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

"..a door-keeper in the house of my God." -Psalm 84:10 [KJV]   My soul, hast thou ever considered the blessedness of such an appointment, of such an office, when truly followed up? If Jesus indeed appoint, and both teach the nature of it, and give grace to the faithful discharge of it, then is it most honourable, and truly blessed. A door-keeper is supposed to know the several apartments of the house, and to be well acquainted with his Lord and Master, in whose service he ministers. He is supposed also to know who goeth out, and who cometh in; whether his Lord be at home, and how his fellow-servants are employed in their ministry. And if he be a faithful door-keeper, he will willingly open to none but such as his Lord approves, but most gladly shew all that come in his Lord's name, and are welcome to his Lord, the way to his Lord's presence and his Lord's table.   What sayest thou, my soul, to such an office? Surely, to be "an hewer of wood, and a drawer of ...

"Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end." -Proverbs 19:20 [KJV] What lessons we need day by day to teach us anything aright, and how it is for the most part "line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little." O what slow learners, what dull, forgetful scholars, what ignoramuses, what stupid blockheads, what stubborn pupils! Surely no scholar at a school, old or young, could learn so little of natural things as we seem to have learnt of spiritual things after so many years' instruction, so many chapters read, so many sermons heard, so many prayers put up, so much talking about religion. How small, how weak is the amount of grace compared with all we have read and heard and talked about.    But it is a mercy that the Lord saves whom He will save, and that we are saved by free grace, and free grace alone, through the blood and righteousness of the Son of God. "He of God is made unto us wisdom and ri...

"He saw His glory, and spoke of Him."   -John 12:41 [KJV] Ministers who do not preach Christ, sinners who do not speak of Christ, are objects of pity, not of our wrath. Their eyes are blind to His matchless glory. Their hearts do not understand His unparalleled love.    But consider, (1st.) When once Christ’s glory is displayed, and His love believed in the heart, the tongue will speak of Him. So Isaiah found it. So did that poor woman of Samaria, “she ran into the city,” she catched hold of one and another. She eagerly cried, “Come, see a man who told me all things that ever I did, is not this the Christ?” Surely it is, what think ye? (see John 4:29.) She had sweet experience. Here was no self-exalting. No cry, see me, admire me. What fine experience I have got! One is sometimes grieved to read, or hear people tell of their experiences, when they tend only to make the poor sinner appear, as somewhat glorious in his own eyes, and to be admired by his fellow sinners. Th...

"Which things the angels desire to look into." -I Peter 1:12 [KJV]   My soul, what an argument ariseth out of this view, of the angels of light being inquisitive about man's redemption, to stir thee up to the same most blessed contemplation! If in the apprehension of those intelligent and exalted beings of light, the subject is so glorious, what ought it to be to thee? If, as the words represent, they fix their closest attention, and are lost in admiration, wonder, love, and praise; how is it that thou, who art so deeply interested in the blissful theme, shouldest forget it, as thou dost for hours together, and, even when thou thinkest of it, contemplate it so very coolly? Oh for grace more and more to study Jesus and His love, Jesus and His grace, Jesus and His great salvation!     But among the wonders of redemption, is there not one point (and as it concerns thee, my soul, a marvellous one indeed it is) which may well be supposed to call forth the greater astonishmen...

"Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." - Psalm 107:10 [KJV]   God's people are here represented not as sitting in death; were they sitting there, they would be dead altogether; but they are sitting in the shadow of death. Observe, death has lost its reality to them; it now can only cast a shadow, often a gloomy shadow, over their souls; but there is no substance. The quickening of the Spirit of God in them has destroyed the substance of death spiritually; and the death and resurrection of Jesus have destroyed the substance of death naturally. Yet, though the gloomy monster, deadness of soul, and that ghastly king of terrors, the death of the body, have been disarmed and destroyed by "Immanuel, God with us ; " yet each of them casts at times a gloomy, darkling shadow over the souls of those that fear God.    Is not your soul, poor child of God, exercised from time to time with this inward death? Deadness in prayer, deadness in reading the word, d...

Preached by Henry T. Mahan (27 minutes). Ref: John 10:14-16     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1khFV1G5jQ