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

"Men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed." -Psalm 72:17 [KJV] “Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things, which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Galatians 3:10.) This curse, God hath never revoked. Every man upon the earth is naturally under it. But the greatest curse is, men neither believe it, feel it, nor care for it. Hence they slight and disregard that dear Man, who was made “a curse for us,” that we might be blessed in Him.  Says our Lord, “Search the scriptures, they testify of Me , ” (John 5:39.) Here is a sweet testimony for our mind, and precious food for our faith. Jesus, Master, bless me while I meditate on it .  (1st.) See all blessedness in Christ. Well might Luther say, “I will have nothing to do with an absolute God.” That is, God without a mediator. O sinner, O saint, there is nothing but curse and wrath for us, out of Christ. There is a hell of sin in our nature. The pride of the devil, and...

"Hope deferred, maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." -Proverbs 13:12 [KJV] Surely, my Lord and Saviour is the sum and substance of this sweet verse! For art Thou not the hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof? And if Thou deferrest giving to my soul renewed views of Thy pardoning love, or withholdest the renewed visits and manifestations of Thy grace, will not my soul languish and my whole heart be sick?  Can I, dear Lord, continue for a moment in health of soul without Thee? And art Thou not my desire, when Thou art the desire of all nations? And when Thou comest to my soul in all Thy freeness, fulness, suitableness, and all-sufficiency, art Thou not the very tree of life in the paradise of God? Precious, precious Jesus! Give me to sit down under Thy shadow with great delight, for surely Thy fruit is sweet to my taste. Do not defer Thy blessed visit to my soul this morning, for Thou knowest, Lord, that though, through Thy ...

"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." -John 10:28 [KJV] The Lord said, "I give unto them (that is, My sheep) eternal life;" not, I will give them in the life to come; but I give it unto them now . We therefore read, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" -- has it now, as a present, felt, and enjoyed possession. This life is given manifestly when Christ reveals Himself to the soul; for eternal life is then received out of His fulness as an enjoyed possession .  All, then, who have truly fled for refuge, to lay hold of the hope set before them, embrace in so doing eternal life. They live, as being manifestly in Christ, for He is "our life;" and as they embrace it in Him they feel its sweet movements in their breast, in the joy it communicates, in the peace it imparts, in the prospects it opens, in the doubts it removes, in the fears it dispe...