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

"She said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table ." -Matthew 15:27 [KJV] Here is blessed reasoning. It produced admiration in the Lord: “O woman, great is thy faith!” It obtained a free grace grant from Him also: “Be it unto thee, even as thou wilt.” Great faith! How does it appear? We do not find she came to Christ in full assurance of faith; saying, I know Thou art my Saviour, I am assured Thou hast loved me, and wilt save me. No. Still there was great faith without this. Look at her faith. Imitate it. She honoured the Lord by it. He honours her for it.  (1st.) She was in trouble: she flies instantly to Christ. She tells Him of her sorrows. “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.” To cry to Jesus for mercy, under a sense of being vexed with a devil, is the prayer of faith, and honours the Lord of glory.  (2d.) Here are great discouragements. Christ answers her not a word. The di...

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life."   -John 3:14, 15 [KJV] Pause, my soul, over these words, and remember that they are the words of Jesus. Call to mind the wonderful event to which Christ refers, in the church's history in the wilderness, as related, Numbers 21:5-9 . Israel had sinned; and the Lord sent fiery flying serpents among the people, which bit them, and they died. In their distress they cried unto the Lord, and the Lord appointed this method of cure.  A figure of a serpent was made in brass, to which Israel was commanded to look only, and be healed . They who did so, lived. If any refused, he died. This was the ordinance of God. "Now," saith Jesus, "as Moses, at the command of God, lifted up the serpent, so must I be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Me shall never perish, but have eternal life....

"...but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." -I Corinthians 2:4 [KJV] In human reasoning, demonstration cannot usually be obtained except in mathematics, but not so in divine. There grace outshines and exceeds nature, for the teaching and testimony of the blessed Spirit is always demonstrative, that is, convincing beyond the possibility of doubt.  It is not demonstration simply we require, not demonstration of the word, as if there were some innate proof and power in the word itself to demonstrate its own truth, though doubtless it is so when the Spirit shines upon it, but it is the "demonstration of the Spirit."   This is very necessary to observe, for you will often hear the word of God spoken of, as if the Bible possessed not only demonstrative proof of its own inspiration, but was able to give that demonstration to the souls of men. But the demonstration not of the word but of the Spirit in, through, and by the word, is the thing wanted to...