“Having endeavored to explain the doctrine [of God’s sovereignty in the election of sinners], and free it from the misrepresentations of its opponents, I shall now offer a few arguments in support of its truth.

1. The prayers which are offered by Christians, for the conversion of sinners, all take for granted the truth of the doctrine of election. Christians generally agree that it is proper to pray to God, for the salvation of careless, impenitent sinners; and that such prayers are not offered in vain. Those who hold the Calvinistic views, think they have peculiar encouragement to pray for the conversion of their fellow-men; because, according to their creed, God has foreordained a connection between the means and the end, — between prayer and its answer. They profess to believe, that by God’s eternal decree, ‘the liberty, or contingency of second causes, is not taken away, but rather established.’ And if this be true, ‘the effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous’ must prevail. But even those of our Christian brethren, who are most opposed to a Calvinistic creed, do, I trust, sincerely and fervently pray for the conversion of sinners. But what do they mean by such petitions? — and what do they wish God to do for the sinner? They profess to believe that God has already done enough for the impenitent; that it is now left to the self-determination of their own wills, whether they will be saved or not, and that they must act ‘without being acted on.’ Why, then, do they ask God to interfere any further in the matter? Ah, it is evident that our brethren, after all, are not quite willing to trust the question of the salvation of sinners, to the self-determining power of their own wills. They wish God to determine the question himself, — to constrain sinners to come to the Savior; or, in other words, to choose or elect them to eternal life. And the meaning of their petitions, is as if they express ed themselves in the following words:

‘Lord, we are afraid, that after all thou hast done for these sinners, they will be eternally lost, without additional grace. We do not believe they will ever act effectually, until they are ‘acted on’ by the special influences of the Holy Ghost. We are convinced that if they are left to the self-determining power of their own wills, they never will come to the Gospel feast. And therefore we beseech Thee to interpose in their behalf. Lord, constrain them to come, or they will go on in sin and sink to hell. Lord, compel them by Thy almighty grace to come in, that thus their eternal salvation may be secured.’

Such is the tenor of the petitions offered by our brethren for the conversion of sinners. And I need not say, that they all contain the very sum and substance of the old Calvinistic doctrine of election. — And our brethren should not find fault with us for preaching the doctrine, as long as they ‘pray it out’ in all their supplications at a throne of grace. Surely, if they pray it, we may preach it.” — A.G. Fairchild, The Great Supper: or, An Illustration and Defence of Some of the Doctrines of Grace (1843), pp. 24-26