always repugnant to common sense and
natural reason. There are many persons yet teaching the old falsehood that
man is passive in his conversion, notwithstanding the fact that men are
imperatively commanded to convert--turn, that their sins may be blotted
out. Men are yet found in some Protestant pulpits who spend a great deal
of their time praying the Lord to convert sinners. It is often the case,
in their own estimation, that the Lord gives no heed to their prayers; but
this has happened so frequently that it does not seem to trouble them. It
has been a very short time since I heard a minister advocating what he was
pleased to call "miraculous conversion." I thought, if you are right in
that matter, why did the Heavenly Father command his love, commended in
the Savior's death, preached to every creature, and still refuse to
convert every creature? What difference does it make to me whether the
Lord passed me by before He made Adam, or passed me by on yesterday? And
if He refuses to send His spirit and convert me until the last, and I die
in my sins and am lost, who is to blame? What is the difference between
His neglect to convert me and the old Calvinistic idea that Christ did not
die for me? What is the difference between the spirit of God being partial
to communities--going into one and converting a great many persons and
passing others by--and God Himself being partial? And why does the Spirit
not convert all the unwilling sinners in the community where it does
convert sinners? These are questions that have been asked in a great many
hearts before they yielded themselves up to skepticism and infidelity.

In the present stage of critical investigation it is well for all
preachers to remember that there is but one question involving this whole
matter of conversion and pardon, and that is the question coupled with the
Judgment; it is not, How much did the Heavenly Father love me? He loved
all men. It is not, How much did Jesus do for _me_? He tasted death for
every man. It is not, How much has the Spirit done for me? It gave the
gospel to all nations, as the power of God unto salvation to every man
that believeth. The one, and only, question in the Judgment is, What have
I done for myself? What are the deeds done in my body? the deeds which _I
have done_.

Christianity is right thinking and doing; all that is to be attained in
the religion of Christ is enjoyed in an upright life. Every theory that
conflicts with thi