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

"Thou hast kept the good wine until now." -John 2:10 [KJV] The good wine of the Gospel must be Jesus Himself, for He, and He alone, trod the wine-press of His Father's wrath, when the Lord bruised Him and put Him to grief (Isaiah 53:5) . This is the wine which, in scripture, is said to cheer both God and men; for when God's justice took the full draught of it for the sins of the redeemed, the Lord declared Himself well pleased. And when the poor sinner, by sovereign grace, is first made to drink of the blood of the Lamb, he feels constrained to say, The Lord had kept the good wine until now; for never before had his soul been so satisfied. Oh, precious Jesus' how sweet is the thought! Thy first miracle converted water into wine. Moses' ministry, under Thy commission, was first manifested in turning water into blood. Yes, dear Lord! when once Thy grace hath wrought upon the heart of a sinner, Thou makest his most common mercies, like water, to be...

"And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." -John 14:16, 17 [KJV] The holy Comforter and most gracious Spirit does not take up a temporary abode in the heart of the Lord’s people. Where He once takes up His dwelling, there He for ever dwells and lives. "He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever. " Oh, the blessing! Where once that holy Dove has lighted, there that Dove abides. He does not visit the soul with His grace, and then leave it to perish under the wrath of God, or allow His work to wither, droop, and die.  But where He has once come into the soul with power, there He fixes His continual habitation, for He makes the bodies of the saints His temple. He consecrates them to the service of ...

" Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O L ORD in the light of Thy countenance." —Psalm 89:15 [KJV] The psalmist alludes to the jubilee-trumpet, which was sounded throughout the land on the great day of atonement. This was an ordinance of the Lord. —Leviticus 25:10. It was a joyful sound of liberty to God's people. A true type, and just emblem this, of the blowing the great trumpet, and the sound of the everlasting gospel restoring life, liberty, and salvation, to perishing captive souls. Has the gospel thus proved the power of God to the salvation of our souls? Surely then, we must esteem it, as the most joyful sound that ever saluted our ears! Joyful, that it is not clogged with any terms and conditions: Joyful, that it is not, as some call it, a milder law, proposing mercy on easier performances than the legal yoke. No; such notions are subversive of the very nature of the gospel; they only humor self-confidence, and elate t...

"One pearl of great price." -Matthew 13:46 [KJV] Great indeed, and but one! for salvation is in no other; neither is there any other name under heaven given among men whereby we can be saved. My soul, hast thou considered Jesus in this precious point of view? Hast thou beheld Him both in His divine and human nature, how unspeakably glorious in Himself, and how enriching to the souls of His people? Art thou a spiritual merchantman, seeking goodly pearls? And is Jesus the one, the only one, costly, precious, and so infinitely desirable in thine eye, that thou art willing to sell all, that thou wouldest part with millions of worlds, rather, than lose Christ?   Hast thou found Him in the field of His scripture, and dost thou ask how shall I buy? Listen to His own most gracious words: counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich . Yes, Thou generous Lord! I am come to buy of Thee without money and without price. For well I know, through...

"Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens." -Lamentations 3:41 [KJV] When the Lord lays judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, when He makes the living man complain on account of deserved chastisement for his sins, and thus brings him to search and try his ways, he raises up an earnest cry in his soul. "Let us lift up our heart with our hands," and not the hands without the heart; not the mere bended knee; not the mere grave and solemn countenance, that easiest and most frequent cover of hypocrisy; not the mere form of prayer, that increasing idol of the day, but the lifting up of the heart with the hand. This is the only true prayer, when the heart is poured out before the throne of grace, the Spirit interceding for us and within us with groanings that cannot be uttered.   "God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." The contrite heart and broken spirit, the i...

" Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." —Ephesians 5:15, 16 [KJV] Light and life are communicated from Jesus to His members, not merely to fill their heads with gospel truths, as matters of speculation, or to make them fluent talkers about religion, but chiefly to affect their hearts, renew their minds, and cause them to be close, consistent WALKERS with Jesus. Without this, we only seem to be religious, and deceive our hearts, while our religion is vain: for we cannot stand approved in the sight of God, before men, nor to our own consciences. "The wise man's eyes are in his head;" he looks around him and sees the evil of sin, the vanity of this present world—that its gay pleasures, alluring pastimes, bewitching diversions, are the gilded bait of the god of this world, whereby he ensnares unwary fools to kill their precious time, and to blind and destroy their immortal souls!  The wise man lo...