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

"God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." -I Thessalonians 5:9 [KJV] Here is a precious negative, a glorious positive, and happy souls. Lord help us to meditate upon them, to our profit.  (1st.) The negative. “God hath not appointed us to wrath.” St. Paul has in his eye, what our proud nature cannot bear to hear of, the sovereignty of God. It is as though he had said, we are all by nature children of wrath. We have all by practice deserved wrath. Here is myself, the other day I did not know the Son of God, but persecuted Him and His servants. If God had dealt with us according to our just deserts, we should have suffered His eternal wrath in hell.  Is your conscience convinced of this? Do your eyes see it? Does your tongue confess this? Does your heart fear this? Rejoice with wonder. That just God, who had a sovereign right, yet will not appoint you to wrath for your sins. If you have trembled under a sense of wrath...

"Ye are My witnesses, saith the LORD, and My servant whom I have chosen." -Isaiah 43:10 [KJV] Doth God indeed appeal to the souls of His people for the truth of His covenant love! Oh the gracious condescension! It is sweet, it is blessed, and a testimony enough to make the heart of every child of God that possesseth it to leap for joy, when the Spirit witnesseth to our spirits that we are the children of God. But it is still carrying on that blessedness with increasing delight, when the people of God themselves become witnesses of covenant love and faithfulness; and, from numberless experiences in themselves, can, and do set to their seals that God is true. See then, my soul, this morning, whether thou art one of thy God's witnesses, and thy Redeemer, as the servant of Jehovah, witnesseth for thee, and by His sweet influences in thee, all that thine heart can wish concerning the word of His grace, and thy fellowship and communion with Him. Run over a few lea...

"I will set him on high, because he hath known My name." -Psalm 91:14 [KJV] A man must know the Lord's name before ever he can feel any real love to Him. Now this is needful, this is what the Lord does for His people, He causes them to know His name. "They shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest" (Jeremiah 31:34) . "They shall all;" they shall. The Lord has declared it. They shall know Me. Now what is the name of the Lord? When God revealed Himself unto Moses, did He not say, "I AM THAT I AM?" This was the way God taught Moses His name, and we may gather from it that whatever God is, that is His name.  God is holy, God is just, God is merciful, God is a God of love. Now the sinner must know this. He must know that God is a pure and holy God, and at first when he is beginning to learn this lesson, he is completely astonished and appalled by it. It causes him to shrink away and hide himself from God. "Ho...