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

“ The L ORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters .” -P SALM 23:1-2 [KJV]   He leads me. I certainly need someone to lead me. I am so poor, so blind, so weak, so foolish that, if left to myself, I would fatally err. Lord, never leave me nor forsake me, lest I be undone. My Shepherd leads me gently and wisely. He makes no mistakes. He knows the way I ought to go. He knows how much sweet and how much bitter, are best for me. He understands me fully. Oh, how He mingles mercy with judgment! True, He leads me often in a mysterious way. I see not the end from the beginning. I cannot see afar off. His footsteps are in the sea; clouds and thick darkness surround Him. He gives account of none of His matters. His judgments are a great deep. But He never does wrong. He leads me in the paths of righteousness. He leads me always--in prosperity and in adversity; in joy and in sorrow. If He left me...

"And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not." - JEREMIAH 45:5 [KJV] Whatever schemes and projects the Lord's people may devise that they may prosper and get on in the world, H e rarely suffers their plans to thrive. He knows well to what consequences it would lead;—that this ivy creeping round the stem would, as it were, suffocate and strangle the tree. The more that worldly goods increase, the more the heart is fixed upon them; and the more the affections are set upon idols, the more is the heart  drawn away from the Lord. He will not suffer H is people to have their portion here below. He, therefore, says to them in his providence, as well as in H is word, "Seek them not." But you will perhaps say, "What are we then to seek?" I will tell you in one word,—Realities. What are these great things that you are seeking after? say in religion. Could you see them in their right light, you would see that they are b...