“But men,” said Mr. Hillston, “are represented in the Scriptures as dead in trespasses and sins. Lazarus is a fit type of the sinner. Could Lazarus have raised himself from the grave without the assistance of the Lord? Is it not evident that he could do nothing till he was actually restored to life? So it was with the man who had the diseased arm. He could not make an effort till the limb was healed. ‘By grace are ye saved,’ says the Scripture, ‘through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.’ Are not all these passages sufficient to convince and satisfy you?” “Of course, I must believe what the Bible says,” replied Ernest, “but it does appear strange to me how a man can be a free agent, and yet his destiny is fixed.” “No one ever denied that it is strange. Indeed, it is incomprehensible; but we are not to reject it on that account. All we have to do is to ascertain whether it is contained in God’s Word or not. But after all, what do we mean by predestination? Why just this, that God had a purpose in view in the creation of the world. He surely was not trying experiments. He did not put men in the world, and turn them loose, to see what they would do. You will not deny that He fore-knew who would be saved and who would be lost?” “No, I do not deny that.” “Well, there is no power in mere fore knowledge. Would not God, then, have to exercise power in order to accomplish what He fore-knew?” “It seems that He would, sir.” “Well, that is predestination. It is the execution of the divine purpose. So you see that, without predestination, God could not have made the world--could not have created man. Notwithstanding that He fore-saw some would be lost, He determined to create them, and that determination on the part of God, is predestination. Then, eliminate predestination, and you represent God in the attitude of a sort of empiricist. He creates men without any particular purpose in view. Besides, there is another difficulty. When there was nothing in existence, how could God foresee anything except what He had determined upon? Would not God have to determine that things should be, before He could fore-see them? I cannot imagine how the Lord could have made the world without predestination. Man, with his limited wisdom, never undertakes enterprises without determining something in regard to them. Do you suppose that God put men here without any purpose?” “No, sir; of course, He had a purpose.” “Really, when you admit that, there is no use of discussion, for that purpose is predestination. We can ascertain what God’s purposes are, only by what takes place. We see that some men are lost and some are saved, and all this must be in accordance with God’s purpose, and that is what we mean by predestination.” “You can beat me in argument,” suddenly exclaimed Ernest. “I have not studied the question sufficiently.” “The more you study it,” said Mr. Hillston, “the more you will be convinced that it is the doctrine of the Bible.”