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

"That thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD." -Deuteronomy 28:58 [KJV]   My soul! Thy morning meditation, in the opening of a new month, was directed to that soul-reviving subject, the contemplation of the name of Jesus. Oh! what rich stores of unknown, unexplored treasures of mercies are folded in that one name of thy Lord! It will serve to heighten thy study yet more, and tend to endear Jesus as increasingly precious, by pondering over what the man of God taught Israel in the solemn words here proposed to thine evening meditation.   Every thing in Jehovah is solemn. His sweetest mercies come to us with great sacredness. It is impossible to receive them but with the lowliest reverence, even when the soul is made blessed in divine favours. We rejoice indeed, but we rejoice with trembling. And the greater the mercies are, the more will the conscious sense of our undeservings humble the soul to the dust before God. The Israelites were t...

"I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you ." -Luke 11:9 [KJV]   Wherever there is true prayer, there is importunity. Wherever the Lord brings trials upon the soul, He pours out upon it the spirit of grace and supplications. He thus encourages and enables the soul to be importunate with Him. The blessings and benefits of perseverance and importunity in prayer the Lord has brought prominently before us in two parables—one, of the man in bed with his children, who would not get up and relieve his friend, but yet was overcome by his importunity; and the other, of the woman, who had a cause at issue, and went before the judge, who feared not God, neither regarded man; yet by her continual going to him, overcame him at last by her importunity (Luke 11:5-8; 18:1-7) .    Thus importunity and perseverance form the very feature of true prayer. If the child of God has a burden—if he is labouring und...

‘ For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. ’ -Romans 5.10 [KJV] Notice the verse did not say that God made reconciliation possible by the death of His Son but that they were reconciled . And since this was done while they were yet enemies, it shows that their reconciliation to God had nothing to do with their will or faith or any actions on their part. -Lucien LeSage, Excerpt from ‘Reconciliation’

"Strong meat belongeth to them who are of full age, even those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."   -Hebrews 5:14 [KJV]    It is almost impossible for any who are called to minister in holy things, or who write about the truths of God, to please every one. Babes, who are unskillful in the word of righteousness, can only like milk. They cry out against strong meat, it offends their stomach. But such should consider,    (1st.) That they are not always to continue babes, to feed upon infant nutriment. The tender mother tries her infant, again and again, with meat, though its stomach heaves against it, and it has not the art to swallow it. So they must learn to eat strong meat, that they may grow thereby.    (2d.) God’s children are not all of equal age, therefore strong meat is as necessary for adult men, as milk is for babes; those of full age, or perfect. Not so, compared with the perfect law...

"Only fear the LORD, and serve Him in truth, with all your heart; for consider how great things He hath done for you." -I Samuel 12:24 [KJV] How truly affectionate was this pastoral advice of the prophet to Israel, in the close of recapitulating Israel's history, and God's love over them! My soul! take this portion from Israel's history, and apply it to thine own; for the argument, and the reason upon which the argument is founded, are one and the same; and thou wilt find the same causes, both from interest in Christ and from received mercies from Christ, to form the same conclusion. But at what part of thine history wilt thou begin, or where wilt thou end, in considering what great things thy God, thy Jesus, hath done for thee? Wilt thou open with the consideration of God's mercies towards thee in nature, or providence, or grace? What arithmetic will be competent to score the vast account, even in a thousandth degree, of either of those departme...

"Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me."   - Psalm 25:5 [KJV] What wonderful things does God sometimes shew us in His word! How our eyes sometimes seem to be anointed with eye-salve "to behold wondrous things out of God's law!"   (Psalm 119:18.) Sometimes in reading a chapter we see such beauty, such fulness, such sweetness, such glory in it, that it seems, as it were, to fill our very hearts. And what our souls want (I am sure my soul wants it, and it is my frequent cry to the Lord in secret that I may feel it) is to have this blessed truth taken out of the word of God, and applied to and sealed upon our hearts by the Spirit of God. I want no new revelation. Day by day I seem more satisfied of this, and more established in it—that all saving truth is in the word of God. I seek no visions, I desire no dreams, I want no airy speculations; but when my heart is brought to lie at the footstool of mercy, this seems to be the panting and breathing of my sou...