Mark here:.
I. The Discovery. "Our lamps are gone out." (1) There is no indwelling grace. Their lamps went out because they had no oil. They burned for a while, as a dry wick will do, often with a great blaze, but soon the flame decays, and it goes out for want of oil. This is the case with hypocrites. They have no spring of gracious oil within their hearts. (2) They have to appear before Christ. It is an easy thing to appear a Christian before men. "Man looks only on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart."
II. The Anxious Application. "Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out." (1) Hypocrites will then see the difference between them and the godly. (2) They will see what a happy thing it is to have oil in their lamps. (3) They will apply to the godly.
III. The Disappointment: "Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you." (1) It is not in their power to give grace. (2) They have none to spare. The righteous scarcely are saved.
R. M. McCheyne, Additional Remains,p. 465.
I. "At midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh." What does this mean? It means, I think, that the indications of the approach of the Second Advent have become so striking and so numerous, that they cannot possibly be misinterpreted or mistaken. The Christian may not, indeed, be able to tell you precisely what these signs may be, but he will be ready to recognize them when they appear. He has a spiritual instinct, which will enable him to detect the forerunners of his Lord in the events which are taking place upon the earth.
II. But, in addition to the cry, there is a summons, "Go ye out to meet Him." What does this mean? It means, go forth to receive the recompense of your doings. Behold! He cometh, and His reward is with him, to give to every man according as his work shall be. The time of sowing is over; the time of reaping has come. As the great final coming of Christ was typified and prefigured by His coming in judgment against the devoted city of Jerusalem, so there occurs in our own individual experiences events which foreshadow the Advent, and warn us to keep our loins girt about, and our lamps burning. There are, in our histories, smaller, subordinate, preparatory advents of our Lord. The Lord comes to us in many a crisis of our lives, in times of great deliverances, in times of heavy calamity, in times of overwhelming sorrow, in times of mental and spiritual conflict, when we are tossed with doubt, and seem not to find a ray of light to lead us out of the thick darkness in which we are well-nigh overwhelmed. Such periods are doubtless intended to be periods of close, rigorous, scrutinising self-examination. It is meant that we should arise and trim our lamps. And we can easily understand that, when the end draws nigh; when the signs of the Second Advent, hitherto disregarded, hang in the heavens with the menacing glare of an unmistakable portent; when the actors crowd in upon the scene, and the procession of events, whose character none can misunderstand, begins to come rapidly into view, and the tramp of the advancing multitude is distinctly heard, we can easily understand that then even the true child of God, who has watched and waited for the coming of his Lord, will cast a glance over his spiritual condition, and begin to trim his lamp. The day of the Lord the sifting, searching, scrutinizing day of the Lord is a terrible thing; and serious, solemn thought will become him who is about to enter, though ever so well prepared, into the presence of the all-wise and all-holy God.
G. Calthrop, Pulpit Recollections,p. 234.