Election and sovereignty are only sources of good. Election is not a decree to destroy,—it is a decree only to save. When we elect a President, we do not need to hold a second election to determine that the remaining millions shall be non‐Presidents. It is needless to apply contrivance or force. Sinners, like water, if simply let alone, will run down hill to ruin. The decree of reprobation is simply a decree to do nothing—a decree to leave the sinner to himself. The natural result of this judicial forsaking, on the part of God, is the hardening and destruction of the sinner. But it must not be forgotten that this hardening and destruction are not due to any positive efficiency of God,—they are a self‐hardening and a self‐destruction,—and God’s judicial forsaking is only the just penalty of the sinner’s guilty rejection of offered mercy. See _Hosea 11:8_—“_How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?... my heart is turned within me, my compassions are kindled together_”; _4:17_—“_Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone_”; _Rom. 9:22, 23_—“_What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory_”—here notice that “_which he afore prepared_” declares a positive divine efficiency, in the case of the vessels of mercy, while “_fitted unto destruction_” intimates no such positive agency of God,—the vessels of wrath fitted themselves for destruction; _2 Tim. 2:20_—“_vessels ... some unto honor, and some unto dishonor_”; _1 Pet. 2:8_—“_they stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed_”; _Jude 4_—“_who were of old set forth_ [‘_written of beforehand_’—Am. Rev.] _unto this condemnation_”; _Mat. 25:34, 41_—“_the kingdom prepared for you ... the eternal fire which is prepared_ [not for you, nor for men, but] _for the devil and his angels_” = there is an election to life, but no reprobation to death; a “_book of life_” (_Rev. 21:27_), but no book of death.