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

"But H e knoweth the way that I take: when H e hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold ." -Job 23:10 [KJV]   What a purifying effect experience of temptation produces; what a separation it makes of the dross from the ore! If a man has a grain of faith in his soul, temptation will discover it; if he has a particle of living hope, temptation will bring it to light; if he has a grain of love, temptation will extract it from the ore; if he has any patience, any humility, any fear of God, any desire to be right, any dread to be wrong, any honesty, any sincerity, any integrity, in a word, if he has any vital power in his soul, anything of the grace of God in his heart, temptation will make it manifest, as the hot flame of the furnace, acting upon the crucible, manifests the gold by breaking up its alliance with the dross. You scarcely know whether you are a believer or an unbeliever until you pass through temptation. You do not know what the nature of faith is as

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee." -Isa iah 26:3 [KJV] What is signified by a mind "stayed on" the Lord? At least three things. First, to make the Lord the Portion of my soul. All around us are those vainly seeking contentment in things: such as money, and what it can buy, social prestige, fame, pleasures, etc.—all of which are broken cisterns which hold no water. Only the One who made us can satisfy the heart; only as our affection is set upon "things above" do we drink of the Fountain of living waters. Just in proportion as "Delight thyself also in the LORD" (Psa lm 37:4) will "perfect peace" be mine now.    Second, to receive from God's hand whatsoever enters my life. I need to cultivate the habit of looking beyond all secondary causes, all intermediary agents and human instruments, recognizing that "of Him, and through Him, and to Hi

To be occupied with thoughts about God as He is revealed in the Scriptures will increase our faith. Much that passes for faith today is either sentiment or presumption. Faith must be based upon a true revelation of God, and we have this revelation in the Bible. The way to have a strong faith is to have a great and mighty God. Nobody’s faith can be stronger than he believes his God to be. I cannot have strong faith in a God who, I think, is weaker than men. If my God is weak, my faith, of necessity, will be correspondingly weak. I cannot have much faith in God if I believe He is being defeated on most battlefields. I cannot have much faith in God if I believe He is trying and failing, if I believe He is doing the best He can to accomplish as much good as He can and to save as many as He can. But if, like Job, I believe that “ What His soul desireth, even that He doeth” (Job 23:13) , then with Paul I can say that “ He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or

Our Lord declared, "I am the way; no man cometh to the Father but by Me" ! The scriptures plainly set forth the fact that because of our sin, we are separated from God and, of ourselves, there is NO WAY BACK TO GOD! The Lord taught this to Adam early; for when He "drove out the man, He placed a flaming sword WHICH TURNED EVERY WAY, to keep the way of the tree of life" (Gen esis 3:24) . There is no way back to life. But Christ, our Lord, has come to bring us to God. How shall He (as the God-man) deal with that sword of wrath and justice? Shall He command it to disappear? Shall He find a way around it? No! He will be the "'just God and Saviour" and take that sword into His own heart and pour out His soul unto death to bring many to God. The way to God is opened, for CHRIST IS THE WAY! God taught Israel the impossibility of any man's coming to Him apart from Christ when He revealed His glory upon the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies and f