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

"Freely ye have received, freely give." - Matthew 10:8 [KJV]   Christ spake these words to His apostles. They had their commissions immediately from Him, to preach His everlasting gospel. Many of the clergy, who pretend to be their successors, cannot receive this saying. Their learned lumber (because unsanctified) cost them too much to be dispensed for nought. Free-grace truths they cannot give freely. They have not freely received them into their own hearts. Expect to receive nothing from such unconverted ministers. Pity them: pray for them. Avoid their errors: be courteous to their persons. Private Christians, as well as ministers, have freely received out of the fulness of Christ: therefore, O soul! you and I are concerned in these words.    (1st.) What have we received? the free favour of God; in the rich grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This comprehends all things from God: this includes all things in God. Have we repentance unto life? It is by His grace...

"If the LORD were pleased to kill us, He would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands; neither would He have shewed us all these things." -Judges 13:23 [KJV]   Precious faith this of the wife of Manoah, and sound and conclusive reasoning. My soul, hath the Father, who gave thee Jesus for a Saviour, accepted thee in Jesus? Hath the Father, who sent His dear Son to be the Saviour of the world, accepted Jesus for thy Saviour?    Hath the Holy Ghost shewed thee the glorious things of redemption in His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace? And hath He given thee to believe in the record that "God hath given eternal life, and that this life is in His Son ? "   Oh then say, with the wife of Manoah, Surely the Lord would never have done all this, neither would He have showed me all these things, had He not intended my salvation. Treasure up, then, these past tokens of favour: consider present evide...

"Who against hope believed in hope."   -Romans 4:18 [KJV] Hope is a fruit of the Spirit; and the absence of hope, the thorough, complete absence of hope, stamps death upon that nominal branch, in which the absence of all hope is found. But some will say, "Are not the children of God often plunged into despair?"  No; not into despair. They are often very near it, they are on the borders of it; they go to the very brink of it; the gusts from that pestiferous land may so blow their blasts upon them, that in their feelings they shall be in despair; yet no living soul ever set his foot beyond the brink, no child of God ever stepped beyond the border, so as to get into the regions of despair.  If he got there, he would no longer be in "the land of the living;"  if ever he set his foot over the border that separates the land of hope from the land of despair, he would be no longer calling upon the Lord to save his soul from the lowest hell, but he wou...