I cannot tell who among you may be Christ’s sheep, or who may not be his. My voice has no power to separate you from your companions unless Christ shall use my voice, and make it the echo of his own. I may speak as long as I will, apart from that great Shepherd of the sheep, but I can make no distinction between his chosen ones and the rest of mankind; but if the Lord himself shall come and call, his chosen shall detect the gracious voice; and when one by one he calls them to himself by what theologians term “effectual calling”—(and it is a good expression, for it is effectual calling), then the sheep hear his voice, and they rise up at once, and follow him, for they know his voice, and he leads them out.
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