“You cannot take the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils (1 Cor 10:21). You cannot eat at the table of the Lord and the table of the devils. There the cup is called the Lord’s cup, and the table is called the Lord’s table. Now if it be called the Lord’s table then the Lord alone prescribes the terms of admission. If it were my table I could invite anybody I please. I do invite Methodists, Episcopalians, Campbellites, and sinners to my table. I may put my table in the dining room if I want to, or out in the yard if I want to. I can give a friend his dinner by himself and take my dinner by myself, and let the rest of the family take their dinner by themselves, because it is my table, but I have no authority to prescribe how another’s table should be managed. I would not think of giving a rule to some other man as to where he should put his table and if I would not think of giving such a rule to a man, certainly I have not the hardihood to tell the Lord Jesus Christ where He must put His table. If it is the Lord’s table the Lord must determine the terms of admission.”
B. H. Carroll, Lecture on Article XIV of the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, as reprinted in the Southwestern Journal of Theology, Volume 51, Number 2, Spring 2009.
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