THE MARRIAGE OF THE KING'S SON.
ADAM and Eve were the first human beings upon the earth. They were holy and happy until they sinned. Then they lost their Eden home; and when Cain, their own son, angrily rose up and killed his innocent brother, they began to realize the terrible effects of sin. Seth and some of his descendants were good men, but by the time the world had stood about fifteen hundred years, the people, who were then very numerous, had become so very wicked that it was necessary to destroy them by a flood. Noah spent one hundred and twenty years in warning the people, and in building an ark, as the Lord had instructed him to do. After the flood, Noah's descendants multiplied and became a great people; but they also became wicked and proud, and the Lord scattered them abroad over the earth.
Then Abraham was called, and had the promise that he should be the father of a great nation, and that if he and his seed after him would be faithful and true, they should be God's peculiar people above all others; that they should have the land of Canaan for a possession, and an everlasting inheritance in the world to come. But Abraham died, and his descendants went down into Egypt, where they finally became slaves, and suffered great hardships. Then Moses was raised up to deliver them, and after forty years of disobedience and wandering in the wilderness, they were brought into the land of Canaan. This was many hundred years before the time of Christ, and during all that long period of time the Lord had kept sending them prophets and teachers, who warned them against their evil ways, and told them how to so live that they might one day sit down to the marriage supper of the Lamb, in the New Jerusalem.
But the proud Jews often slighted the teachings of God's messengers, and treated his prophets in a most cruel manner, beating some, and killing some, till finally Christ, the Son of God had come, and now they were about to take his life.
So Jesus on the last day of his teaching in the temple, gave them a parable about the marriage of the king's son. In that parable he showed them their wicked course, and how the Lord would destroy them and their city, and send his messengers to invite the Gentiles to come to Christ. " And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding; and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise; and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth; and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all, as many as they found, both bad and good; and the wedding was furnished with guests."