short
of the deed done would have met the statement in the heart, _I will_. So
it is in conversion. The man first says in his heart, _I will_, I will
forsake my former course of life and be a Christian, I will obey God, I
will do his will. And nothing short of doing the will of God as it is
addressed to him in the Gospel will carry out the action of the will,
and meet the demands of the statement, _I will_. "Whosoever will let him
come and take the water of life freely." So the "tree is known by its
fruits." "He that saith I know him, acknowledge him, and keepeth not his
commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 Jno. ii, 4.

As regards the instrumentalities employed in persuading men, I have only
to say, that men were always free as moral agents, to convert--_turn_,
under the weakest instrumentality, or refuse under the most powerful.
The Lord himself "strove with the ancient Jews by his Spirit in his
prophets, and they would not hear but resisted the Spirit." Stephen,
after he had made one grand effort to instruct his hearers, said, "Ye
stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist
the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did so do ye." Acts vii, 51. Was the
condition of those fellows unavoidable? If it was, they were not to
blame. But there was nothing in their condition that was not in their
power. If there was, why should we find these words in their law,
"circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked."
Deut. x, 16. The Lord has made the salvation of all men possible,
otherwise those remaining in an unconverted state, and dying in their
sins, are unavoidably lost. And who is to blame? The Father "so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son to die for every man. He
sent him to be the Savior of the world. The Gospel is the ministration
of the Spirit. The Apostles preached it with the Holy Spirit sent down
from heaven. They received grace and Apostleship, for the obedience of
faith among all nations, for Christ's name." Rom. i, 5. A great and
grand law governed them. In obeying it they did all that they ever did
for the world or for the church. There were just three duties prescribed
in that law. The first is in the word "teach," or, the _better
rendering_, disciple. The second is in the word "baptizing;" and the
third is in the phrase "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I
have commanded you." The whole is beautifully rendered thus, "Going
theref