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

"...w hom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren, that are in the world." -I Peter 5:9 [KJV] I had no sooner wrote this text, but was constrained to say, Blessed be God for His holy scriptures . My poor mind has been often perplexed and distressed with sore attacks of Satan. Hence, I have been ready to call in question my state. Have been almost brought to conclude, that if I was a member of Christ, and a child of God, surely He would not suffer the enemy to His glory and my peace, thus to tempt, buffet, and distress my soul. I am persuaded, this is not my case only. All the brethren of Christ are subject to the same perplexity, from the same cause. Satan gains an advantage over us, for want of knowing and considering what the apostle here lays down.  It is a fixed truth. All the brethren of the Lord Jesus are subject to the same trials and afflictions from Satan, one as well as another. Therefore we sh...

"Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and Who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water ." -John 4:10 [KJV] How blessed a thing is vital godliness! That is the thing I always wish to contend for. Not for forms and ceremonies, or doctrines floating in the brain, but for the life of God in the soul; the only thing worth knowing; the only thing to live by, and I am sure the only thing to die by. How different is vital godliness received into the heart and conscience, by the operation of God the Spirit, out of the fulness of Christ, how different is this fountain of living water from the stagnant, dead water of lip-service, formality, and hypocrisy! And sure I am, if our souls have ever been baptised into a spiritual knowledge of this heavenly secret; if ever we have tasted the sweetness, felt the power, and experienced a measure of the enjoyment of vital godl...