Bible Truths Illustrated by J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

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BIBLE TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
169. This is a crucial subject—this giving of a place for man's
will to be exercised. Whatever gospel theme we may take up,
we always find, in examining the whole of what the New Testament
says about it, a place where the perfect provision made
by God may be rejected by man, by the very creature for whom
that provision has been made ! "Ye will not come to me, that
ye may have life," sorrowfully said He who came to give life.
"Seeing ye thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy
of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles," said Paul to the
jealous Jews at Antioch of Pisidia. It is, indeed, a theme to
give us pause, the most awful and the most splendid fact in
human life, that after man's ill-use of his freedom of will has
brought ruin and shame, even God's power to save—the gospel
can be refused by him. Well might Phillips Brooks exclaim,
"'He came unto his own, and his own received him not;' these
words are an assertion of the awful ultimateness of the power
of free will in man." Lancelot Oliver.
170. Beware of the damnable doctrine that it is easy to enter
the Kingdom. It is to be obtained only by the sacrifice of all
that stands in the way, and it is to be observed that in this, as
in other things, men will take the first, the second, the third
nay, even the ninety-ninth—step, but the hundredth and last they
will not take. Mark Rutherford.
171. At a mission meeting, connected with the Chapman-
Alexander campaign in Melbourne, Mr. F. C. Spurr, in giving
instructions concerning conversion, said : "Stand still ; consider
turn round ;
go on."
172. "A man once wrote: T regret the word "do" is in the
Bible. "Only believe" is the true doctrine.' But the word 'do'
is there, and God put it there, and to extract it is wicked.
'Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I
say?' (Luke 6:46)."
173. "Sometimes a man will buy a piece of machinery that
he has need of. The machinery is shipped to him by express
and comes in a crate. Each part is separate and carefully packed.
When all the various bits of metal are laid out upon the floor,
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