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

"Thine heart lifted thee up to boast." -II Chronicles 25:19 [KJV] How despicable, how contemptible does pride make a man look in the eyes of his enemies? Amaziah sets out with the first step to idolatry, confidence in an arm of flesh. He next falls into the most gross and absurd idolatry. Reproof leaves him under it. As he had forsaken the Lord, the Lord cast him off. His destruction is near. “A haughty spirit goes before a fall. ...Let him who thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.”   One sin brings on another. When the Lord leaves a man, He exposes his pride, and makes himself ridiculous. Amaziah, being flushed with success at his victory over the Edomites sends a message to Joash, king of Israel, saying, “Come let us see one another in the face.”  A challenge to war. Face me, if you care. Alas! he little thought that the Lord was departed from him, that he was given up to hardness of heart, and to seek his own destruction.  How different his l...

"At our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for Thee, Oh my beloved." -Song of Solomon 7:13 [KJV] Yes, blessed Jesus! At the gates of ordinances, and the word of Thy gospel, all the pleasant and precious fruits of the Spirit, which come in new and in fresh supplies from Thee, are indeed laid up. And Oh how sweet and refreshing are they brought home and laid up in my heart by Thy divine power, when Thou enablest me by faith, and in Thy leadings and strength, to go forth and bring them home, and to live upon them, and feed upon them from day to day! And shall I not then, blessed Jesus, by the endearing name of my Beloved , call upon Thee to command the north wind and the south wind to blow upon Thy garden in my heart and in my soul, that the spices may flow; and that then my Beloved may come into His garden, and eat of His own pleasant fruits which His grace alone planted, and which His Spirit bringeth forth and ripens? -pre...

"My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand." -John 10:29 [KJV] In that most sublime and touching prayer which the Lord Jesus Christ, as the great High Priest over the house of God, offered up to His heavenly Father before He shed His precious blood on the cross, there is one petition, or rather an expression of His holy will, which is full of unspeakable blessedness.  "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."  The change from petitioning as a Priest to willing as a King is very remarkable, and casts a gracious light on the nature of Christ's mediatorial intercession at the right hand of God. On the footing of His covenant engagements, atoning sacrifice, and finished work, as well as from the perfect equality of His divine nature wi...