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

" If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf." -I Peter 4:16 [KJV] “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:26.) It is a blessed name. We ought ever to glory in it, and never be ashamed of it. But the bare name will no more avail us in life, death, and judgment, than to be called rich, while we are feeling the pinching hand of want. Christ signifies anointed. He was anointed to be our Saviour (Acts 10:38.) All who are saved by Him, and come to Him, are His anointed ones.  So St. John speaks of all Christ’s living members. “Ye have an unction from the Holy One” (I John 2:20.) To anoint, is to consecrate and set apart for holy and spiritual purposes. Christians are consecrated and set apart from the rest of the world, to be a people peculiarly devoted to the glory of Jesus. They are the jewels which compose His mediatorial crown.  Are you thus highly honoured by the Lord of life and ...

"And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go." -Genesis 24:58 [KJV] See, my soul, with what readiness Rebekah determined to accompany the servant of Abraham to Isaac. And wilt thou not arise and go forth at the invitation of the servants of Jesus, who sends them to call thee to His arms? Hath He not, by the sweet constraining influences of His Holy Spirit, as well as by the outward ministry of His blessed word, made thee willing in the day of His power? Did the servant of Abraham give an earnest of his master's affection in putting the bracelets upon Rebekah's hands, and the ear-rings, and the gold? But what was this to the love-tokens which Jesus Himself hath given thee, when He set thee as a seal upon His heart, and as a seal upon His arm, and when all the waters of divine wrath His holy soul had poured upon Him for thy sins, and all the floods of corruption, which like a deluge, had overspread thy who...

"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." -Matthew 26:41 [KJV] The entering into temptation is a different thing from temptation itself. "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." A temptation presents itself, draws near to us, or we draw near to it. If conscience sound an alarm, and we keep, so to speak, to the windward of temptation, we are for the present safe. Temptation is a lee shore on which the wind fiercely blows; it is a coast strewed with a thousand wrecks, and with the bleached bones of innumerable drowned mariners. Keep the ship's head to windward, and she may weather the point; neglect sail and helm, and she will go ashore. David and Joseph were exposed to a similar temptation. David entered into it, and fell; Joseph was kept from entering into it, and stood. In the country you often see a footpath across a field; if we keep in it we are safe. But we may be tempted by various objects to diverge a little, to gathe...