This should be a great encouragement to try to do good, since God has among the vilest of the vile those people who must be saved. When you take the Word to them, you do so because God has ordained you to be the messenger of life to their soul. They are as much redeemed by blood as the saints before the eternal throne. They are Christ's property; and yet, perhaps, they are still lovers of the tavern and haters of holiness. If Jesus Christ purchased them, He will have them. God is not unfaithful to forget the price which His Son has paid. He will not suffer His substitution to be in any case an ineffectual, dead thing. Tens of thousands of redeemed ones are not regenerated yet, but regenerated they must be. This is our comfort when we go forth to them with the quickening Word of God. "Neither pray I for these alone," said the great Inter cessor, "but for them also which shall believe on me through their word" (John 17: 20). Poor, ignorant souls, who know nothing about prayer for themselves, but Jesus prays for them. Their names are on His breastplate; and before long, they must bow their stubborn knee, breathing the penitential sign before the throne of grace. When their moment comes, they will obey, for God will have His own. They must obey, for the Spirit is not to be withstood when He comes forth with fullness of power. "He shall see of the travail of his soul" (Isaiah 53: 11).