The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-05-21
THE WEDDINGF.E
"Come, For All Things Are Now
Ready" Is the Invitation Held
Out.
lnnumerable Good Things in Store
For All Followers Of the
Lord.


Invitation to Wedding" and the
text Luke xiv, II: "Come, for all
things are now ready" =.se
Holy festivities. We gather other
sheaves into the spiritual garner. Our
Joy is like the Joy of heaven. Spread
the banquet, fill all the chalices. We
are not at the funeral Of dead
Christ; we are celebrating the marriage
OF the kings son. .:.
To-day, my brothers and sisters, I
invite you to grand entertainment.
My Lord, the King, is the banqueter.
Angels OF God are the cupbearers, all
the redeemed are the guests; the halls
OF eternal love frescoed with light, and
paved with Joy, and curtained with
unfadlng beauty are the banqueting
place, the harmonies of etenity are the
music, the chalices Of God are the
plate, and I am one of the servants
come out with invitations to all the
people, and oh, that you might break
the seal of the invitation and read in
ink OF blood, and with the tremulous
hand Of dying Christ: Come, come,
for all things are now ready"
Sometimes there has been great dis
appointments at a banquet. The
wine has given out, or the servants
have been rebellious, or the lights have
failed, but I walk all around the ban
quoting table of my Lord to-day, and
l find everything complete, and I
swing open the door of this banquet
ing house and say. Gail things are
now ready"
Illustrating my text, go on and in
the first place say that the Lord
Jesus Crist is ready.
WAITING FOR HIS GUESTS,
waiting for some of them 1891 years,
waiting with mangled feet, waiting
with hand on the punctured side,
waiting with hand on the lacerated
temples, waiting waiting! Wonder Il
is that the banqueter did not get
weary and say: "Shut the door, and
let the laggards stay out" No, he
has been waiting. How much he is in
earnest! Shall show you? Igather
up all the tears, that flooded his cheek
IN sympathy, all the blood that chan
nelled his brow and back and hand
and foot, to purchase ourredemption.
gather up all tho groans coming from
midnight chill and mountain hunger
and desert loneliness, and 1 put them
into one bitter cry-I gather up all
the pangs that shot from cross and
spike and spear, into one groan-I
take one drop of sweat on his brow
and 1 put it under the glass of the
Gospel and it enlarges to lakes OF sor-
row, to oceans OF agony. That Christ
today, emaciated and worn and
weary, comes here and with pathos
IN which every word is heartbreak
and every sentence martyrdom, he
says toyou and he says to me: "Come,
come, for all things are now ready"
Ahasuerus made a feast that lasted
$50 days. This lasts forever. Lords
and princes were invited to that. You
and are invited to this. Yes, he has
been waiting, he is waiting now.
An! there is one word OF five letters
that would like to write; but I have
no sheet fair enough to write it on,
and no pencil good enough to inscribe
it. Give me a sheet from the heaven
~ records, and some pencil used by
angel in describing a victory, and thea
with hand struck with supernatural
energy, and with pencil dipped in ever
lasting morning. Twill write it out in
capitals of love: JESUS Jesus It
is this One that is waiting for you
and for me, for we are on the same
platform before God. How long he
waited for mel How long he has
waited for you! Waiting as a ban
queter waits for his delayed guests,
the meat smoking, and the breakers
Drumming, and the minstrel with his
finger on the stiff string ready to
strike at the first clash of the hoofs at
the gateway. Waiting as a mother
waits for a boy that 1Oyears ago went
off dragging her bleeding heart after
him. Waiting. Oh, can you not give
me some comparison intense enough,
lmportunate enough, high as heaven,
DEEP AS HE'LL,
and vast as eternity? Not expecting
that you can help me with such COM
parison, Isimply say he is waiting as
an all-sympathetic Christ knows how
to wait for a wandering soul.
Bow the knee and kiss the Son.
49, 49, Come and welcome sinner come
But I remark again, not only Christ
is waiting, but the Holy Spirit is
waiting: Why are some sermons a
dead failure? Why are there songs
that do not get their wing under the
people? Why are there players that
60 no higher up than a hunters hal
loo? Because there is a missing link
that only the Holy Spirit can make.
Ii that Spirit should come through
this assemblage this morning there
would be a power felt like that when
Saul was endorsed on the road to
Damascus, like as when I1ydia's heart
was broken in her fine store, like as
when 5000 souls We're lifted out of
midnight into midnoon as the Pente-
cost. Do you notice that sometimes
that spirit takes an insignificant
agency to have a soul? I think it is
very often that at just one passage of
scripture, just one word of scripture,
soul is saved because the Holy
Spirit gives it supernatural. power.
Do you know what it was that
saved Martin Luther? It was that
one verse; "The just shall live by