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

"Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son." -Galatians 4:7 [KJV] Why does St. Paul tell believers this, seeing he had in the former verse said, that the Spirit assured their hearts of it? We hence plainly see the necessity of the outward word of reconciliation, as well as the inward testimony of the Spirit: and if the witness of the Spirit within does not accord to the testimony of the word without, we do well to suspect it.  Besides, from the working of a legal spirit, the prevailings of unbelief, the raging of corrupt lusts, an undue attention to the things of this life, and the accusations of Satan, children of God are prone to live below their glorious state and inestimable privilege. Hence, our loving heavenly Father has not the joy of our hearts, nor the glory of our lives. We do not always, as commanded, rejoice in Christ, our dear elder Brother. Therefore, St. Paul reminds, “thou art no more a servant.”   Consider, (1st.) what means he by a serva...

"Therefore, thus saith the LORD, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies."   -Zechariah 1:16 [KJV] My soul, think what a sad state that land, that church, that family, that heart is in, where God withdraws but for a moment! This will be one way of rightly appreciating His presence. What a mercy, what an unspeakable mercy is it when God returns! For until He returns in grace, there will be no return to Him in a way of seeking mercy.  Pause, my soul, over the thought. Though a child of God loseth not the interest and favour of God in His covenant, because what unworthiness soever, as in ourselves, we must appear in before God, yet in Christ there is an everlasting worthiness, in which His people are accepted and beloved: yet if the Lord suspends His gracious influences on the soul; if Jesus speaks neither by Urim nor Thummim; if the Holy Ghost, though at home in the heart, manifests not Himself to the heart; what shall the soul do? Ordinances are nothing if the God...

"And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." -John 17:3 [KJV] How many are anxious to know what is the way of salvation, how eternal life is to be obtained, and how to "flee from the wrath to come." But the Lord Jesus has shewn in one short sentence in what eternal life consists, that it is in the knowledge of the "only true God, and of Jesus Christ, whom He has sent."   He therefore that knows the Father and the Son has eternal life in his soul. The Lord Jesus, in the sixth chapter of John, quoted this amongst other passages of the Old Testament, and says, "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me." He lays this down, then, as one especial fruit of divine teaching, that it produces a coming unto Him. The Spirit, who teacheth to profit, holds up before the e...