inthout ceasing" — and " contmue in prayer/' (1 Thess. T. 17. Coloss. It. 2.) Let ns arm our minds with ikoB parablei and while we live, whatever we make time for, let us make time for prayer.
These verses teach us^ secondly, that -God has an ded people upon earth, who are under His special care. The Lord Jesus declares that God will '' avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him.'* — " I tell you," He says, '' that He will avenge them speedily."
Election is one of the deepest truths of Scripture. It is clearly and beautifully stated in the seventeeath Article of the Church of England. It is ''the ev^- lasting purpose of God, whereby, before the foundations of the world were laid, He hath decreed by His couusdi, secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom He hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation." This testimony is true. This is " sound speech which cannot be condemned." (Titus ii. 8.)
Election is a truth which should call forth praise and thanksgiving from all true Christians. Except God had chosen and called them, they would never have chosen and called on Him. Except He had chosen them of His own good pleasure, without respect to any goodness of their's, there would never have been anything in tfaem to make them worthy of His choice. The worldly and the carnal-minded may rail at the doctrine of electioii. The false professor may abuse it, and " turn the grace of God intolasciviousness." (Jude4.) But the believer who knows his own heart will ever bless God for election. He 'will confess that without election there would be no salvation.