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

"I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." -Revelation 3:8 [KJV] Blessed Jesus! Thou hast indeed done all this, and more . Thou art thyself the Door into Thy fold here below, and to Thy courts above; for Thou hast said, by Thee, "whosoever entereth in, shall go in, and find pasture:" and it is Thou that hast opened a new and living way by thy blood.  Thou art the only possible way of access to the Father. And because Thou hast opened it, no man can shut it; for Thou ever livest to keep the way, which Thou hast once opened, still open, by Thy all prevailing intercession.  Yes, Thou heavenly Lord, the gate is never shut, day nor night, in the preaching of Thine everlasting gospel, all the ends of the earth shall see this salvation of our God. And, as Thou hast graciously said, All that come to God by Thee, shall never be shut out. The word, the authority, the warrant of Jehovah, is gone forth to this purpose. Thy blood and righteousn...

"But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." -Romans 12:2 [KJV] As worldly conformity is subdued and departed from, there is the transforming process of which the apostle here speaks, whereby we become renewed in the spirit of our mind. In other words, the Holy Spirit, by His work upon the soul, renews the life of God, revives faith, hope, love, prayer, praise, spirituality of mind, with every tender feeling and every godly sensation that stirs and moves in a living heart.  As, then, the Spirit of God renews His work upon the heart, He brings us out of this worldly conformity. He discovers to us the evil of it; He makes and keeps the conscience tender and sensitive; He shews us that if we get conformed to the world we lose our evidences; that they become dulled and obscured; that we are soon deprived of communion with God, of comfortable access to our best, our heavenly Friend; that our taste and appetite for spiritual things get palled; and that our ver...