Calvin and Missions - World Evangelical Alliance

McFetridge: Calvinism as an Evangelizing Force (1882) 17
on the other hand, by imputing Christ’s righteousness to the believer, and
making the sinner utterly and absolutely dependent on Christ for his salvation,
cuts away all occasion for boasting and lays him low at the foot of the
cross. Hence it cannot be so agreeable to the feelings of our carnal heart.
But may it not be more salutary, nevertheless? It is not always the most
agreeable medicine which is the most healing. The experience of the apostle
John is one of frequent occurrence, that the little book which is sweet as
honey in the mouth is bitter in the belly. Christ crucified was a stumblingblock
to one class of people and foolishness to another, and yet he was, and
is, the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation to all who believe.
The centre doctrine of Calvinism, as an evangelistic power, is that which
Luther called “the article of a standing or a falling Church” – “justification
by faith alone, in the righteousness of Christ alone.” And is not that the
doctrine of the gospel? Where does the Holy Spirit ascribe the merit of any
part of salvation to the sinner?
But aside from that question, which it is not my purpose here to argue,
would not reason dictate that that doctrine is most conducive to salvation
which makes most of sin and most of grace?
Rowland Hill once said that “the devil makes little of sin, that he may retain
the sinner.” It is evident at once that the man who considers himself in
greatest danger will make the greatest efforts to escape. If I feel that I am
only slightly indisposed, I shall not experience much anxiety, but if I am
conscious that my disease is dangerous, I will lose no time in having it
attended to. So if I feel, according to the Arminianism, that my salvation is
a matter which I can settle myself at any moment, even in the last gasp of
dissolution, I shall be prone to take my time and ease in deciding it; but if,
according to Calvinism, I feel that I am dependent upon God for it, whose
pleasure, and not my own, I am to consult, I will naturally give more earnest
heed to it.
Thus reason brings forward her vindication of Calvinism against the allegation
that it is not favorable to the pursuit of salvation.
But perhaps some one may reply, “Has not the Methodist Church been
more successful in her efforts to evangelize the world than any Calvinistic
Church?” In answer I would say that I will give way to no one in my high
estimate of that Church’s piety and zeal and progress. I thank God, with all
my heart, for what she has done, and I pray that she may never flag in her
energy and success in winning souls to Jesus Christ. I admire her profoundly,
and her noble army of men and women enlisted in the Master’s