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

"Behold, this dreamer cometh." -Genesis 37:19   St. James says, “The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy.” - James 4:5  This is fully manifest in the conduct of Joseph’s brethren against him. Joseph seemed open hearted, simple, and without guile. If he had not told his dreams, he had not raised his brethren’s envy. But the Lord’s hand was in it: no thanks to them. Their cruelty to Joseph, raised him to the greatest eminence, and saved them from death by famine. Thus the Lord brings good out of evil.  Methinks I see young Joseph coming towards his brethren, and they looking upon him with an air of the greatest contempt and derision, saying, “Behold, this dreamer cometh!” There, that’s he, that we are all to bow down to, worship, and serve. Look at this mighty dreamer of foolish dreams. St. Paul, in enumerating the sufferings of the faithful, says, “Others had trials of cruel mockings” (Hebrews 11:36.)   Samson by the Philistines; Elisha by the c...

"For Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall." -Isaiah 25:4 [KJV] Who so poor as Jesus' poor? Who so needy as the needy of the Redeemer? The world knoweth them not, because it knew Him not. And as the Master was, so are His servants in this world. But, my soul, observe how sweetly Jesus is all this.  A strength to the poor in his distress, by taking all the storm Himself. He is a shadow from the heat, the heat of the wrath of a broken law, which Jesus bore Himself, when He died to expiate the breaches of it. His blood and righteousness cool the heat of sin, and quench all the fiery darts of the wicked: these terrible ones which beat upon a poor sinner like a storm against the wall. Moreover, when the showers of wrath shall fall at the last day on the wicked, when that horrible tempest of fire and brimston...

"And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom."   -I Corinthians 2:4 [KJV] It is not the work of the Spirit to produce doubts and fears, but to overcome them. And yet we are continually subject to them. Infidel thoughts fly across the mind; doubts and questionings suggest themselves Satan is busy in plying his arguments; a guilty conscience falls too readily under his accusations; painful recollections of past slips, falls, and backslidings strengthen the power of unbelief, so that to come to a spot wherein there is not the least shadow of a doubt of divine realities, and, what is far more, of our own interest in them, is a rare circumstance, and only attainable at those favoured moments when the Lord is pleased to shine into the soul and settle the matter between himself and our conscience.  But these very doubts, these very questionings, these cutting, killing fears, these anxious surmisings work together for good, and are merc...