(2) God's elect have also elected Him. His choice of them always issues in their choice of Him. Hence there comes in here a question. You ask whether God has chosen you. I ask whether you have chosen God. You let me put a finger upon your pulse; let me sound the beating of your heart. Is there no Godward throbbing there — no outbreathing of desire ? That desire was not self-originated. It was grace, not nature, that inspired it. " We love him." How ? Why ? " Because he first loved us." He is always first. Your desire for Him, your choice of Him is but responsive to His desire for you, His choice of you. Let not the thought of the Divine election trouble you. God in Christ is on your side. Get up to this high tower, and from its summit ring out the challenge without doubt or dread — "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? Who is he that condemneth ? "
^ Your distress is that God Almighty knows from eternity who will be saved. Which is true, for He knows all things — the drops in the sea, the stars in heaven, the roots, branches, twigs, leaves of every tree ; He has numbered the hairs of all heads. From this you conclude that, do what you will, good or bad, God knows already whether you will be saved or not: which is true. And, further, you think more of damnation than of salvation ; and thereupon you despair, and know not how God ^ Hannah Parker Kimball, Two Points of View,
126 NO CASE
is minded towards you. Wherofore I, as a servant of my dear Lord Jesus Christ, write you this, that you may know how God the Almighty is minded towards you. God Almighty does know all things, so that all worlds and thoughts in all creatiires must happen according to His will. But His earnest will, and mind, and decree, ordered from eternity, is "that all men shall be saved," and shall become partakers of eternal joy. God willeth not the death of a sinner, but that he should be converted and live. If, then. He willeth that sinners, wherever they live and wander under the broad high heavens, should be saved, will you, by a foolish thought, suggested by the devil, sunder yourself from all these, and from the grace of God ? God the Father Himself, with His own finger, points out to you how He is minded towards you, when, with loud, clear voice, He cries, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him." And even if you were ever so hard and deaf, and, as a despairing man turned to stone, could not look up to heaven, or hear God the Father calling to you on those heights, yet can you not fail to hear the Son, who stands in the highway by which every one may pass, and, as with a mighty trumpet, calls, " Venite — Come, come." ^
Love makes the life to be
A fount perpetual of virginity ;
For, lo, the Elect
Of generous Love, how named soe'er, afifect
Nothing but God,
Or mediate or direct
Nothing but God,
The Husband of the Heavens ;
And who Him love, in potence great or small,
Are, one and all,
Heirs of the Palace glad,
And inly clad
With the bridal robes of ardour virginal.^
2. What is the charge ? Anything. The Apostle looks over the entire history of life from first to last ; he does not confine himself to the consideration of a particular portion of it ; he does not confine himself to the consideration of a particular aspect of it ; he views it in the light of the law with its changeless sanctions, in the light of eternity with its retributive decisions ; he arraigns it before God in the perfection of His nature and government, in the very perfection of His entire judicial administration, and, as ^ Luther. ' Coventry Patmore.
ROMANS VIII. 33, 34 127
dauntless as ever, he comes forth like the old champion with this sweeping, absolute, universal challenge, " Who shall lay anything " — anything — "to the charge of God's elect?" Are there not thousands of things which may be made matter of charge against them ? May not everything in their life-history from the day of their birth be made matter of charge against them ? Yes, every- thing. No, nothing.
3. Who makes the charge? The Apostle seems at first to look round the universe — Who is he that shall dare to do it ? He does not confine himself to the world, he does not confine himself to time, he projects himself into eternity with all its spiritual intelligences, powers, realities ; he faces " death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things present, things to come, height, depth, any other creation," every other creation; and, dauntless, like a hero-champion in full armour who ofi'ers him- self for combat to any one who will enter the lists with him, he throws down the gauntlet. " Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? " Every mouth is stopped. Every mouth but one. God Himself may bring this charge. No one else has the right — has He? No, not even God can make a charge against His own elect. For has He not justified them ? He is the very last person to be likely to make it.