The Penn's Grove record., 1910-09-09
THE KINGS
MARRIAGE FEAST
Sunday School Lesson for Sept. II, 1910
Specially Arranged for This Paper

PLACE-The Temple court at Jeru-
salem.
Suggestion and Practical Thought.
The Kingdom CT Heaven Like a
Wedding Feast.-Vs. 1, 2. And Jesus
answered the unspoken needs, desires.
and questions Of the people. By para
bles, the most picturesque method,
compelling attention, but not antagon-
istic. The enemy could not easily at
tack 1t, while to those who wished
to know 1t was full Of light.
The kingdom of heaven, the LEI
order which he came to establish on
earth, in which each citizen lived &C
cording to the laws Of heaven. The
king represented God. The son was
Jesus Christ.
This feast represents all the bless
ings which God has provided in his
gospel, enjoyed in large measure here,
and perfected in heaven. The en-
phasis is on the marriage, the union
between Christ and his people. 1t Is
the highest ideal Of love and friend
ship. 1t expresses intimate fellowship
with God, the mutual love and delight
in one another, the protecting care on
the n hand and perfect trust on the
other, the unity Of purpose, Of char
acter, Of hope, the abiding forever In
one perfect home, all of which belong
to the union of Christ with believers.
The Invitation.-Vs. 8, f.. And sent
forth hts cnrxyonfo RI COLL fhOm thar
were hidden. Literally, ito call the
called" to summon those who had pre-
viously been invited; because they
had no timepieces, and the hour when
the feast could be ready was very I'M
certain. This custom is not now OBJ
served very strictly among the com
mon people, nor in cities where west
ern have greatly modified the
Oriental; but In Lebanon 1t still pre-
walls. If. a sheik begs, or emeer IL
vites, he always sends a servant to
call you at the proper time. These
having refused to come, he sent forth
other servants, who were mot merely
to invite to, but to command the feast,
with a view to create a desire" Be-
hold. l have prepared my dinner: my
oxen and my fatlings, /. e., smaller
animals, as lambs, calves, specially
fed for the occasion. All things are
ready; come. There vas no threaten
ing, but only a loving, earnest invita-
ton, as If they might have misunder-
stood the first invitation, or not real
lied its value.
How the Invitation Was Received
vs.. 3-6. They refused without giving
any reason, they would not come. They
simply did not regard the invitation
as worth attending to. They treated
1t with indifference. They plead other
interests. Their farm duties, their
business gains, weighed more than
their kings service and good win.
Others displayed active opposition
They did not like the king. They
hated his rule, his commands, his en-
forcement of law. These interfered
with their unjust gains.
Their excuses were like the one
(which Mark Twain's oriental made
for himself when, having declined to
lend an ak, saying he needed it himsek
to use in eating soup, and being re-
minded that n does not eat soup
with an TX, he replied: When n Is
determined not to do a thing, any K
cuse is good enough.
The king was wroth. Any
ordinary earthly king would be angry
at the insult, and indignant at the fol-
ly Of those that refused. and would
feel the necessity of Furnishing those
who openly rebelled in the act Of re-
fusing. There was 40 other way OF
preserving his kingdom. Gods AN
ger" is never passion, v desire to
harm even the worst of beings, but a
burning indignation against wrong.
against the ruin of his children and Of
the hope of the world, and also a feel
ing of the necessity of Furnishing
wrong-doing in order to ave all.
Gods plans never fail, but if one in
strumentality refuses to carry them
out, others are chosen to take its
place.
They which were hidden were not
worthy, as they had shown by their
treatment of their opportunities.
Go yet therefore into the highways.
Or, ''the partings of the highways"
the cr~oss-road-. the places where
great numbers meet, "the broad. we'll
trodden ways of the world"
Gather together all both
bad and good, whoever was willing to
come and by that very act showed
that they wanted to be good.
The fuIlness of the time had come.
The preparations were complete.
Everything was prepared for the re
demption of man-heaven, love, the
atonement, the strongest motives, the
power of the Holy Spirit. The world
was in the best condition for the com
ing of Christ. Never before or since
has there been so fitting a time-one
government, one language. peace,
roads, synagogues of the Jews every
where. The Staying of the animals is
an allusion to sacrifice. Only when
the Lamb was slain on Calvary were
all things ready for the marriage. The
long preparations for the Gospel were
completed; the forerunner had done
his work; Jesus himself had come
from Heaven, and had taught the
Jews the divine message. and even
now he was uttering his last words.
The time had come when the Jews
must decide whether they would ac-
cept the Messiah or not.
The leading Jews had very much at
stake-their country, their holy city,
their temple, their synagogues, their
rank and wealth, their leadership of
the people. They were so busy with
these, they were so afraid they would
lose them If they accepted the humble
Nazarene as their teacher, and cbeyed
his p~recepts. that they were unwill-
ing even to consider his claims.
The kingdom of God was trans
ferred from the Jewish nation to the
Gentiles. The Jews henceforth. instead
of being the people and kingdom Of
God, would be a mere Semitic nation