Matthew 25:1-13 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened to ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.… Knowledge! Lamp of the ages, observatory of the nations, the torch waving its fires over the race to light it on. Your knowledge pierces the recesses of self, it cannot be a statement coldly shining like a distant beam; it is inner, inner — it is consciousness. Have you any knowledge of which you can really say We know? — knowledge like that I have of the bones of some ancient antediluvian creature, knowledge like that I have of a mummy, an hieroglyph on a Rossetta stone, knowledge of a clime I have never seen, of a distant planet or constellation? This will not do, this is all an oilless lamp — a romance about Jesus of Nazareth will not do; I must know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. A creed about Christianity will not do. A philosophy of Christianity will not do. Deeper, deeper — "I know whom I have believed." Oh, be ye sure of this, for there is much of the other, and it is oilless. This knowledge lives — is a part of the very being; therefore arise and trim this lamp. (Paxton Hood.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. |
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