The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-08-04

characteristic of weak and inehicient
persons is the habit of excuse making.
Nobody ever lacks for one. The
feeblest mind seems strong enough
whom places were waiting at the
house Of feasting were glib enough
with excuses to veil their unreadiness
to come.
But such excuses! one had bought
some land and must go out and see 1t;
but the time to inspect the property
was before purchase, not after. The
second man said he had to test some
newly bought oxen-as if any Jew
would buy an untried teami The
third man said he had welded a wife
and couldn't come-thOugh the fact
that he had become a married man
should have meant that he was pre-
pared to enter upon the responsible
ties, social and otherwise. of settled
member of the community.
Mark Twain's oriental refused to
lend an ak because he said he needed
It to eat soup with: when remon-
strated with, that the reason was a
poor one. as men do not eat soup with
an ak, he replied that any excuse was
good enough when one did not want
to lend an ak. So these excuses of the
invited guests were mere transparent
subterfuges. Small wonder the host
was wroth. to have his hospitality so
fiouted. No man relishes an insult.
least of all quick tempered fastener.
A Meal for the Multitude.
Angry, the snubbed host sent out his
servants to gather in the poor who
abounded in oriental streets and lanes.
in mum bers and restitution such as the
occidental mind can scarcely imagine.
How great was the projected feast the
sweeping invitation makes evident. The
poor. the manned, the blind and the
lame were comprehensively hidden.
Snnh a feast will Ia i< for Re
the poor ye have with you always"
deserving objects of charity are never
far to seek, if one has q heart Of char
ity.
Now for the first time was this great
supper real hospitality. The hungry
were being fed. peoples real needs were
being met. and their sincere gratitude
evoked. Still more widely went the in
Highway and hedges. the messengers
went with their irresistible summons.
What feast of happiness the supper
became for these poor In their glad
ness the impolite friends were forgotten.
They were not missed and their absence
was not regretted.
The Meaning OF the story.
This parable was not art for arts
sake. It was told to the teeth Of a
company of proud Jews. They saw the
point from the beginning; for the para
BILE was plainly one of the rejection by
--e-~AcAA
tations and long-extended bounty. It
foreshadowed. too, the mighty fact that,
the Jews having rejected God in the
person of his Son, he. after repeated
proffers. would turn to the Gentiles.
There was the sting Of the story. This
larger plan of God cut from under them
their special privileges; henceforth the
heather would be as welcome in Gods
house as the children Of Abraham. How
terrific a blow to the social and relig-
ious pride of the hearers was this par
able 1t is scarcely possible for the pres
ent age to understand.
There is a secondary significance of
the story, especially applicable in this
day when religion is so commonly mis-
understood and maligned as a drear.
austere and joyless duty, to be escaped
as long as possible. Jesus represented
it as a feast, and not as a famine. To
him it meant addition. not subtraction
Only when they sit down at the gospel
feast do men fully taste of the rich
ness and fulness of life. Christianity
does not shear this present existence of
joy and laregness; rather does it i'm
part them. This parable of the feast
of fellowship with God was spoken at
feast by the founder Of Christianity
There is feasting in store for those who
without evasion or excuse, accept the
Invitation