ELECTION - J.C. Ryle

*a suggested article; read the whole paper here: 
http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/ryle/ryle_election.html

There is another Election, which is of far higher importance than any election to Parliament, — an Election whose consequences will abide, when Queen, Lords, and Commons have passed away, — an Election which concerns all classes, the lowest as well as the highest, the women as well as the men. It is the Election which the Scriptures call "the Election of God."

I ask the readers of this paper to give me their attention for a few minutes, while I try to set before them the subject of this Election. Believe me, it affects your eternal happiness most deeply. Whether you are in Parliament or not, whether you vote or not, whether you are on the winning side or not, all this will matter very little a hundred years hence. But it will matter greatly whether you are in the number of "God’s Elect."

In handling the subject of Election, there are only two things which I propose to do.

I. Firstly, I will state the doctrine of Election, and show what it is.
II. Secondly, I will fence the subject with cautions, and guard it against abuse.

If I can make these two points clear and plain to the mind of all who read these pages, I think I shall have done their souls a great and essential service.

Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ says: —

"For the Elect’s sake the days shall be shortened." (Matt. xxiv. 22.)

"If it were possible they should deceive even the Elect." (Mark xiii. 22.)

"He shall send His angels, and they shall gather together His Elect." (Matt. xxiv. 31.)

"Shall not God avenge His own Elect?" (Luke xviii. 7.)

Hear what St. Paul says: —

"Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified." (Rom. viii. 29, 30.)

"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s Elect?" (Rom. viii. 33.)

"God hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world." (Ephes. i. 4.)

"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." (2 Tim. i. 9.)

"God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." (2 Thess. ii. 13.)

Hear what St. Peter says —

"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter i. 2.)

"Give diligence to make your calling and Election sure." (2 Peter i. 10.)