all men, and that converting grace is given to all men; and that
those of mankind who believe God's testimony regarding His Son,
become His elect or chosen ones. It is this view which we support.
The first three theories have points of difference and agreement,
but in their last analysis they come to this, that God does not wish
all men saved, only some--the elect.

CHAPTER II.

CALVINISTIC ELECTION INVOLVES POSITIVE REFUSAL TO PROVIDE SAVING
GRACE FOR THE LOST.

Dr. PAYNE, one of the subtlest and most accomplished of modern
Calvinists, argues strongly against the notion that the decree of
election involves the decree of reprobation. He says "I may
determine to relieve one out of twenty destitute families in my
neighbourhood, without positively determining not to relieve the
others; and if any one should ask me why others are not relieved, it
would be sufficient to reply that the giving of actual relief can
only spring from a determination to relieve, which in reference to
them does not exist. I may determine to take a book from the shelf,
without a positive determination not to take the others. There may,
indeed, be such a determination, but it is not necessarily implied
in the determination to take, and that is all that I am obliged to
prove--the other books may not even be thought of" (p. 40). Dr.
Payne was a very subtle dialectician, but we fear he has here
imposed upon himself in these illustrations. It is very true that
when I determine to select book "A" from my library, that book "B"
may not have been before my mind, and that I did not knowingly
determine to reject it. But it may have been, and if it was, then
the selection of "A" only, carried with it the rejection of "B." A
father sees his two children perishing in the waters. He jumps into
a boat, and reaches the scene of disaster. The children are sinking
from sheer exhaustion. He takes one into the boat, and returns to
shore. He could easily have saved the other, but did not, and he
tells the people this on landing, and that he must be simply judged
by his act of saving the rescued child, and that he is not to be
held as passing a decree of reprobation against the other. This, we
submit, is Dr. Payne's case. And will it bear looking at? I don't
think it. Dr. Payne adds, "This reasoning applies yet with greater
force to the great Eternal. There must exist in the mind of God a
determination to do what He actually does, because His actions are
the