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

" That He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live." -Deuteronomy 8:3 [KJV] This is the grand lesson which we have to learn in our wilderness journey— "that man doth not live by bread only," that is, by those providential supplies which relieve our natural wants. Thanks be to God for any bread that He gives us in His kind and bountiful providence. An honest living is a great mercy. To be enabled by the labour of our hands or by the labour of our brain to maintain our families and bring them up in a degree of comfort, if not abundance, is a great blessing.  But God has determined that His people shall not live by bread only. They shall be separated from the mass of men who live in this carnal way only; who have no care beyond earthly possessions, and the sum of whose thoughts and desires is, what they shall eat, and what they shall drink, and wherewithal the...

"If ye do these things, ye shall never fall." -II Peter 1:10 [KJV] What things? add to your faith every Christian grace and good work. If ye live in the exercise of grace, and the discharge of duty, ye shall never fall. But it is here plainly implied, if ye do not these things, ye certainly will fall. How fall? Into all manner of sin; yea, and into hell too, if the Lord Christ keep you not.  But He most assuredly will keep all His sheep from thus falling. For He hath said, They shall never perish—I give unto them eternal life . But what evidence can any one have that he is Christ’s sheep, if he do not hear His voice, and obey His word?  My dear fellow-sinner, deceive not thy own soul. Beware of corrupt notions, and unscriptural ideas. It is most true, salvation is sure. Every one who believes in Christ shall most assuredly be saved. But surely there is such a thing, as living and walking close with Christ—cleaving to Him with full purpose of heart, cheerfully obe...

"The justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."   -Romans 3:26 [KJV] And who is this, indeed who can it be, but Jehovah? "It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?" But, my soul, mark how each person of the Godhead is revealed in scripture under this character; as if to convince every poor sinner that is looking for redemption in Israel only in Jesus, that God can be just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. God the Father justifieth the poor believing sinner: for He manifests that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, having found a ransom in the blood of His Son for sin, whereby He is faithful to all His covenant promises in pardoning us, having received at our Lord's hand double for all our sins. God the Son justifieth also His redeemed: for it is expressly said by the prophet, "In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory." And that God the Holy Ghost justifieth, is a...

"Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world."  -John 17:24 [KJV] How great, how elevated above all utterance or all conception of men or angels, must the glory of Christ be as the Son of the Father in truth and love! And not only is the Lord Jesus Christ glorious in His essential Deity as the Son of God, but glorious also in His holy, spotless humanity which He assumed in the womb of the virgin Mary. For this, though the flesh and blood of the children, was "that holy thing which was begotten of the Holy Ghost," and was taken into union with His eternal Deity, that He might be "Immanuel, God with us." The purity, holiness and innocence, the spotless beauty and complete perfection of this human nature, make it in itself exceedingly glorious; but its great glory is the union that it possesses and e...