until now" (John ii. 10). +IV. Those who invite to Wisdom's feast must be pure in character.+ The sending forth of "maidens" seems to convey this idea. Maidenhood is a type of purity. The character of the inviter must be in keeping with the nature of the invitation. If a man gives an invitation to the Gospel-feast, he will find that those whom he invites will look at the invitation through the glass of his character, and unless it is one through which the invitation can be favourably viewed, there will be little hope of his words proving effectual. Character and doctrine are inseparable. God intends the first to be a recommendation of the last. The invitation to "Come," from the lips of the Lord Jesus, was mighty in its power, because the purity of His teaching was equalled by the purity of His life. The great power of the invitation to Wisdom's feast in the mouths of the first Christian teachers sprang from the character of those who gave the invitation (see 2 Cor. i. 2). +V. The means by which the guests are brought in.+ They are _invited._ There can be no compulsion in bringing men to the feast of Wisdom. No man can be compelled to partake of a feast. Persuasion can be used, and men can be induced to eat of it from a sense of need, but force is useless. A man may be placed at the board and kept there against his will, but the eating must ever be his own act. And so it is with the spiritual blessings which God has prepared for men. All the force that can be exercised is the force of persuasion. The first servants who went forth to invite men to the Gospel-feast were fully convinced that the weapon which they were to use was that of _persuasion._ "Now then _pray you_ in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God" (2 Cor. v. 20). "Knowing the terrors of the Lord we _persuade men_" (2 Cor. v. 11). +VI. The publicity and general nature of the invitation.+ "She crieth upon the highest places of the city." On this head see Homiletics on chaps. i. 20, 21; viii. 2, 3.