Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1888-03-31
THE MARRIAGE FEAST.
LESSON I, SECOND QUARTER M
TERNATloNAL SERIES, APRIL 1.


Verses 11-14-Comment by Rev. III. 8.
Hoffman.
[From Lesson Helper Quarterly, by permission
Of II. S. Hoffman, Philadelphia, publisher.l
Notes. marriage, j. e., marriage
feast. Servants, the 'sinviters," !" referring to
the prophets to the time of the Baptist.
Cali them that were hidden, anciently a
double call was given, first to give them time
to prepare and then to come. Made light of
it, in Greek same words as neglect, Heb. ii,
g. Spitefully, showed their spite to the king
by treating his servants cruelty. Armies,
reference is made to the troops under Titus
Vespasian that destroyed Jerusalem. Not
worthy, the Jews who rejected Christ.
Guests, the Gentiles. Wedding garment,
robe was furnished by the host.
There are essential differences between this
parable and the one in Luke xiv, 1924 In
the one only the infinite goodness and grace
of God appear; here Judgment as we'll
VI. Jesus spoke this parable either in
answe er to the spoken words or the inquiring
looks of the chief priests and Pharisees, whose
minds had been much stirred, Matt xxi, 45.
1t need not be assumed that he spoke a num-
Der of parallels, but spoke in parabolic form.
Va The royal parsonage is God the
Father. The kings son is the Saviour, who
would WOO and win the heart and hand of
humanity. All who requite his love are
united to him in eternal wedlock. The
guests are his people.
" The feast with all its bounty ready,
the servants are sent to call the hidden ones
with the result that they would not come.
In the church militant there are to be
found the good and bad; but in the purified
church of heaven the bad will be expelled.
We have here q hint as to the wretched estate
of the wicked in eternity.
The chief priests and Pharisees here, as in
the previous parable, must have perceived
that Jesus was again speaking Of them, and
in verses to was alluding to the preaching
of the gospel by the prophets and John the
Baptist, who, as the servants Of the king, had
long preached, saying, "The kingdom of
heaven is at hand" These verses contain
the gospel history to that time, with warn
ing or prophecy as to the fate of the hidden
ones and the doom of their country, the de-
struction of Jerusalem, as the consequence
of their treatment of the kings servants, and
their rejection of his message
These priests and Pharisees, like their
counterparts Of the present day, did not real
ize, and therefore did not even attempt to
ave up 10 bnelr privileges.
V. 5. The pressing invitation of the kings
special servants, speaking the words Of tho
king, "Come unto the marriage" and ''come
now,n were treated as of no moment The
possession of little property, the attempt to
make little money, deadened their spiritual
perceptions, leading some of them on from
listlessness to disobedience, rebellion and
murder
". 6. From mere want of interest and pre-
occupation with other affairs, there follows
hatred and murder. They wantonly infiict
outrage and later kill his servants. Refer
ence is doubtless made to the early martyrs,
like Stephen and James, who perished at the
hands of the Jews. They prosecuted Paul all
through his life, while insulting and scourg-
ing the other apostles
v IL. 1t is customary in ordinary society
for the host to be the first to meet his guests
as they arrive; but with royalty it is other
wise, the sovereign does not appear until the
company have all assembled So in this
case we read, "the king came in to see the
guests" When he saw there man who had
not on wedding garment. This one is Sc
lected to represent a class
" 10. Seeing that the servants had been
commanded to gather in all, s'bad and good, y
prepared and unprepared; what reason had
the king to expect every invited one who
should accept the invitation to appear in a
certain kind OF Cressl In explanation, Dean
Plumptre says: "The framework of the
parable probably presupposes the Oriental
custom of providing garments for the guests
who were invited to royal feast. Ward
robes, filled with many thousand garments,
formed part of the wealth Of every eastern
prince. : On this assumption the act
of the man who was found mot having we'd
ding garment was one of willful insult He
came in the filthy rags Qsaiah Xiv, @ of
his old life, instead of putting on the white
linen meet for kingly feast Eccles.
TX, 8; Rev. iii, 4, % which had been
freely offered him. What, then, is the swed-
ding garment Some have seen in it the
outward ordinance Of baptism, some the inn
puted Righteousness of Christ covering the
nakedness of our own unrighteousness The
lirst answer, it is believed, is at once too mar
row and too technical Perhaps the best
explanation is that Christ's spotless righteous
ness is the robe which we must wear TO be
acceptable, see Romans xiii, g.
Note here, at the present time the invita-
tion to the gospel feast is to all, good, bad
and Indifferent. The command to the serv-
ants Of the cross is peremptory, explicit and
inclusive; the worse the men, the greater
their need, and Gods servants have no choice
In the matter: Yea, woe is unto mo If
preach not the gospel, > see Cor. tx, I0
sMyriads are not chosen because they do
not come And we know not how many
who come fan OF being chosen, because they
have not accepted salvation by Christ. The
dogma that they are not chosen because they
nre secretly predestinated by Gods decree
not to be chosen, affirfns simply what is not
Eafd or implied " Whedon.
"One of our generous and phiIanthropic
citizens invited fifty children from the poor
est portion Of our city to enjoy a Christmas
dinner at his home. Imagine his surprise
when poor little boot black, with ragged
clothes and torn shoes, stepped tip 60 him in
the dining room and said: Heres ten cents
for my dinner: It's al made to-day" You
smile ct the picture Of the ragged boy Offer
ing bis last dime to the man worth millions
Of dollars but does IL not suggest 20 you q
| poor mortal IN his own ragged fighteousness