rought forward to
prove that some men are foreordained to everlasting ruin. We do not
think they prove this, and we reject the doctrine.

CHAPTER IV.

OBJECTIONS TO CALVINISTIC REPROBATION.

_In the first place_, we object to it because it impeaches the
Divine Fatherhood. God sustains to the human family the relation of
a Father. He is the Creator of the sun and stars, but not their
father. Fatherhood carries in it two ideas,--creation and similarity
of nature. He is the Creator of the sun and stars, but they do not
possess a nature like His. But in man there is a Divine likeness, an
epitome of God. There is the power of thought, will, and feeling. In
this broad view every man is a son of God. He has been created by
Him, and, so far, is like Him. It is very true that man has rebelled
and ignores the relationship. But denial of relationship does not
abolish it. A son may deny his own father, and claim another to be
so; and men have denied God, and acted as the children of the devil.
But although they have rebelled, He earnestly remembers them. They
are prodigals, but they are His prodigals. He made them, and He
feels for them. A good father feels for all his children. Could we
call a father a good father who foreordains that one-half of his
offspring should be burned? But this is the doctrine of Calvinistic
reprobation! It cannot stand in the light of the parable of the
prodigal son. As that father in that parable felt to his prodigal
child, so God _feels_ to every one of His prodigals.

We reject this doctrine of unconditional reprobation,

_In the second place_, because it impeaches the Divine _sincerity_.
Sincerity is descriptive of the harmony that exists between the
feelings of the heart and the utterances of the lips.

"Sincerity,
The first of virtues, let no mortal leave
Thy onward path, although the earth should gape,
And from the gulph of hell destruction cry
To take dissimulation's winding way."

An insincere man, who professes one thing whilst he feels another,
is universally despised. Now, when I take up the Bible, what do I
find? I find it full of invitations to all men to come and be saved.
"Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be saved." "Ho, every
one that thirsteth; come ye to the waters." "Turn ye, turn ye, why
will you die?" Now, these invitations are addressed to all alike.
Their value turns on this--does God _mean_ what He says? Not so if
Calvinistic reprob