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

"But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you." -I John 2:27 [KJV] All the powers of earth and hell are combined against this holy anointing, wherewith the children of God are so highly favoured. But if God has locked up in the bosom of a saint one drop of this divine unction, that one drop is proof against all the assaults of sin, all the attacks of Satan, all the enmity of self, and all the charms, pleasures, and amusements of the world.  Waves and billows of affliction may roll over the soul; but they cannot wash away this holy drop of anointing oil. Satan may shoot a thousand fiery darts to inflame all the combustible material of our carnal mind; but all his fiery darts cannot burn up that one drop of oil which God has laid up in the depths of a broken spirit. The world, with all its charms and pleasures, and its deadly opposition to the truth of God, may stir up waves of ungodliness against this holy anointing; but all the powers of earth ...

"Give us this day our daily bread." -Matthew 6:11 [KJV] Happiness, that inestimable jewel, springs only from content. Christian content is founded in humility. The humble Christian lives upon the fulness of God. Thence he seeks all his supplies. Our Lord not only teaches His disciples the words of prayer, which any one may use, but also gives the Spirit of prayer, which is peculiar to disciples only. This consists,  (1st.) In knowing our wants.  (2d.) In seeking a supply of them from the Lord. Give us...  (3d.) This day : just from hand to mouth: daily bread, all the blessings of providence and grace, needful for us, as men and Christians.  (a.) Do we know our own wants? The sight and sense of these will make and keep us very low and humble in our own eyes; for we shall go out of ourselves, and live out of ourselves. Do we want daily bread to support our bodies? Have we no source of life in ourselves, but what must be fed and nourished from the food we r...

"Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH." -Zechariah 6:12b [KJV] My soul, listen to the call, and behold this wonderful Man, whose name is The Branch . Mark the wonderful features of His person. This is one of the prophetical names of Him, in the faith of whom, as the Redeemer of Israel, all the old testament saints died. The branch of the Lord—the branch of righteousness; or, as He is elsewhere called, the Nazarene. But observe how very descriptive of His nature is this title. He grows up out of His place. And where is that? rain the eternal counsel of Jehovah. Who shall declare His generation? He is indeed a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots. But all this as the root Himself of David; planted in the eternal purpose of God's own sovereign decree, and budding forth as a branch in all the periods of His incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, glory. And what a branch of never-failing loveliness, and everlasting verdure (- green...

"...that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." -Romans 12:2 [KJV] The will of God is "good, perfect, and acceptable." How are we to prove personally and experimentally that it is all this? That good and perfect will runs counter, over and over again, to my natural inclinations, sets itself firmly against my fleshly desires. God's will calls for self-denial, but I want self gratification; it requires obedience, but my carnal mind is the essence of disobedience; it demands many sacrifices, but my coward flesh revolts from them; it bids me walk in the path of suffering, sorrow, and tribulation, but my fleshly mind shrinks back, and says, "No, I cannot tread in that path!"   As long, then, as I am conformed to the world, I cannot see the path, for this worldly conformity has thrown a veil over my eyes; or if I do dimly and faintly see it, I am not willing or able to walk in it, because my carnal mind rebel...