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

"As the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto Me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the LORD; that they might be unto Me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory ." -Jeremiah 13:11 [KJV] See, my soul, the blessedness of witnessing to God, and witnessing for God. His people, the Lord saith, are called, and are, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, as lights in the world. Both Israel and Judah are included in what is here said; and by the figure of a girdle cleaving to the loins of a man, so close, so strongly bound, and extending all around, is shewn the nearness, and firmness, and the security in every way, and by every direction, in which the Lord's people are brought into relation with Him. Such, then, were the Lord's people of old, a people near to Himself; and as they were the Lord's own choice, so were they dear to the Lord; and as He had made the whole of the n...

"For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." -Hebrews 10:36 [KJV]  Why is patience needed? Because if we are the Lord's people, we are sure to have many trials. The Lord sends us afflictions that He may give us the grace of patience to bear them. But O, what a rebellious heart do we carry in our bosom! What perverseness, peevishness, and self-will dwell in us! How soon our temper is stirred up, and our irritable minds roused in a moment by the veriest trifle! How little patience have we under the trials that God sees fit to lay upon us! We thus learn our need of patience, and that it is not a fruit of nature's soil.    The want (-need) of it makes the soul follow after it; and when the Lord does give submission to His will, and enables His children to see how profitable these trials are for their souls, and how, but for this heavy ballast, they would certainly have been carried away into the world, they can s...

"They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."   - I John 2:19 [KJV]   "Thus, it was in the apostle John’s time, a little before the close of the apostolic age. “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us.” This is the account the apostle gives of them. As it was then, so it has been ever since.  All the heresies which have tormented the churches of Christ ever since and down even to our present times have originated from persons who have been in the churches, who have departed from the churches, from such as have made schisms and divisions in the churches. And when any old error is newly revived, it in general springs from such persons as are disaf...

"We also joy in God, through our LORD JESUS CHRIST, by Whom we have now received the atonement."   -Romans 5:11 [KJV]   Having obtained the King’s free pardon, for a poor man cast for transportation, I carried it to the goal (- prison ) to him. Seeing the poor fettered creature fall down upon his knees to return thanks, caused a flood of tears of heart-felt joy to burst from mine eyes. I thought, this is just what Thou, O my precious Saviour, hast done for me. Thou hast obtained a free and full pardon for all my sins, set my soul at liberty, and filled it with peace and joy, by the one atonement of Thy precious blood.    The poor convict had not read his pardon. He had not seen the King’s name to it. I only made the report to him, that I had obtained it. He believed me. Hence he was happy, joyful, and thankful. Thus he received his pardon. Now here is a simple and plain idea of faith: Of what? Receiving the atonement of Christ, and of joy in God. You are a poor sinn...

"Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood." -Hebrews 13:12 [KJV] My soul, I would have thee this evening, take a view of thy Jesus in His own blood, under the special and particular act in which this scripture holds Him forth; sanctifying the people by the application of it, as the great object and design for which He suffered. There is somewhat uncommonly interesting in this view, though not so commonly considered. That this is the only laver for sin, is unquestionable; and that it is infinitely meritorious, and of eternal efficacy, is also equally true.   But when we consider farther, the infinite purity of it, flowing, as it did, from an holy heart, in a nature that was altogether holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; there is somewhat which, though too deeply founded in mystery to be perfectly apprehended by us, may yet serve to intimate the immense preciousness of it, and its immense importa...

"Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart; for I am called by Thy name, O LORD God of hosts." -Jeremiah 15:16 [KJV]   There is a sweetness in the promises which captivates the heart; a beauty in Christ which wins the soul; a saving unction and power in the word of God, when applied, which draws forth toward it every secret and sacred affection. Can you not sometimes look up and say, "Blessed Jesus, I do love Thee?" And when the word of God is opened up, applied, and made sweet and precious, have you not felt sometimes as if you could kiss the sacred page, as conveying such sweetness into your soul?    This is embracing a promise in love—throwing our arms round it, drawing it near to our breast, kissing it again and again with kisses of love and affection, and taking that sweet delight in it with which the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, as now all his own—at times almost lost, but now wooed and won,...