THE REV. THOMAS CONNELLAN, - The Gospel Magazine

514 The Gospel Magazine.
and ensigns, proclaiming ancestral exploit&. To this grand guestchamber
CHRIST leads the Church. Over her seat a banner floats,
emblazoned with emblems of love. The spectacle is resplendent
with profuse magnificence. May the HOLY SPIRIT teach us by
these images of greatness."
The choice of guests to partake of these royal bounties is the
prerogative of the KING of GLORY Himself. It being a feast of
grace, He chooses such characters as man in his pride and ignorance
would reject. JEHOVAH'S choice does not fall on those who can,
or think they can, requite Him. There is no room at His Gospel
table for self-righteousness. Those whom the GOD of SALVATION
has selected to sit down at His table answer to the following description-"
the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind."
By His SPIRIT-appointed messengers and ministers, who preach
the glad tidings of free grace in the name of JESUS, He calls
from the highways and hedges the objects of His everlasting love.
These He "compels" to come in, that His" house may be filled."
And as they" come in," a willing people in the day of His power,
each seeks for the last place-" the lowest room" at the King's
table. Each sin-convinced, SPIRIT-led soul reckons himself the
chief of sinners, and, among all the in-gathered company, deems
himself the most unworthy of "dainties such as angels have, or
of the children's bread."
We trace this lowliness and self-loathing in the called ones according
to GOD'S purpose alike in the Old Testament and the New.
Thus, we find the Psalmist in his day pouring out his heart's experience
in such forcible terms as these: "I had rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my GOD, than to dwell in the tents of
wickedness;" or, as the margin speaks :-" I would choose rather
to sit at the threshold in the house of my GOD." He sought" the
lowest room "-or last place-just inside the Father's house as
best befitting one so vile a sinner. We see the same grace of
humility and self-consciousness in the case of the Syro-Phmnician
woman. A place among the dogs under the table, if only a few
crumbs might fall to her lot from the MASTER'S table, sufficed her
needy soul. It is thus still with all who are the subjects of the
SPIRIT'S gracious unction and in-dwelling presence.
One of the leading principles of the sovereign grace of the Gospel
is this-" Many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be
first" (Matt. xix. 30). "Many be called, but few chosen" (Matt.