Here see the valuable discussion of Wardlaw, Systematic Theol., 2:485‐549—“Election and salvation on the ground of works foreseen are not different in principle from election and salvation on the ground of works performed.” _Cf._ _Prov. 21:1_—“_The king’s heart is in the hand of Jehovah as the watercourses; He turneth it whithersoever he will_”—as easily as the rivulets of the eastern fields are turned by the slightest motion of the hand or the foot of the husbandman; _Ps. 110:3_—“_Thy people offer themselves willingly In the day of thy power._” (_c_) The depravity of the human will is such that, without this decree to bestow special divine influences upon some, all, without exception, would have rejected Christ’s salvation after it was offered to them; and so all, without exception, must have perished. Election, therefore, may be viewed as a necessary consequence of God’s decree to provide an objective redemption, if that redemption is to have any subjective result in human salvation. Before the prodigal son seeks the father, the father must first seek him,—a truth brought out in the preceding parables of the lost money and the lost sheep (_Luke 15_). Without election, all are lost. Newman Smyth, Orthodox Theology of To‐day, 56—“The worst doctrine of election, to‐day, is taught by our natural science. The scientific doctrine of natural selection is the doctrine of election, robbed of all hope, and without a single touch of human pity in it.” Hodge, Syst. Theol., 2:335—“Suppose the deistic view be true: God created men and left them; surely no man could complain of the results. But now suppose God, foreseeing these very results of creation, should create. Would it make any difference, if God’s purpose, as to the futurition of such a world, should precede it? Augustine supposes that God did purpose such a world as the deist supposes, with two exceptions: (1) he interposes to restrain evil; (2) he intervenes, by providence, by Christ, and by the Holy Spirit, to save some from destruction.” Election is simply God’s determination that the sufferings of Christ shall not be in vain; that all men shall not be lost; that some shall be led to accept Christ; that to this end special influences of his Spirit shall be given.