Luke 14:23

And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the high-ways and hedges, &c. Go forth, without the city-without Jerusalem, and beyond Judæa, and call the Gentiles to Christ.

Into the highways. "The partings of the highways" (S. Mat 22:9), i.e. into the roads which lead to all nations and to the ends of the earth.

And hedges. The hamlets and villages, which were surrounded not by walls but by hedges. Hence we are taught that the Gospel is to be preached by the Apostles and their successors, even to savage and uncivilised nations; a duty which is recognised more and more by the followers of Christ.

Hence the servant does not say, as he added of the Jews in the 22nd verse, "it is done as thou hast commanded;" because the work is not yet finished among the Gentiles; it is being done more fully from day to day, to be completed at the end or the world. "The meaning of this verse," says Titus, "is, that after the Israelites had been gathered in, the people of the Gentiles were also to be called, i.e. men who, as being born and brought up in the country, in the highways and hedges without the city, were entirely uncivilised." Or, as Theophylact interprets it, "The Israelites were within the city, having received the law, and having been granted a more civilised lot in life; but the Gentiles were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12.)

Compel them to come in. Many of the Gentile nations were wholly given up to idolatry and evil living. Hence they were to be compelled to salvation by the burning zeal and energy of the preacher, by miracles, even by the scourge and judgments of God sent upon them "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1Co 2:4). For "our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." 1 Thessalonians 1:5.

"Therefore," says Suarez, "compel them to come in, either by afflicting them with labour and sorrows, or by converting them, as it were, miraculously, by a mighty effort and powerful call."