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

" To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. " -E PHESIANS 1:6 [KJV]   Think for a moment of the glory and majesty of Almighty God. If a believer ponders in his heart the wonder of God’s grace, he soon realizes his own unworthiness and utter vileness. How could it ever be that He, before whom the moon and stars are not pure in His sight, accepts such sinners? Yet the infallible Word of God declares that He indeed has accepted some men in the Beloved. Who are they? How are they made accepted? According to Ephesians 1:3-14, they are those who have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ. They are those who have been chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world. They are those who have been predestinated to the adoption of children by Christ. They are those who have been accepted in Christ. They are those who have been redeemed by Christ, forgiven their sins by Christ, illuminated in Christ, gathered in...

"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life ." -JOHN 6:63 [KJV]   It is through the word that the soul in the first instance is cleansed. It is by the word that the soul is begotten again unto eternal life. It is, too, by the word applied to the heart that the blessed Spirit from time to time keeps alive communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. Is it not so in vital experience? Some passage of Scripture drops into the soul, some promise comes warm into the heart, and as it comes it makes way for itself. It enters the heart, breaks down the feelings, melts the soul, and draws forth living faith to flow unto and centre alone in the "altogether lovely."   There are many times and seasons when the word of God is to us a dead letter; we see and feel no sweetness in it. But there are other times, through mercy, when the word of God is made sweet and precious to us;...