Ambrose looked rather blank.
“Well, then, Mr Liversedge, as to free-will. Do you think that every man can be saved, if he likes, or not?”
“Let Christ answer you—not me. ‘No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him.’”
“Ah! then man has no responsibility?” And Ambrose gave another wink at us.
“Let Christ answer you again. ‘Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life.’ If they had come, you see, they might have had it.”
“But how do you reconcile the two?” said Ambrose, knitting his brows.
“When the Lord commands me to reconcile them, He will show me how. But I do not expect Him to do either, in this world. To what extent our knowledge on such subjects may be enlarged in Heaven, I cannot venture to say.”
“But surely you must reconcile them?”
“Pardon me. I must act on them.”
“Can you act on principles you cannot reconcile?”