Every sane man _can_ and _does believe_ and _decide_ that _he will do
this_, and that _he will not do that_, every day of his life. Hence our
Lord, when he wept over Jerusalem, cried, “O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! how
oft would I have gathered your children as a hen gathers her brood,
but _ye would not_.” In this view of the subject, the man of God could
say, “_Choose_ ye this day whom ye will serve.” In the same spirit, the
Lord says, “If any man _will_ come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross daily and follow me.” To the same amount, the apostle
Paul says, “To whomsoever _you yield yourselves_ servants to obey,
his servants ye are.” In the same Spirit, the New Testament closes,
saying, “Whoever _will_, let him come.” This justifies the Lord in
saying, “He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance.” This all being so, the Lord, in referring to the
last judgment, refers to the wickedness of man, as the ground of their
condemnation. He says, _they who have done evil_, shall come forth to
the resurrection of damnation. They who _do his commandments_, shall
enter by the gates into the city, and have a right to the tree of life.
The Lord says, “Because I have called and ye refused; I have stretched
out my hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my
counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your
calamity, and mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as
desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress
and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will
not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me; for
that they hated knowledge, and did not _choose_ the fear of the Lord.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled
with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay
them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be
quiet from fear of evil.” Prov. i. 24-33. This, my friends, is the
wisdom of God. It will stand when all human reasoning will go for
nothing.