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

"The righteous is taken away from the evil." - Friends,   read the full verse in Isaiah 57:1 [KJV] Why then do we not rejoice over the dead, who die in the Lord? Why do we, who profess to be in the Lord, fear to die? Death will be the funeral of all our evils, and the resurrection of all our comforts. Why then do we at all dread it? Why so reluctant to be taken from the many evils we suffer here?  Why not rather be longing to be for ever with the Lord? Plainly, it is for want of faith. The point is not fully settled between our Saviour and our souls, whether we are His righteous members or not, and hence we do not walk closely and comfortably with Him, and then the fear of death prevails over us.  A believer in Jesus, and a righteous person, are convertible terms. Every believer is a living member of Christ, united to, and one with Him. They are righteous as Christ is, as man and Mediator. His very righteousness is theirs. They are clothed with it, and stan...

"Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved." -Song of Solomon 8:5 [KJV] Who is it that asketh this question, my soul? Is it the holy angels, astonished as they well may, at the gracious condescension of thy Jesus in the grace and favour He hath bestowed upon thee? Or is it the world at large, looking on with amazement at the love of Jesus to His chosen? Is it the Jewish church, amazed that Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of God's promise in Christ? Or, above all, is it Jesus Himself, not because He knoweth not the grace He hath bestowed, but because He admireth the grace He hath given, and as He did the centurion's faith which He Himself was the author of, He looketh upon it with pleasure? And art thou, my soul, come up from the wilderness of nature, a dry, barren land, where no water of life is; from the wilderness of the world, and from all the unsatisfying and empty pursuits of it? Art...

"Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow." -Psalm 107:39 [KJV] Oppression is the exercise of strength against weakness, the triumph of power over helplessness; so that poverty literally opens the door for oppression. It was so with Hezekiah. When Hezekiah was laid on his bed of sickness, death stared him in the face, and he expected he should be cut off, and cast into perdition. This opened the door for oppression; says he, "Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me."   The cold damps of death stood upon his forehead, and despair pressed upon his soul. All his fleshly religion vanished in a moment; and he had but just faith and strength enough to cry out under the grip of the oppressor's hand at his throat, "Undertake for me" (Isaiah 38:14). Oppression then is a weight and a burden super-added to poverty. It is not the same thing as poverty, but it is an additional infliction to poverty. A man may ...