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

" Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings." -Jeremiah 3:22 [KJV] Backsliding is a species of apostacy from the faith. Apostacy is the high road to destruction. Total apostacy will certainly end in eternal damnation: for there can neither be repentance, or hope, for such a soul. The Son of God is the only sacrifice for sin: this, the backslider once professed to believe. But now he tramples on His precious blood, wilfully despises and rejects the Saviour; so that now, he has only “a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour every adversary of Christ” (Hebrews 10:26, 27.)   Most striking is the picture of such, drawn by Mr. Bunyan, in his Pilgrim’s Progress , as a man in an iron cage, who thus confesses: “I was once a fair and flourishing professor, both in mine own eyes, and the eyes of others; I was, as I thought, fair for the celestial city, and had even joy at the thoughts that I should get t...

"Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ." -Philippians 1:23 [KJV] My soul, thou hast not, I hope, dismissed the solemn thoughts opened to thy view by the scripture of yesterday. Surely, since that last morning, thou hast had but too many renewed occasions to feel the truth of it. Sin is not only present with thee at all times, but in thee, and as inseparable from thy unrenewed part, as the shadow from the substance. Thou knowest this, thou feelest it, thou groanest under it; and the consciousness of it is, in itself, enough to make thee go humbly all thy days. All other afflictions are nothing to this affliction: this, like the ocean compared to rivers, surpasseth and swalloweth up all. It is indeed a soul supporting thought, (and, blessed be God, thou feelest the sweetness of it,) that under all, and in all, Jesus is thy hope . And while sin is always present with thee, Jesus, thy Advocate and Propitiation, is present for thee with the Father. But t...

"Yet doth He devise means that His banished be not expelled from Him." -II Samuel 14:14 [KJV] The promise runs, "I will bring again that which was driven away" (Ezekiel 34:16) . Guilt, temptation, Satan, doubts, and fears had driven them away from the shelter of the tabernacle. Yet the Lord has respect unto these also. He says, "I will bring again." But how? By nothing but a sense of mercy. It is not by frowns, but by smiles. "I drew them , " says the L ORD , "with cords of a man" (that is, the tender feelings that are bound up in the human heart), "with bands of love."   You may thunder, you may lighten, you may take the whip and flog a poor backslider; you can never flog him home. He must be drawn by mercy, by the goodness of God, which leads to repentance. How was Peter brought back? By that look which Jesus gave him, as He stood in the hall of the high priest; that look of mingled love and reproach. It was...

" If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another; and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin ." -I John 1:7 [KJV] The walk of many professors seems to speak this language: Why cannot we love the world, indulge ourselves in the ways of it, and yet enjoy fellowship with God? Now we have clear notions of the doctrines of grace—of acceptance with God, and justification before Him, why need we be so very precise in our conduct? This seems as though they were desirous to walk as near as possible to the very borders of hell, and yet hope to get safe to heaven at last. Such walk not in the light of truth—in the comfort of love—in fellowship with God.  (1st.) What is fellowship with God? It is a sweet, heart-felt concord, harmony, and agreement between God and our souls; a mutual communion of spirits; a free communication from the Lord to us, and from us to the Lord:—just as two loving friends have between each o...

"So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." -Romans 7:25 [KJV] Is this thy language, my soul? Hast thou learnt with Paul, with Job, with Isaiah, and all the faithful gone before, to loathe thyself in thine own sight? Dost thou groan, being burdened with a body of sin which drags down the soul? Pause over this view of human nature. In the first place - think, my soul, what humbling thoughts such a state of corruption ought to induce. Though the mind be regenerated, though with the mind the believer serves the law of God, delights in the law of God, loves the law, and would make it the subject of devout meditation all the day; yet such is the body of sin, the flesh with its affections, and appetites, and desires, that it draws away the attention, imperiously, puts in its claims, and rises up in rebellion continually. And are the souls of God's children thus exercised, thus afflicted, in the struggles between the di...

"The eternal God is thy refuge." -Deuteronomy 33:27 [KJV] Who is this eternal God? He is the great and glorious Jehovah, eternal in His Trinity-of-Persons and in the Unity of His Essence (must see Deuteronomy 6:4 & John 10:27-31 .) And what a depth of blessedness there is in this God being an eternal God; and that in and of this eternity, each Person of the Godhead has an equal share. Look at the love of the eternal God. How eternal was that—not a thing of time, not fixed upon us when first brought into being, not issuing out of His bosom first when we were quickened into divine life; but a love from all eternity, as being the love of an eternal God . "I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." -Jeremiah 31:3   And how eternal are the thoughts of God; those thoughts which were of good, not of evil. They were eternal thoughts of peace to the Church; eternal thoughts of mercy to His beloved family; e...