At mid­night the sum­mons will ec­ho,
Awake, for the Bride­groom has come!
The wise thrill with joy at the tid­ings,
The fool­ish with ter­ror be dumb.
Their lamps will be burn­ing but dim­ly,
Give us of your oil be their pray­er;
Not enough, go and buy, be the an­swer.
Too late, ’twill be then to pre­pare.

Refrain

And oh, what a rap­ture and glo­ry
Will thrill thro’ the heart of the Bride!
But, oh, the des­pair and the ang­uish
Of those who stand knock­ing out­side.

Then the Bride­groom in glo­ry des­cend­ing,
Will ap­pear with His host in the air,
And His bride fly with gladn­ess to greet Him,
So beau­ti­ful, ho­ly and fair.
All the saints that have died thro’ the ag­es,
Will as­cend from their graves to the sky,
And those who on earth then are liv­ing,
Will be changed in the flash of an eye.

Refrain

While the fool­ish are vain­ly in­quir­ing,
The Bride­groom will come with a shout,
And the wise will go in to the mar­riage,
But the fool­ish, re­fused, be shut out.
They will plead all in vain, op­en to us;
No wel­come will wait them with­in;
The Bride­groom Him­self will not know them,
All stained be their gar­ments with sin.

Refrain

Have you tak­en the oil in your ves­sels?
Does the Spir­it with­in you abide?
Are you cleansed in the blood ev­ery mo­ment?
Are you watch­ing and now sanc­ti­fied?
Soon, too late, to pre­pare for the mar­riage,
Or ev­er ad­mit­tance to gain;
Soon the wise will with glad­ness have en­tered,
And the fool­ish stand knock­ing in vain.

Refrain