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

"And he requested for himself that he might die."   -I Kings 19:4 [KJV] “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are.”  -James 5:17 [KJV] This request proves it. It arose from fear and discontent. Both were occasioned by the threats of a weak, but wicked woman. Jezebel threatened his life. O how soon, and by what weak means, are the fine frames of God’s children spoiled and discomposed! What Elijah! that great prophet of the Lord, who had wrought so many notable miracles in the name of the Lord, who had been so miraculously fed by the ravens, according to the command of the Lord—he who had courage to say, “As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely shew myself to incensed Ahab to-day.”   What! he who had zeal to face four hundred and fifty of Baal’s priests, and to command them all to be slain, what does he request to die, because of the threatenings of a woman! What shall we say to this? Verily, human nature is the same in all, w...

"And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant."  -Exodus 2:24 [KJV] This is a precious scripture. My soul, put a note upon it. No sigh, no groan, no tear of God's people can pass unobserved. He putteth the tears of His people in His bottle. Surely then He can never overlook what gives vent to those tears, the sorrows of the soul. Our spiritual afflictions Jesus knows, and numbers all. How sweet the thought! the Spirit maketh intercession for the saints with the groanings which they cannot utter.  And do, my soul, observe the cause of deliverance. Not our sighs, nor our groanings, nor our brokenness of heart; not these, for what benefit can these render to an holy God? But God hath respect in all to His own everlasting covenant. Yes, Jesus is the all in all of the covenant. God the Father hath respect to Him. For His sake, for His righteousness, for His atoning blood, the groanings of His people find audience at the mercy-seat and redress. And...

"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent ."   -John 6:29 [KJV] Oh! how many a living saint is there who wants to believe in Jesus, who longs to trust in His holy name; and yet he cannot, so plagued, so pestered is he by the risings of inward unbelief. He knows that he does not yet so believe in Him as to obtain deliverance; for he has an inward testimony in his conscience, that if he believed in the Lord Jesus by the power of the Holy Ghost, it would bring the love of God into his heart, extract the sting of death, and fill him with joy and peace.  But as long as he feels condemned by the law and his own guilty conscience, he has an inward testimony that he has not as yet that living faith in Christ which, he is persuaded, would save and deliver him from all his guilty fears and dismal apprehensions. Therefore he labours after this special, this peculiar faith in the Lord Jesus, that he may attain unto ...