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

"The hidden manna." -Revelation 2:17 [KJV]   We have an authority from Jesus Himself, to say, that He, and He alone, is the manna of the gospel; for in His discourse with the Jews, He called Himself, in allusion to the manna of the wilderness, "the living bread," and "the bread of God which came from heaven," of which, He said, "whosoever should eat, should live for ever." But when Jesus imparts this blessed food to His people, it is hidden. And, indeed, many of the properties of it are made more blessed, from the very nature of its secrecy.   My soul, ponder over the subject a few moments, this evening, and behold in it, how truly gracious it is in the Lord, to hand to His people in secret, those enjoyments of Himself, of which the world is altogether unconscious. Mark the outlines of it, and trace it in its effects in thine own experience. Though Jesus was preached to the world, both by the law and the prophets; and when appearin...

"He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure." -II Samuel 23:5 [KJV]   O the blessedness of having a manifest interest in the blood of the covenant, and thus to have a testimony that God has made a covenant with His dear Son upon our behalf; that our names are written in the book of life; and that Christ is our Mediator at the right hand of the Father! What are all earthly blessings compared with this? What are health and strength and riches and all the goods of this life; what is everything that the carnal heart can desire or the covetous mind grasp; what is all compared with an interest in the everlasting covenant, and in the love and blood and righteousness of the Lord the Lamb? What is earth, with all its attractions, compared with an interest in the precious, precious blood of a dying Jesus?  You will find it so when you come to lie upon a bed of languishing and pain; when the cold drops of sweat stand upon your forehead, an...

"Hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us."   -I John 3:24 [KJV] “That the soul be without knowledge, is not good”  (Proverbs 19:22.) What knowledge is to be compared with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ? All other will perish. But, “This is life eternal”   (John 17:3.)  “For He is the true God and eternal life” (I John 5:20.) Does He abide in us? Could we possess the whole world without this, we should only grasp a phantom. We might as well seek to fill our belly, and satisfy our hunger with the east wind, as be happy without Christ abiding in us. (1st.) What is implied in this? We know what it is to receive and entertain a friend in our dwelling. According to our love to him, and delight in him, so we treat him. Love will set the best things before him, give him the pre-eminence in all things, and accommodate him with the best room in our house. Yea, love is jealous, lest all things should not please, a...

" And he said unto them, Say now unto her, Behold; thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people." -II Kings 4:13 [KJV] What an interesting account, though short, is here given of the Shunamite. The sacred historian calls her "a great woman,"  and certainly, she here manifests that she had a great mind. What she had done for the prophet, she sought no recompence for. Neither the favours of the king, nor the captain of his host, were of any value to her and her husband. Dwelling with content in what she had, and "among her own people,"  was in her view enough of earthly enjoyment.   But is there not a spiritual improvement to be made of the passage? Do not the people of our God "dwell alone?"  And have they not been from everlasting so appointed, in the purposes of God their Father...

"I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against Him." -Micah 7:9 [KJV]  It is a view of our sins against God that enables us to bear the indignation of the Lord against us and them. As long as we are left to a spirit of pride and self-righteousness, we murmur at the Lord's dealings when His hand lies heavy upon us. But let us only truly feel what we rightly deserve: that will silence at once all murmuring. You may murmur and rebel sometimes at your hard lot in providence; but if you feel what you deserve, it will make you water with tears of repentance the hardest cross. So in grace, if you feel the weight of your sins, and mourn and sigh because you have sinned against God, you can lift up your hands sometimes with holy wonder at God's long suffering mercy that He has borne with you so long; that He has not smitten you to the earth, or sent your guilty soul to hell. You will see, too, that the heaviest strokes were but fatherly c...

"O LORD, Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, and every one mocketh me." - Jeremiah 20:7 [KJV]   A poor deluded perfectionist lately made a great noise in London: he blasphemously pretended to be as holy as God Himself, to have revelations from Him, and peremptorily fixed upon a day when the world was to be destroyed. He deceived many, and alarmed more. But time proved how artfully he had been deceived himself; and now, what is most awful, he has cast off all sense of religion, ridicules it, charges all his delusion upon God, and quotes these very words of Jeremiah, to prove that God had deceived him. One would not mention this by way of reflection, or triumph over this unhappy man; but, as a caution against this mad, wildfire notion of sinless perfection, which so spreads itself among a certain description of professors. But did God really deceive Jeremiah?    Can we suppose that ...