FROM

"THE BIBLE, I SAY THE BIBLE, ONLY, IS THE RELIGION OF PROTESTANTS."--CHILLINGWORTH.
VOL. I.	PITTSBURGH, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1844.	NO. 1.

      The history of the world is divided by the sacred writers into different ages, as the Antediluvian, the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, and the Christian ages. The people of God have been brought down through the ages by successive revelations, which may be styled the truths of these ages.

      The truth of the Paradisaical age was, that God would punish with death the violation of his law.

      That of the Patriarchal age, was the call of Abraham.

      That of the Law, was that God had delivered his people from the land of bondage; and

      The Christian age has been governed by the preaching of the cross, or the fact that Christ was now come once.

      Now these truths were intended, severally, to form the faith and sway the morals of the people of God; and his people were good or bad, perfect or imperfect in their morals and devotion to him, as they held fast or let slip the truth of the age in which they lived. Was not the parable of the ten virgins then, written to let us know that about the close of the christian dispensation, the second Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ would be associated with the truth of the age, the doctrine of the cross--and the cry be heard throughout christendom, "Behold! the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him!"

      The parable of the ten virgins, Mat. 25 c. proceeds thus,--"Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened to ten virgins," &c. "While the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept, and at midnight there was a cry heard."--Has not this cry then, been raised in the land? Or is all that has been said, and preached, and written concerning the coming of the Lord from heaven, by many of the best, and certainly some of the greatest men in Christendom, to be lost upon us? Shall we sleep, despite it all? We cannot believe it. The mistakes of those more pious than prudent persons, who long for this event, cannot negative the general voice of prophecy--that we are now in the vicinity of the great event.

      The Messiah, according to scripture, Dan. 8 c. was to come at the beginning of the Roman Empire, and his second Advent is represented, Dan. 7 c. as according to the end of the Roman Empire. The beginning of Christ's universal government, and the end of the Empire are, therefore, co-etaneous events; and when we ascertain the one we ascertain the other. The great question then is, when does the Empire terminate? The great interpreters give this as the age.

ED. SEN.      

["Parable of the Ten Virgins." The Protestant Unionist, 1 (September 25, 1844): 2.]

      Walter Scott's "Parable of the Ten Virgins" was first published in The Protestant Unionist, Vol. 1, No. 1, September 25, 1844. The electronic version of the essay has been produced from microfilm of the newspaper.

      Inconsistencies in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and typography have been retained.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
373 Wilson Street
Derry, PA 15627-9770
e_stefanik@email.msn.com

Created 28 January 2002.