salvation of the world be dependent upon a creature's will? Is it to
inhabitants of the earth (Dan, 4:35). No reasonings of men can alter the fact, nor can any ingenuity deprive the fact of its deep and solemn meaning. I may perhaps be told that the cause of this inequality is in the church of Christ, which has not done its duty. It is said that if Christians had acted aright, the world would have been converted long before now. As this is a common way of attempting to solve the difficulty, it may be well to answer fully.
1. Who told them that the cause is wholly in the church? Who told them that the world would have been converted before now if Christians had been what they professed to be? Give me one single passage of Scripture that states this. Surely it is a bold and hazardous assertion to make, without one verse of Scripture to support it.
2. It is not true. What! Shall such a mighty and majestic event as the salvation of the world be dependent upon a creature's will? Is it to depend upon man whether the world is to be converted or not? Has God no purpose to be carried out? Has He nothing at all to say in the matter? Is He to stand by looking on, wondering if it may please His people to put forth their energies to convert the world?
3. It is unscriptural. There are passages of Scripture which explicitly contradict it. What, for instance, does God mean when He gives as the reason why He enjoined Paul to remain and labor in Corinth, "I have much people in this city"? Again, what is meant by that similar passage, "And as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed"? Again, what did our Lord mean when He said (as if explaining the reason why so many rejected Him), "Many are called, but few are chosen"? Or what did He mean when He said, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come"? And lastly, what did the Holy Spirit mean, first by forbidding the apostles to preach the Word in