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

"I know that my Redeemer liveth." -Job 19:25 [KJV] Matters are sometimes brought to a close point between God and the soul. It is stript of all its comforts. The soul is in heaviness (I Peter 1:6.) It is broken in the place of dragons, and covered with the shadow of death, as the Psalmist most emphatically paints the scenes of horror and affliction (Psalm 44:19.) So that he says, “I had fainted, unless I had believed” (Psalm 27:13.)   Nothing within, nothing without, for the soul to stay itself upon, but the word of the Lord, and the Lord revealed in the word. Then is that sweet promise fulfilled. “They shall hang upon Him all the glory of His Father’s house” (Isaiah 22:24.) This was Job’s tried, tempted, afflicted, yet blessed state. Though all his comforts were dead, still his Redeemer lived. In the midst of all his losses, he had not lost this blessed knowledge.  I know, it is a matter of the greatest certainty to my soul, I am as sure of it as my existe...

"Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount." -Deuteronomy 1:6 [KJV] Pause, my soul, and remark the gracious words of God to Israel. They were just entering the border of Canaan at that time. Forty years long had they been in a wilderness state; many ups and downs, battles and restings, conflicts and trials. God graciously said, "It is long enough." "There is a rest that remaineth for the people of God." Hark, my soul, doth Jesus speak to thee to the same amount?  Hast thou indeed dwelt long enough in this mount of exercises, sin, sorrow, and temptation? Hast thou seen enough of the emptiness of all creature comforts to satisfy thee? Hast thou felt enough of a body of sin and death, which drags down the soul, to make thee groan under it, being burdened? Is there any thing now worth living for? Are not the glories above worth dying for? Doth Jesus call thee, invite thee, allure thee, to come up to the Canaan which He hath taken possession of in ...

"Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." -Isaiah 40:4 [KJV] If in your road heavenward, no valley ever sank before you; if no mountain and hill ever rose up in sight; if you encountered no crooked path through the dense wood; and no rough places, with many a rolling stone and many a thorny briar in the tangled forest, it would not seem that you were treading the way which the saints of God have ever trod, nor would it appear as if you needed special help from the sanctuary, or any peculiar power to be put forth for your help and deliverance.  But being in this path, and that by God's own appointment, and finding right before your eyes valleys of deep depression which you cannot raise up; mountains and hills of difficulty that you cannot lay low; crooked things which you cannot straighten; and rough places which you cannot make smooth; you are compelled,...