‘It is not in Judea alone and in a corner of the country that the grace of God is shed abroad,’ he says, ‘but up and down through all the earth. It is God’s will that this grace should be known to all the world. We ought, therefore, as far as lies in our power, to seek the salvation of those who are to-day strangers to the faith, and endeavor to bring them to the goodness of God. Why so? Because Jesus Christ is not the Saviour of three or four, but offers himself to all. At the time when he drew us to himself were we not enemies? Why are we now his children? It is because he has gathered us to himself. Now, is he not as truly the Saviour of all the world? Jesus Christ did not come to be mediator between two or three men, but _between God and men_; not to reconcile a small number of people to God, but to extend his grace to the whole world. Since Jesus invites us all to himself, since he is ready to give us loving access to his Father, is it not our duty to stretch out our hand to those who do not know what this union is in order that we may induce them to draw nigh? God, in the person of Jesus Christ, has his arms as it were stretched out to welcome to himself those who seemed to be separated from him. We must take care that it be not our fault that they do not return to the flock. Those who make no endeavor to bring back their neighbor into the way of salvation diminish the power of God’s empire, as far as in them lies, and are willing to set limits to it, so that he may not be Lord over all the world. They obscure the virtue of the passion and death of Jesus Christ, and they lessen the dignity which was conferred on him by God his Father; to wit, that _to-day for his sake the gate of heaven is opened_, and that God will be favorable to us when we come to seek him.’ But Calvin asks how are we to bring a soul to God, and how are we to come to him ourselves?