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

"Wherefore in all things it behooved H im to be made like unto H is brethren, that H e might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." -H EBREWS 2:17 [KJV] God gave the persons of the elect into the hands of H is dear Son, as Jacob committed Benjamin into the hands of Judah; and as Judah accepted Benjamin, so Christ accepted the Church and undertook to bring it unto God, or H e H imself would bear the blame for ever. But how this faithfulness was tried! Men tried it; devils tried it; God tried it; but it came gloriously through all. Yet what loads were laid upon it! How the very knees of Jesus, so to speak, staggered beneath it!  How, as Hart says, He had "Strength enough, and none to spare!" How H e had to sustain the curse of the law and the load of imputed sin! How H e had to drink up a very hell of inward torment! How H e had to be agonised in body and more than a

My God! How cheerful is the sound! How pleasant to repeat! Well may that heart with pleasure bound, Where God hath fix'd His seat. What want shall not our God supply From His abundant stores? What streams of mercy from on high An arm almighty pours! From Christ the ever-living spring, These ample blessings flow: Prepare, my lips, His name to sing, Whose heart has loved us so. Now to our Father and our God Be endless glory giv'n, Through all the realms of man's abode, And through the highest heaven. -Tune "O for a Thousand Tongues" ==================================== "For He saith to Moses, I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I WILL HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I WILL HAVE COMPASSION. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy ." -R OMANS 9:15-16 [ KJ V] The doctrine of God's sovereign power and will to save HIS people according to His purp

Once in Christ, ever in Him. Having taken up His habitation in the heart, He never removes. None can untie this happy knot. Who will dissolve this union? Will He Himself? No, He will not; we have His word for it, "I will not turn away from them" (J EREMIAH 32:40) . But perhaps the sinner will do this mischief to himself? No, he shall not; "they shall not depart from Me," says their God. Can devils do it? No, unless they be stronger than Christ and His Father too; "Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand," says our Lord (J OHN 10:28) . "And none is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand" (v s. 29) . But what say you of death, which parts husband and wife; yea, separates the soul from the body? Will death do it? No: what saith the apostle? "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other cr