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

"I say unto all, watch." - Mark 13:37 [KJV]   It is very awful, when God’s precious promises are opposed to His righteous commands. Hence some get above and beyond duty: they cannot bear the word duty! O say they, don’t tell us of duty, it is such legal stuff! We are at liberty. We are not under the law, but under grace. True, indeed they are at liberty, but it is to pervert the gospel. They are awfully under the law of sin; not under the law of love, but the spirit delusion.    Their ears are closed, and their hearts shut against the sweet voice of our loving charmer, Christ. O my soul, watch against such, and their licentious notions of liberty, as you prize the love of Christ, and sweet communion with Him. He who sees no danger, and thinks he has nothing to lose, will give no attention to this command, Watch . It is here opposed to sleep. Sin is not dead. Satan never sleeps. The world ever invites and enchants. All is war against thee.    Theref...

"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."  - Romans 5:6 [KJV]   My soul fold up this sweet and precious scripture, and carry it about with thee in thy bosom, and in thine heart, that it may help thee on at any time, and at all times, when thy strength seems gone, and there is no power left. Was it not when the whole nature of man was without strength, that Christ was given of the Father?    And was it not equally so, when Christ came to seek and save that which was lost? And was it not in due time when Christ died for the ungodly; due time in His resurrection, due time in His ascension, "when He ascended up on high, led captivity captive, and received gifts for men, yea, even for the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among them?"   Go further yet, my soul, as it concerns thyself was it not due time indeed, when Jesus passed by and saw thee in thy loathsome state of sin, cast out to perish, and when no...

"But Thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head." -Psalm 3:3 [KJV] If your soul has ever been favoured with a taste of mercy, with a sip of the brook by the way; if ever your conscience has felt the application of atoning blood, or the love of God has ever been shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost, when the law comes to curse you, endeavour always to bear in mind that the Lord Jesus Christ stands as the shield between you and its curse.   The law has therefore nothing to do with you that believe, it has cursed Jesus Christ for you; as the apostle declares, "He was made a curse for us ; " and again, "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree , " etc. Therefore the law has nothing to do with you who believe in Christ Jesus. He has intercepted the curse for you, and, by receiving it into His own body and soul, bore it harmless away from you. It is a blessed act of faith when you can thus...