"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

"But when the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me." -John 15:26 [KJV] The special work and office of the Holy Ghost is to testify of Jesus, to glorify Him, to take of the things that are His, and to shew them to the soul; and therefore without these teachings and testimonies of the Holy Ghost we have no true, no saving knowledge of Him, no living faith in Him, no sweet communion with Him, no tender and affectionate love toward Him. And are not these the marks which peculiarly distinguish the living family of God from the dead in sin and the dead in profession? A bare knowledge of the letter of truth can communicate no such gracious affections as warm, soften, melt, and animate the soul of a child of God, under the felt power and influence of the Holy Ghost; can create no such faith as gives him manifest union with Jesus; can inspire no such hope as carri...

" O L ORD , Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, and every one mocketh me." -Jeremiah 20:7 [KJV] A poor deluded perfectionist lately made a great noise in London: he blasphemously pretended to be as holy as God Himself, to have revelations from Him, and peremptorily fixed upon a day when the world was to be destroyed. He deceived many, and alarmed more. But time proved how artfully he had been deceived himself; and now, what is most awful, he has cast off all sense of religion, ridicules it, charges all his delusion upon God, and quotes these very words of Jeremiah, to prove that God had deceived him. One would not mention this by way of reflection, or triumph over this unhappy man; but, as a caution against this mad, wildfire notion of sinless perfection, which so spreads itself among a certain description of professors.  But did God really deceive Jeremiah? Can we suppose that he cha...

"Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?" -Song of Solomon 3:3 [KJV] Is Jesus still the object of my soul's warmest affection; the subject of all my thoughts, all my discourse, all my inquiry? Oh, yes, my soul; whom else, in heaven or in earth, wilt thou seek after but Him? Tell me, ye ministers of Jesus, ye watchmen upon the walls of Zion— "Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?" Ye followers of the Lamb, can ye shew me where Jesus feedeth His flock at noon? Or rather, ye in the upper regions, where the Son of God manifesteth Himself in the full glories of His Person; "ye spirits of just men made perfect," ye who have known, while sojourning here below, what feeling of the soul that is, which, in the absence of Jesus, is longing for His appearance.  Ye angels of light also—ye who see Him without an intervening medium—tell Him, I beseech you, how my soul panteth for His visits: tell Him, that a poor pensioner, well known to my Lord, is waiting this mor...

"I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal." -Deuteronomy 32:39 [KJV]   The work of grace in the soul, in its very beginnings, penetrates deeply into its inmost substance. It wounds and lays open the conscience to the eye of infinite Purity and Holiness. "The entrance of Thy words (that is, the very first entrance) giveth light." "The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." All conviction to be true conviction must be thorough. The field must be ploughed, broken up, and furrowed, before the seed can find a tilth, a seed-bed for the seed to fall in so as to germinate and grow. There is much to be done in a sinner's heart before Christ can dwell in him by faith, or be formed in him the hope of glory. The heart is naturally very hard; thorns, thistles, and ...

The spiritual troubles which encompass the Christian walk are the deepest and the severest of all his trials. What in comparison are others? Our Lord keenly felt this when He uttered that affecting exclamation: “Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Shall I say, Father, save Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour.”  What to Him – galling and agonizing as they were – what to Him the smiting, and the scourging, and the spitting, and the excruciating torture, compared with the sword which was now entering His soul – the mental conflict and spiritual sorrow which, in the hour of atonement, amazed, staggered, and overwhelmed Him?  Listen again to His affecting cry: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” Then, withdrawing Himself from His disciples – for the human sympathy upon which He had relied in anticipation of the hour of suffering failed Him now – retiring from man, He flung himself upon the bosom of God, and kneeling do...

" He hath put a new song in my mouth." -Psalm 40:3 [KJV] Some sing, when they have cause to be sad: others are sad, when they have reason to sing and rejoice. Some go on merrily to hell; others go on sorrowing to heaven. When the grace of Jesus is in the heart, a new song is put into the mouth. This is a song of new covenant love. This we are to sing all our days on earth, and for ever and ever in glory. In passing the streets, we meet with many occurrences, which remind us of our Beloved. It is sweet to spiritualize carnal things. I was much delighted with a carnal song, which concludes thus: All the time is thrown away, But what is spent in love.  I thought this was very true of the love of our Saviour. This Psalm is applied to Christ in His manhood state (Hebrews 10.) A new song was put in His mouth on our accounts. He says, “Many shall see it, and fear, and trust in the L ORD .” See hence, our spiritual joy springs from seeing Christ’s work in our salvation...