While the bridegroom tarried. — Strictly speaking, the time thus described includes the whole interval between our Lord’s Ascension and His final Advent; but looking to the law of “springing and germinant accomplishments,” which we have recognised as applicable to the whole subject, we may see in it that which answers to any period in the history of any church, or, indeed, in the life of any member of a church, in which things go smoothly and as after the routine of custom. At such a time even the wise and good are apt to slumber, and the crisis, which is to them, if not to the world at large, as the bridegroom’s coming, takes them by surprise; but they have, what the foolish have not, the reserved force of steadfast faith and divine help to fall back upon. We may note that the “delay” in this case is followed by a less glaring form of evil than that in Matthew 24:48. Not reckless and brutal greed, but simple apathy and neglect is the fault noted for condemnation.
Slumbered and slept. — The first word implies the “nodding” which indicates the first approach of drowsiness, the second the continuous sleeping.