hly thing: in God's sight and in
prospect of the judgment, there is none good, no not one. There are not
two roads from earth to heaven: there is only one gate open, and by it
all the saved enter. It is not the man's goodness that recommends him to
God's favour: the worst is welcome through the blood of Christ, and the
best is rejected if he approach by any other way. Nor does it follow
thence that the Judge is indifferent to righteousness; that which the
unreconciled offer to him as righteousness is in his sight sin; and the
fact of offering it as a ground of justification aggravates the
offerer's guilt.

PART II.--THE WEDDING GARMENT.

We have here two parables in one. In their union and relations they
resemble the two seed-stones which are sometimes found within one fruit,
attached to each other, and wrapped in the same envelope, but possessing
each its own separate organization, and its own independent germ of
life. The parable of the prepared, offered, and rejected feast, and the
parable of the wedding garment, although actually united in the Lord's
ministry and the evangelic record, are in their own nature distinct,
whether you consider the secular scenes delineated or the spiritual
lessons which they convey.

When the wedding was furnished with guests the king came in to see them.
The representation is in strict accordance with the relations of the
parties and the customs of society both in ancient and modern times.
When a citizen entertains his equals he must himself be first in the
festal hall to welcome the guests as they successively arrive; but when
a sovereign invites subjects to his palace he appears among them only
when the company have all assembled.

The instant that he entered the festive hall the king saw there a man
who had not on a wedding-garment. Although this is the turning point of
the parable, it is represented with extreme brevity. The great central
facts are recorded with the utmost distinctness, but all the surrounding
circumstances are in silence assumed: no explanation is given, and the
reason doubtless is that no explanation is needed. Some customs and
allusions connected with the scene remain obscure to us, after all that
modern research has done to illustrate them, but the lesson which our
Lord intended to teach stands relieved in clearest light and sharpest
outline, like distant mountain tops when the sun has newly set behind
them. Some points regarding which we might desire info