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

"I said in my haste, all men are liars." -Psalm 116:11 [KJV] We are prone to be too hasty in our censures of others, while the greatest fault lies at our own door. David here brands all men, with being liars, when he himself was the greatest liar of all, if we take the words in this sense. Here, he even charges Samuel the prophet of the Lord with a lie. For he had anointed him to be king, and assured him of the kingdom.    But he spoke in haste, without due thought and deliberation— unadvisedly, under temptation, when he was off his guard, and fled from the rage of Saul. Though some think, David rather uttered the bold language of confident faith. I said in my flight, that notwithstanding all the fury of Saul, and all the suggestions of my enemies to the contrary, “Let God be true, and every man a liar” (Romans 3:4.)   The Lord will surely preserve me. I shall certainly be king. David was the subject, both of faith and unbelief: of a hasty spirit, which exa...

"And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee." -Deuteronomy 15:15 [KJV] Say, my soul, canst thou ever forget the wormwood and the gall of that state of nature, from which the LORD thy God brought thee? Figure to thyself the most horrid state of captivity which the world ever knew; and what could the whole be, bounded, as it must be, by the short period of human life, compared to the everlasting vassalage of sin and Satan, in which thou didst lay when Jesus passed by and brought thee out? No galley-slave, chained to the oar, could equal thy misery, bound with the chain of sin. No duration of misery, bounded by time, equals that endless state of woe to which thou wast exposed. Thou wert a bondman to the power of sin, to the love of sin, to the desire of sin, to the punishment of sin; a bondman to the law of God, to the justice of God, to the displeasure of God, to the threatenings of God; a bondman to t...

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony." -Revelation 12:11 [KJV] It is not "the blood of the Lamb" as revealed in the word of God, but as applied to and sprinkled on the conscience , which answers the accusations of Satan. But we may observe that there is our coming unto "the blood of sprinkling," and there is "the blood of sprinkling" coming unto us. The apostle speaks, Hebrews 12:22-24 : "Ye are come to the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel." This coming to the blood is the first step in gaining the victory. But in Christian warfare defeat generally, if not always, precedes conquest. It is not, therefore, so easy to overcome sin, death, and hell, which are all striving against us; and usually we never look to the right quarter for help until well-nigh all hope is gone.  The first gleam generally comes from a view of "the blood of the Lam...