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

"..of whom I am chief." -I Timothy 1:15 [KJV] What a mighty change does grace make! The apostle was once, in his own eyes, the chief of saints. If but two went to heaven, he had no doubt but he should be one. Now, he is really an eminent saint in Christ: he confesses himself the chief of sinners . Why so? Did he love sin, lie down and wallow in sin, and glory in sin? No, far from it: he was now saved from all his sins.  Hence he sees the exceeding preciousness of Christ, his Saviour; the exceeding sinfulness of sin, which dwelt in him; and the infinite holiness, spirituality, and perfection of the law of God. Therefore, he makes this public declaration: not, I have been, but, I now am the chief of sinners .  He, as it were, stands forth and challenges the whole race of sinners, and says, I will give place to no one: of all of you, I will be the first rate, and stand foremost in the rank. But is not this glorying in sin, which was his shame? Self-righteous heart...

"I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." -John 14:2, 3 [KJV] How shall I ever sufficiently enter into an apprehension of the love of Jesus? Much less, how shall I ever sufficiently love Thee, and adore Thee, Thou unequalled pattern of excelling love, blessed, precious Jesus? Was it not enough to have given such palpable evidences of Thy love in dying for poor sinners; but must Thou tell them also before Thy departure the cause for which Thou art gone away, and to give them an assurance, at the same time, that Thou wouldest come again, and take them home with Thee to glory?  Oh help me, Lord, to love Thee, to live to Thee, to be always on the look out for Thee, and to rejoice with a joy unspeakable in the promise of Thy coming. And, my soul, while thou art taking all the sweetness of those precious words of thy Jesus to thyself, in the prospect...

"Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house." -II Chronicles 6:29 [KJV] Solomon comes to experience; he puts his hand upon the right spot. It is knowing his "own sore" and his "own grief." You may know another man's; that will not profit you. You may read of experience in books, love to hear experimental ministers, and will hear no others; and yet not know your "own sore," your "own grief."   Like a physician who may know the symptoms of every malady, and yet not have one malady of his own; so you may hear described every symptom of every disease, and yet be untouched by one. But the man for whom Solomon's prayer is, he that knows and feels, painfully feels, his "own sore" and his "own grief," whose heart is indeed a grief to him, wh...