Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 3 "Philosophical Remains" (1883 ed.).djvu/250

240 scheme consists in this: that man can, and must, do nothing for himself. Therefore, let us speak a few words in refutation of this paralysing doctrine.

Do not the Scriptures themselves say, "Ask, and it shall be given unto you"? Here, then, we find asking made the condition of our receiving; and hence it is plain that we are not to receive this asking; for supposing that we do receive it, then this can only be because we have complied with the condition annexed to our receiving it; or, in other words, it can only be because we have practised an anterior asking in order to obtain the asking which has been vouchsafed to us. Therefore this asking must ultimately, according to the very first requisitions of Christianity, fall to be considered as our own act; and now, then, we put the question to those who maintain the doctrine just, stated: Must we not "ask," must not this "asking" be our own deed, and do you call this doing nothing for ourselves? In the same way does not the Gospel say, "Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you"? evidently holding forth seeking as the condition of our finding, and knocking as the condition upon which "it shall be opened." And, now, must not this "seeking" and this "knocking" be done by ourselves? and if they must, what becomes of the doctrine that man can do nothing, and must attempt to do nothing, for himself?

This doctrine that we can do nothing for ourselves is based upon an evident oversight and confusion of thought in the mind of the espousers of it. "Attempt