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

"Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not."   - Isaiah 35:4 [KJV] Mind the title to this chapter— “The flourishing of Christ’s kingdom.”  What! and yet fearful hearts in it! What sort of disciples are these? There ever were such in the church. We meet with them daily. Where is the heart which at times is not fearful? That does not stand in need of being strengthened by the word and the grace of God? O! says one, "I am of a fearful heart. I read my doom. It is to have my part with the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, etc. in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone"  (Revelation 21:8.) Yes: this will be the certain portion of all, who are so fearful of their good names and fair characters, as to be ashamed of Christ and His gospel, and give them up for the love and friendship of this world. Be not of such fearful hearts, here spoken of.  (1st.) This sort are rather of “a hasty heart.” It discovers its state by its beating, ...

"Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself." -Ephesians 1:9 [KJV] My soul, pause over these volumes of divine truth for they are not as so many simple words, but contain vast volumes indeed, and such as a whole eternity will not afford space to read over and finish. The first is a large one indeed—even the mystery of God's will namely, the mystery of redemption, originating in the divine mind, before all worlds. And this is not the smallest part of it, that it should be made known in any degree or measure to thee, my soul, a poor creature of a day, and that day, a day of nothing but sin. The second volume in this vast subject is another precious part of the same glorious truth; namely, that this mercy of God in Christ is the sole result of God's good pleasure. No foresight, no merit, no pretensions of thine, my soul; no, nor the merits of archangels, becoming in the least the ca...

"That ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." -James 1:4 [KJV] The word "perfect"  in the Scripture does not mean, as applied to a saint of God, anything approaching to the usual idea of perfection, as implying spotless, sinless holiness, but one who is matured and ripened in the life of God , no longer a child but a grown man. As a tree grown to its full stature is said to have attained perfection; so when the Lord the Spirit has brought forth the work of patience in your soul, as far as regards that work you are perfect, for it is God's work in you; and so far you are "entire,"  that is, possessing all which that grace gives, and "wanting nothing"  which that grace can communicate. To submit wholly to the will of God, and be lost and swallowed up in conformity to it, is the height of Christian perfection here below; and he that has that wants nothing, for he has all things in Christ . What, then, is the greatest height...