God sent Jesus to the world, and he invited the Jews to accept the kingdom of God, but they would not. Though some Jews accepted Jesus, yet as a nation they did not, and God was displeased with them for it. When the Jews would not accept Jesus, God extended the invitation to the Gentiles, or all other people. God now has the feast prepared. He invites people to come to Jesus and have their hearts made pure and enjoy the rich blessings of the kingdom--righteousness, joy, and peace. He extends the invitation to all. If we will not give heed to his invitation to accept Jesus, we shall be left out of the kingdom, and others will take our place. [Illustration] A Lesson on Forgiveness [Illustration] The man kneeling in the picture owed the king hundreds and hundreds of dollars. He had no money to pay the king. The king said that this man and his wife and children must be sold and the money used to pay the debt. The man begged the king to wait a while, promising that by and by he would give him the money. The king then felt sorry for the poor man and said the man would not need to pay him any money. The man arose and walked away. Soon he met a friend who owed him a little money. He spoke harshly to the friend and told him to pay the money. The friend did not have any money. He kneeled down before the man and said, "Wait a while, and by and by I will give you the money." But the man seemed to have forgotten that the king had been kind to him. He had the friend put in jail. When the king heard about this, he did not like it, and he punished the hard-hearted man. We are like the man in the picture. We ask God to be good to us and forgive us when we do wrong. Then, maybe, we are not good to our little friends when they do wrong to us. If they do a bad thing to us, we want to pay them back. We should not do this way. Jesus said that if we would not forgive others, God would not forgive us. To forgive our friends means to be just as good to them when they do wrong to us as when they do good to us. [Illustration] Jesus Loves the Children At one time when Jesus was teaching the people, some women brought their children to him for a blessing. The disciples thought the women should not do this, and thought Jesus did not wish to be bothered with the children. Jesus said, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." He loved them and held them upon his lap and blessed them. [Illustration] At another time he said that unless people become converted and become as little children, they can not enter the kingdom of heaven. This means that it is necessary for them to have their sins forgiven and to be pure and innocent and free from sin in order to be in God's church in this world and to go to heaven after they die. Jesus Heals the Sick