Testimonies for the Church, Volume 2 - Ellen G. White

Under the parable of a great supper, our
Saviour shows that many will choose the world
above Himself, and will, as the result, lose heaven.
The gracious invitation of our Saviour was
slighted. He had been to the trouble and expense to
make great preparation at an immense sacrifice.
Then he sent his invitation; but "they all with one
consent began to make excuse. The first said unto
him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must
needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen,
and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me
excused. And another said, I have married a wife,
and therefore I cannot come." The lord then turns
from the wealthy and world-loving, whose lands
and oxen and wives were of so great value in their
estimation as to outweigh the advantages they
would gain by accepting the gracious invitation he
had given them to eat of his supper. The master of
the house is angry, and turns from those who have
thus insulted his bounty offered them, and he
invites a class who are not full, who are not in
possession of lands and houses, but who are poor
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