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

"The LORD is able to give thee much more than this."   -II Chronicles 25:9 [KJV] Thus spake the prophet to Amaziah, king of Judah. “He did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart”   (verse 2.) His works were externally right, but he was destitute of uprightness of heart towards the Lord. Our Saviour forbids, “Judge not according to the appearance”   (John 7:24.) Be not hasty in judging of any one. Nay, not of thy own state neither, merely from a few external actions. Look well to thy heart. See that there is upright honesty and integrity at the bottom of thy conduct.  If otherwise, it will soon be made manifest. So it was with Amaziah. This chapter records three abominable evils which he fell into. Confidence in an arm of flesh—Idolatry—Pride, which proved his destruction. As to the first, he hired one hundred thousand mighty men of valour, to strengthen his army against his enemies, for one hundred talents...

"Christ hath given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savour." -Ephesians 5:2 [KJV] If, when Noah offered by faith his sacrifice at the coming forth from the ark, the Lord smelled a sweet savour in it, because both the ark and sacrifice were a type of His dear Son, how fragrant and acceptable must have been the substance, when Jesus offered Himself without spot to God? Behold Him by faith, my soul, in that hour, in the full incense of His own merit, the censer of His own offering, and the golden altar of His own nature.  And while God, even the everlasting Father, accepts Jesus as thy Surety, in the fragrancy of His offering, wilt thou not by faith so apprehend the sweet influence of His person, work, and righteousness, as to rejoice before God in the sure acceptance of thyself and all thy poor offerings in the Beloved? Oh let a throne of grace be a daily, hourly, testimony for thee, that all thy approaches here are under th...

"...and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." -Hebrews 2:15 [KJV] It is no evidence against you if you are subject to bondage; it is no mark against you if you cannot look death in the face without doubt or fear. Is it not "the children"  who feel the bondage? And did not the Lord come to deliver them from it? Are you then not a child because you fear death? If you had no sense of sin, no tenderness of conscience, you would be as careless about death as most other people are. Thus your very bondage, your very fears, if they make you sigh and cry for deliverance, are marks of life. And the day will surely come when the Lord will remove these chilling fears and put an end to these killing doubts. As you draw near to the brink of Jordan, the Lord will be with you to deliver you, who, through fear of death, are now subject to bondage; He will extract its sting, and rob the grave of its victory, enabling you to ...