Election

God’s purposes concerning earth have always unfolded themselves by election and selection,—of men, of places, of nations. Church-history is the record and manifestation of the electing and selecting will of a Sovereign God. There are elect nations and countries as well as elect souls. Israel was God’s elect nation of old, Canaan his elect land, Jerusalem his elect city, and Zion his elect hill. This national election began with individual election,—Abraham. From the day of his being chosen, God’s purpose centred in a nation,—the nation that was to spring from him. The Jew was chosen to be the first of nations,—to rise above the civilised Greek and the mighty Roman. The Jew was to be the centre of God’s workings and teachings. The Jew was to be the race with which Godhead was to be connected. Messiah was to be son of Abraham,—son of the great believer. And it was so; the seed of Abraham was that portion of the seed of the woman from which Messiah came. Jesus was a Jew; a son of Abraham; a scion of that race to whom God had committed his oracles and his covenant; in connection with whom the true history of our race is connected: ‘The book of the generation of Jesus Christ the Son of Abraham.’

Verse 1

Grace! ’tis a charming sound,
Harmonious to mine ear;
Heaven with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.

Verse 2

Grace first contrived a way
To save rebellious man,
And all the steps that grace display
Which drew the wondrous plan.

Verse 3

Grace taught my wandering feet
To tread the heavenly road,
And new supplies each hour I meet
While pressing on to God.

Verse 4

Grace all the work shall crown
Through everlasting days;
It lays in heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise.

Verse 1

How sweet and awful is the place
With Christ within the doors,
While everlasting love displays
The choicest of her stores.

Verse 2

While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to admire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thankful tongues,
“Lord, why was I a guest?

Verse 3

“Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And enter while there’s room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?”

Verse 4

’Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly forced us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
And perished in our sin.

Verse 5

Pity the nations, O our God,
Constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy victorious word abroad,
And bring the strangers home.

Verse 6

We long to see Thy churches full,
That all the chosen race
May, with one voice and heart and soul,
Sing Thy redeeming grace.

Verse 1

O gift of gifts! O grace of faith!
My God, how can it be
That Thou, who hast discerning love,
Shouldst give that gift to me?

Verse 2

How many hearts Thou mightst have had
More innocent than mine,
How many souls more worthy far
Of that sweet touch of Thine!

Verse 3

Ah, grace, into unlikeliest hearts
It is thy boast to come;
The glory of thy light to find
In darkest spots a home.

Verse 4

How can they live, how will they die,
How bear the cross of grief,
Who have not yet the light of faith,
The courage of belief?

Verse 5

The crowd of cares, the weightiest cross,
Seem trifles less than light;
Earth looks so little and so low
When faith shines full and bright.

Verse 6

O happy, happy that I am!
If thou canst be, O faith,
The treasure that thou art in life,
What wilt thou be in death?