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

"The apostles said unto the LORD, Increase our faith ." -Luke 17:5 [KJV] Natural men tauntingly say, “O! you don’t mind good works; faith is to do every thing for you.” Truly, faith is all; for it includes the object of faith—the Lord. For, indeed, faith has no existence without its object. Consider,  (1st.) is it not a good work to forgive an offending brother? This is what our Lord here teaches. The apostles were made truly sensible, that they could not do this without faith; nay, not without the increase of faith. Therefore, they prayed for it. Real believers are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that they should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10.) They are a peculiar people, zealous of good works (Titus 2:14.) Thus, they love to glorify their heavenly Father.  (2d.) They know that all good works proceed from faith, and from the increase of faith. For Christ dwells in our hearts by faith (Ephesians 3:17.) This is the sourc...

"The praise of all His saints." -Psalm 148:14 [KJV] And who is this, my soul, but Jesus? Is He not indeed both the praise and the glory, the delight and the joy, the portion and the happiness of all His people? His saints, doth it say? Yes, saints, made so by His righteousness and salvation, when taken from among sinners; and when themselves sinners, He hath washed them in His blood, clothed them with His garment of salvation, and granted them an inheritance among the saints in light. And is He not their praise? Indeed, is there any other the object of their praise, to whom they look up, in whom they delight, but Him, in whom God their Father hath made them accepted in Him, the Beloved? Say then, my soul, is He not thy praise this day; and will He not be thine everlasting, unceasing praise, every day, and all the day, and through the endless day of eternity? Who shall be thy praise but Jesus; His beauty, His glory, His excellency; in whom all divine perfections ...

"In W,hom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." -Colossians 2:3 [KJV] What poor, blind fools are we by nature! How insufficient is all our earthly wisdom and all our natural knowledge, to guide us into the truth! When the soul really is under divine teaching, how ignorant it feels as to every single thing it desires to know! What clouds of darkness perpetually hang over the mind! What a veil of ignorance seems continually spread over the heart!  The simplest truths of God's word seem hid in the deepest obscurity, and the soul can neither see the truth, nor see nor feel its personal interest in it. Now, when a man is here, he does not go to the Lord with lying lips and a mocking tongue, and ask Him to give him wisdom, merely because he has heard that other persons have asked it of God, or because he reads in the Bible that Christ is made of God "wisdom" to His people; but he goes as a poor, blind fool, as one completely ignorant, as on...