
their wisdom and grace, and plead, Help us, comfort us, pray for us,
that we may be brought into a state of grace. In vain. They answer:
Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you. What you desire is
impossible. None of us has any surplus merit out of which he could
give a portion to another.--_Arndt_, ii. 177.

"Go to them that sell, and buy for yourselves." The advice was the best
that in the circumstances could be given. The mention of "them that
sell" calls up all the scene of the preceding day. Oil was plentiful in
the town; the five wise virgins having gone by daylight to the stores
with their vessels, had experienced no difficulty in obtaining a supply.
The same method was open to the rest: they failed to secure a store in
the daytime, and then they tried in vain to make good the deficiency at
midnight, after the merchants had retired to rest. This feature of the
parable intimates that those who are found destitute at the coming of
the Lord, enjoyed their day and their opportunity, but neglected them:
they allowed the day of mercy to run out, and cried frantically for
mercy after the merciful Saviour had wearied waiting and gone away.

While the foolish virgins are absent on this errand, the bridegroom
comes up. They that are ready go in with him to the wedding, and the
door is shut. Christ calls away his own at some midnight hour when they
are off their guard; but though surprised, they are not hurt. The five
wise virgins were asleep when the approach of the bridegroom was
announced, and yet they were ready to meet him. Their safety resulted
not from their fluttering activity at that moment in the trimming of the
lamps, but from their wise foresight on the preceding day. The
salvation of a soul depends not on frightened earnestness in the moment
of departure, but on faith's calm closing with Christ, before the moment
of departure comes. In the vessels of the wise there was store of oil,
and it was easy for them at any time or place to refresh the fading fire
of the torches w