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

"The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit." -II Timothy 4:22 [KJV] A most precious benediction! How blind are all who deny the divinity of Christ! how miserable are all who live without the presence of Christ! how ignorant are all who know not that such a blessing is to be enjoyed! how stupid are all those who seek it not! Art thou not, O Christian, too negligent in not more earnestly seeking and constantly praying for more of the presence of thy Lord? Consider, what is implied in this wish? It is heaven in the heart, glory in the soul, to have Christ with our spirits. It disposes and qualifies the soul for heavenly glory.  For, (1st.) Christ’s presence restrains our bad tempers, and subdues our unruly passions. Boisterous waves are changed into a profound calm; rough winds are at peace; foaming billows are still: there is the calm sunshine of heartfelt joy within: all is serene and happy without. Christ’s presence causes haughty pride and furious anger to subsi...

"My beloved is white and ruddy."   -Song of Solomon 5:10 [KJV] Pause, my soul, and contemplate thy Redeemer this morning under this engaging description of His person. It opens a delightful subject for meditation, in several points of view. Jesus is white and ruddy, if considered in His human nature only, He might be said to be white, in reference to the immaculate holiness of His body, underived as it was from a sinful stock like ours. He was born of the virgin Mary by the miraculous conception of the Holy Ghost, and therefore emphatically called, that HOLY THING : agreeably to all which, His whole life was without sin or shadow of imperfection.   "Such an High Priest become us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." Hence Jesus was truly white, as the Lamb of God, without blemish, and without spot. And was He not ruddy also, in His bloody sufferings, when His head was crowned with thorns, and His si...

"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed." -II Corinthians 4:8 [KJV] The saint of God is "troubled on every side," because he has on every side on which he may be troubled, a spiritual side as well as a temporal side, a side in his soul as well as a side in his body, a side in his supernatural as well as in his natural life, a side in his new man of grace as well as a side in his old man of sin. And as it is necessary for him to be conformed to the suffering image of Christ, trouble comes upon him on every side and from every quarter, to make him like his blessed Lord. Nay, his troubles are multiplied in proportion to his grace, for the more the afflictions abound the more abundant are the consolations; and an abundance of consolation is but an abundance of grace. Thus, the more grace he has the greater will be his sufferings; and the more he walks in a path agreeable to the Lord, and in conformity to his will and word, the more will he be b...