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

“ Thou shalt prepare thee a way, and divide the coasts of thy land which the L ORD thy God giveth thee to inherit, into three parts, that every slayer may flee thither” -D EUTERONOMY 19:3 [KJV] Sweet thought to my soul, that He who is the Refuge is also the way to every poor soul-slayer, who hath murdered his own soul by sin. And who, my soul, could prepare thee this way, but God thy Father, who gave both Jesus for the way, and Jesus for the refuge? And how hath God the Spirit pointed to the way, cast up and prepared it, by taking up the stumbling-blocks out of the way, as God saith of His people? I SAIAH 57:14 Is it not God the Holy Ghost that sets Jesus up, as Moses did the serpent; points to His person, to His blood, to His righteousness, as the Sanctuary and the City of Refuge to every poor sinner that is the manslayer of his own soul? And if what the Jews have said be true, that magistrates once a year made it their duty to have the roads examined, lest

"The nobleman said unto Him, Sir, come down ere my child die " (see John 4:46-53). This nobleman had made an arduous and difficult journey to plead for the healing of his sick boy.  Jesus, however, looked into this man’s heart and said, “ Except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe." That’s a sharp rebuke.  I like this nobleman. He didn’t become angry when corrected; he didn’t get offended. He didn’t get into a huff. Instead, he continued to press Jesus, “ Sir, come down before my child dies." He is to be commended but notice the weakness of his faith. He’s got faith, but it has room for growth!  Notice how He asks that the Lord should " come down " to Capernaum. He believed that Christ could heal if He was close by, but not if he was far away; Jesus he thought could work a miracle at short range, but not at a distance. Before we get too critical of this man, we must ask if we are not just like him.  Do we not sometimes think, “ If

"A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident." - P ROVERBS 14:16 [KJV]   I believe no living soul can be satisfied with a notional religion: though a miserable backslider, and driven into the fields to feed swine, he cannot feed on their husks, but sighs after the bread of his Father's house. The eyes being enlightened to see the nature of sin, the justice and holiness of God, and the miserable filthiness of self, the quickened soul can find no rest in anything short of a precious discovery of the Lamb of God; and the more that the soul is exercised with trials, difficulties, temptations, doubts, and besetments of various kinds, the more does it feel its need of that blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.   What is a Christian worth without inward trials and exercises? How dead and lifeless are our prayers; how cold and formal when the soul is not kept alive by inward exercises! Where