divine character. The idea seems to have taken hold of some minds that a
thing is right because God is the Author of it. That is certainly
beginning at the wrong end. God does a thing because it is right; His
doing of it does not make it right. But we need to have faith that His
future administration will rectify all the apparent wrongs of the
present. It is our failure to take this larger view that has led many
people of the kindest heart to adopt the most cruel conclusions.

Just now a lady has told me of a certain "eminent divine" who says that
children who die in infancy are elected if they are the children of
believing parents! What a revelation this "eminent divine" must have of
the eternal mysteries! Since he knows so much, I would like to ask if
one believing parent would not suffice, in an urgent case, or if both
must infallibly be believers! A more arrogant pretension it would be
difficult to conceive.

The lady who spoke to me on the subject said it would be a very
comfortable thing to believe. "Yes," I said, "it might be a comfortable
thing for you, but what about the other woman down street who is not a
believer? Do you think that her children are not as precious in God's
sight as yours?"

Away with all such hard, narrowing conceptions! Can it be imagined that
God would consign infants to everlasting torment, simply because they
are children of unbelieving parents? A thousand times No! Let us
remember that they are His own children, whatever earthly parentage they
may have. His love and power are not going to be thwarted by any
considerations of evil ancestry. Any lingering doubt of that is a
survival of the old, narrow, hard doctrine of absolute election.