I DREADED the future; but Satan furnished me with a pillow on which to sleep. It was this: "If you are to be converted, you will be converted; if not, you cannot help it." I took the opiate greedily, and was rocked to sleep in the devil's cradle.
Many strike on this rock; many a noble ship is dashed to pieces here. This is not truth but fatalism. Can the husbandman expect to reap if he does not sow, or the sailor to reach the port if he does not spread the sails? What sick man would say, "If I am to get well I shall, no matter though a physician be not called or medicine taken?”
Of all preachers of election, Satan is the worst. He distorts that glorious truth, and hides the blood of Christ through which we should behold it. He keeps out of sight the only decree with which sinners have to do, viz., "He that believeth not shall be damned.”