Article October 29, 1949 Issue

ARE YOUR LAMPS KEPT TRIMMED AND BURNING?

EDITH BAILEY

IN the writer's childhood home it was customary for the father each night to read some portion of the Bible before the family retired. Frequently the children would be asked to make the selection. When the writer's turn came, she invariably chose the story of the wise and foolish virgins, as recorded in Matthew's Gospel (25:1—13). However, in her opinion the attitude of the wise virgins was a very selfish one, and this greatly disturbed her. She could not understand the refusal of these five, who had plenty of oil, to share it with the five who had none. She felt a deep sense of pity for the five who had to go out at midnight to try to buy oil and returned to find that the bridegroom had come, that all who were ready had gone to the wedding and the door was shut.

But this parable, when studied in the light which Christian Science throws upon it, no longer presents a scene of baffling injustice. In the Glossary of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy defines "oil" thus (p. 592): "Consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration." One cannot procure these spiritual qualities through another's endeavors, but only through his own study, prayer, love, and self-abnegation. One advances spiritually as he receives into consciousness and actively utilizes the things of Spirit: selflessness, humility, love, gratitude, confidence, purity, strength. These Godlike qualities, kept active in consciousness, bring "heavenly inspiration," the illumination of Truth, and they must be maintained against the encroachment of indifference, indecision, ignorance, apathy, sloth, if he would keep his lamp trimmed and burning and be ever ready to meet the bridegroom.

The foolish virgins typify the errors of inaction, delay, neglect, sloth, materiality. If these errors of mortal mind darken one's mental home, the light of love, gratitude, consecration, and inspiration gradually fades from consciousness until midnight darkness is upon one. This light cannot be regained by trying to borrow oil from those who have faithfully tended their lamps and kept them burning, since no one can bestow consecration upon another. Each one must buy his own oil by surrendering his false sense of material values for spiritual truth. We read on page 242 of Science and Health: "There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no other reality—to have no other consciousness of life—than good, God and His reflection, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure of the senses."

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