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

"I am like a green fir-tree: from Me is thy fruit found." -Hosea 14:8 [KJV] Here is a sweet dialogue between the Lord and Ephraim, which signifies growing. The Lord had just before said, “I will be as dew upon My people . ” See the effects of this grace, Ephraim says, “What have I to do any more with idols?” Now I find my Lord and His love in my heart, get hence ye cursed idols: my vile lusts and that vain idol, the work of my hands, my own righteousness. I abhor the former. I trample on the latter. I bemoan my folly in taking up with them so long.  The Lord graciously answers, “I have heard him:” his moans and complaints. “And observed him,” with complacency and delight returning to Me. O ever gracious, long-suffering, loving Friend of sinners! “I am like a green fir-tree.” Who says this? Commentators say, Christ. But I would rather humbly presume, than boldly assert, that they are the words of the believer. For thus the dialogue is kept up. Naturalists sa...

"And this day shall be unto you for a memorial." -Exodus 12:14 [KJV] It is blessed to end the month, and end every day, as we would wish and desire to end life, blessing and praising God in Christ; rising from the table of divine bounties, and thanking the great Master of the feast. Pause, my soul, and see whether, in the past month, such hath been thine experience of sovereign grace and unmerited mercies, that thou canst now set up thine Ebenezer, and mark this day for a memorial. What visits hath Jesus made to thee, my soul; and how hath thine heart been drawn out after Him? Hath the Father, as well as the Son, come and made His abode with thee? Hath the Holy Ghost, the glorious inhabitant in the souls and bodies of His people, manifested His continued presence to thee? This day is indeed a memorial, if, in summing up the wonderful account of divine manifestations of divine love in providence and grace, during the month now nearly closed, and the years already ...

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." -Matthew 5:6 [KJV] Hunger is a painful sensation. It is not merely an appetite for food; but an appetite for food attended with pain. So spiritually. It is not merely a desire after Christ that constitutes spiritual hunger. "The sluggard desireth, and hath nothing." But it is a desire attended with pain; not merely a wish for spiritual food, but also with such painful sensations, that unless this appetite is satisfied, the soul must perish and die.  Nothing short of this constitutes spiritual hunger. There are many who say, "I have a desire." If it be a spiritual desire, it will be granted. But spiritual desire is always attended with painful sensations which many are completely ignorant of who profess to have a desire. "The desire of the slothful killeth him." Why? Because he rests satisfied with a desire, and never takes the kingdom of he...