X.

The Wedding Garment.

"When the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment; and he said unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having on a wedding garment ? "-MATT. xxii. 11.

In this parable, the gospel of Christ is spoken of as a rich feast, prepared for the needy, and open to all who are willing to share its provisions. The Jews, to whom the tidings of this feast were first sent, are described as rejecting the gracious invitation, while the Gentiles are at length made willing to accept it, and from amongst their starving multitudes the wedding is furnished with guests. Among the guests, however, we read in the text of one who appears to have been regarded as an intruder, and to have brought on himself, by his presence among them, shame and destruction.

Let us examine, first, the resemblance between this man and the other guests; secondly, the difference between him and them; thirdly, the causes from which this difference proceeded; fourthly, the consequences to which it led.

I. The points of resemblance between this man and the other guests appear to have been three. He was an invited, a needy, an expecting guest. He did not

come uncalled to the feast; for the same invitation that brought the others to it from the highways brought him there also. And he needed its provisions as much as they did; for he had been taken from amongst the houseless and the poor. He seems also to have expected a share of these provisions as well as his companions. He goes with them into the king's house, and seats himself, as a welcome guest, at the king's table.

And in these three respects, also, all of us resemble each other. We have all been invited to the gospel feast. We have all heard of that rich provision made for our souls in the covenant of grace, and we have been told that there is not a sinner breathing on the earth who may not take of the provisions and live.

And are we not all equally needy? Our souls are all perishing for want of the gospel. Whatever difference there may be amongst us in other respects, here there is none. Providence may have raised some men above their fellows; grace may have called some into the kingdom of God; but neither providence nor grace has made the slightest difference in our spiritual necessities. We are all guilty and must be pardoned; we are all ungodly and must be sanctified; we are all helpless and must be strengthened; we are all lost and must be saved. Old and young, rich and poor, "all we, like sheep, have gone astray;" we are all miserable offenders; there is no health in any one of us.

We are also expecting, like this man, to share in the bounties of the feast to which we have been invited. Careless as we are about religion itself, and much perhaps as we dislike its spirituality, we still hope that its rewards will ultimately be ours. We know that we

are not such Christians as the saints of old were. We know that we have not that abiding contrition, that spirit of prayer, that decision in religion which the Bible requires; but though we may have sometimes misgivings and fears on account of our deficiencies, we do not despair. We have been baptized into a Christian Church, we come to church and occasionally attend at the table of the Lord, and we say, 'Surely if anything else is wanting, a merciful Lord will fill up the rest for us and admit us into heaven.' It is astonishing how confidently men lay claim to the promises of the gospel, while they hate the strictness of gospel precepts. Our hope often seems to be the strongest when the foundation on which it rests is the weakest. Who amongst ourselves at present has the firmest hope of glory? Perhaps the man who, coming into church, never utters a prayer from his heart; while the man who walks humbly and reverently with his God and loves the earthly Sabbaths, scarcely dares utter a hope of inheriting eternal rest.

II. But, notwithstanding this resemblance, there was one point of difference between the man here spoken of and the other guests, and that was an important, a ruinous difference; he had not on a wedding garment. What then are we to understand by a wedding garment? One thing is plain, that be it what it may, it was nothing which this indigent guest could have procured for himself. He was taken as a beggar from the public streets, and had no means of providing himself with apparel suited for the palace of a king. This wedding garment, therefore, cannot relate to anything which is to be obtained by means of our own sufficiency or worth. Whatever is referred to by it must

be something which we must receive at the hands of God.

Hence it has often been considered as referring to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, to that perfect obedience which, as the Substitute of His people, He rendered to the law of Jehovah, and which, by an act of grace, is transferred or imputed to them as soon as they believe on Him, and constitutes their only title to heaven. This righteousness is often spoken of in the Scripture under the figure of a garment, and may be alluded to under this term in the text.

It may be said to mean a state of mind suited to the spiritual feast to which we are invited. It is a humble heart, a contrite spirit; such a heart as David had when he watered his couch with his tears; or that abased publican, when he smote on his breast and cried for mercy. It is such a praying heart as made the trembling jailer cry out, "What must I do to be saved?" Yea, such a heart as beat in St. Paul's breast when he cried, "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ." The wedding garment is, in short, a wedding spirit, holiness, the making our own wishes harmonise with the wishes of God, the "having our conversation in heaven," the walking worthy of "the vocation wherewith we are called." We are accordingly told by St. John that when the marriage of the Lamb was come, and His wife, the Church, had made herself ready, "to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen clean and white, for the white linen is the righteousness of the saints." In this righteousness our meetness

for heaven consists. Without this we can neither enter heaven nor enjoy its blessedness.

III. But why was not this man arrayed in a wedding garment as well as the other guests? To what cause must we trace the difference between him and them? At first we do not see wherein he was to be blamed, and may be ready to think he was condemned by the king for that which was his misfortune rather than his fault. He was evidently too poor to buy a proper dress for this occasion, and had he been ever so rich, he was brought to the feast so suddenly, that the necessary time was not allowed him to provide one. It must, however, be remembered, that it was customary in many of the Eastern nations for the master of the house to furnish the guests whom he invited to a feast with suitable apparel- the cloak or outer garment which would fit any wearer. Now we may undoubtedly conclude that this was done in the supposition of this parable, for we find all the other guests arrayed in wedding garments, except this He therefore had been offered one, but from some motive or other he had refused it. Carelessness perhaps led to this refusal. He probably thought it of no consequence in what apparel he appeared at the king's table, and so he hurried into the room as he had left the highway. Or it might be pride. He might think his own clothes sufficiently good for the occasion, or he might dislike borrowed robes. At all events, there was great irreverence in his conduct; he had no adequate conceptions of the dignity of a king, and consequently he cared not how he appeared before him, so that he obtained a share in his liberality. Or perhaps he thought him careless and inattentive, and expected

man.