096. Calling to a Feast

Calling to a Feast

(Luke 14:17) When a sheikh invites to a feast, he always sends a servant to call his guest at the proper time, "Come, for the supper is now ready." This custom is confined to the wealthy. It is true now, as then, that to refuse the invitation is a high insult to the maker of the feast. The poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind, are on all the streets and what the man in the parable did, to call in these people when the first called refused, is just what would happen today, to show the extent of their benevolence, the depth of their humility. This parable in all its details is in close conformity to the customs of the East.