“‘5th. Tract societies are of much use, and are an efficient means to help to trim the lamps. Like snuffers that take away the preventives to the light, so are tracts. They take away from the mind the prejudice that thousands have against reading the word of God; they remove those rooted and groundless opinions, which many have, that they cannot understand the Bible; they serve to excite the mind to this kind of reading; they enlighten the understanding in some scriptural truths; they are pioneers, in many instances, to conversion; they can be sent where the word of God cannot at first be received; in one word, they are the harbingers of light, the forerunners of the Bible. And in this, too, all men in this probationary state seem to be more or less engaged, from the king on the throne, down to the poor peasant in the cottage, writing, printing, folding, transporting, paying, or reading, those silent little messengers of the virgins’ lamp. ‘Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.’ Has not God’s hand been seen in all this? And glory be to Him who hath disposed the hearts of men to work the work that God bids them, and to fulfill the blessed word which he hath given them. This institution took its rise about the same time with the Bible society. “‘6th. Temperance societies. These serve one purpose in trimming the lamps and preparing the way for the virgins to go out and meet the Bridegroom. Our world, twenty years ago, might be called a world of fashionable drunkards; almost all men drank of the intoxicating bowl, and thought it no harm. But when the lamp began to dart its rays around our tabernacles, it was found by woful experience that those who drank of the poisonous cup were totally and wholly unprepared to receive the warning voice, or to hear the midnight cry, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!” No, “they that were drunken were drunken in the night,” says the apostle. “Therefore let us watch and be sober.” And Peter tells us, “But the end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.” How foolish would it have been for a drunken man to be set on a watch, or a praying man to be found drunk! Therefore, in order that men might be in a suitable frame of mind to receive instruction at the close of this dispensation, and be in a situation to listen to the midnight cry, God ordered the virgins, and they arose and trimmed their lamps; and in all human probability thousands, who would have met a drunkard’s grave if this society had not arose, are now watching, with their lamps trimmed and burning, ready to meet the Bridegroom at his coming. Perhaps this temperance society is the virgins’ last resort. The Judge stands at the door; go ye out to meet him. This society, like the others before mentioned, is a