"Can the friends fast at a wedding-feast," said Jesus, "so long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom has been taken from them, and then they will fast.

"The kingdom of heaven," he said, "may be compared to a king who made a wedding-feast for his son.

"Again he sent out other slaves. 'Tell the invited guests,' he said, 'that my luncheon is now ready; my oxen and fat cattle are killed; everything is ready; come to the wedding-feast.'

"Then he said to his slaves, "'The wedding-feast indeed is ready, but the invited guests were not worthy.

"'So go out into the partings of the highways, and summon everybody you find there to the wedding-feast.'

"Then the king came in to inspect his guests, and he discovered there a man who had not put on a wedding-garment. He said to him,

"'Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding-garment?' "The man was speechless.

"And while they were going away to buy, the bridegroom came; and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding-feast. And the door was shut.