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

"...and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father." -Revelation 1:6 [KJV] Christ has done a great work for us. But does He only call us to believe it, and then leave us just as we were, under the dominion of sin, Satan, and the world? No. He not only washes us from our sins, which He hates, in His blood, but He also dignifies our person, which He loves, by His power. Hail Jesus, lavish of strange gifts to man! Thine all the glory; man’s the boundless bliss. O miracle of grace! Christ hath made us kings and priests.  (1st.) Kings to rule over sin, the world, death, and hell. Sin brought death into the world. Death reigned over all that sinned. But they who receive abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life, by one Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17.) O believer, do not you too often forget your real dignity? Then you do not honour your King of kings.  Consider, you are made a king to reign in life. A spiritual life, over all that i...

"I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine, of the juice of my pomegranate." -Song of Solomon 8:2 [KJV] What, my soul, hast thou aught to offer to thy Jesus? Will He accept a present at thine hand? Yes, Jesus will accept those goings forth of His own grace, His own gifts, in the exercises of faith, and love, and joy, and praise; when, by His own sweet and reviving communications, He hath called to the north wind, and to the south wind, to blow a gracious gale upon my soul, and causeth the very graces He Himself hath planted in my heart to send forth all their powers in the enjoyment of His person and righteousness. And do not forget, my soul, for thine encouragement to this lovely and becoming frame, these will be more grateful to thy God and Saviour than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices. These will be indeed like spiced wine, and the juice of the pomegranate, when those tears of faith, and love, and repentance drop at the mercy-seat, in the contemplat...

"For we which have believed do enter into rest." -Hebrews 4:3 [KJV] To rest is to lean upon something. Is it not? So spiritually. We want to lean upon something. The Lord Himself has given us this figure. "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?" The figure of "a rock" on which the Church is built, "the foundation" which God has laid in Zion, points to the same idea, that of leaning or dependence. Now when the soul comes to lean upon Jesus, and depend wholly and solely on Him, it enters into the sweetness of the invitation. Have we not leant upon a thousand things? And what have they proved? Broken reeds that have run into our hands, and pierced us. Our own strength and resolutions, the world and the church, sinners and saints, friends and enemies, have they not all proved, more or less, broken reeds? The more we have leant upon them, like a man leaning upon a sword, the more have they pierced ou...