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

“ The throne of grace. ” -H EBREWS 4:16 [KJV]   Do not forget, dear reader, it is the throne of grace, to which you come in prayer. It is a throne, because God is a Sovereign. He will ever have the suppliant recognize this perfection of His nature. He hears and answers as a Sovereign. He hears whom He will, and answers what and when He will. There must be no dictation to God, no refusing to bow to His sovereignty, no rebelling against His will. If the answer is delayed, or God should seem to withhold it altogether, remember that "He gives no account of any of His matters," and that He has a right to answer or not to answer, as seems good in His sight. Glorious perfection of God, beaming from the mercy seat! But it is also a throne of grace. And why? Because a God of grace sits upon it, and the scepter of grace is held out from it, and all the favors bestowed there are the blessings of grace. God has many thrones. There is the throne of creation, the t

“ Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins .” -P SALM 25:18 [KJV] It is well for us when prayers about our sorrows are linked with pleas concerning our sins—when, being under God's hand, we are not wholly taken up with our pain—but remember our offences against God. It is well, also, to take both sorrow and sin to the same place. It was to God that David carried his sorrow—it was to God that David confessed his sins. We must take our sorrows to God. Even your little sorrows you may roll upon God—for He counts the hairs of your head. You may also may commit your great sorrows to Him—for He holds the ocean in the hollow of His hand. Go to Him, whatever your present trouble may be—and you shall find Him both able and willing to support you. But we must also take our sins to God. We must carry them to the cross, that the blood may fall upon them to purge away their guilt, and to destroy their defiling power. The special lesson of the text is this—

"We are saved by hope." -R OMANS 8:24 [KJV] What is the meaning of being saved by hope? It does not mean saved actually, but instrumentally; not saved as regards our eternal security, but as regards our experience of salvation. By hope we are instrumentally saved from despair, saved from turning our backs upon Christ and the gospel, saved from looking to any other Saviour, or any other salvation; and especially saved from making this world and this life our happiness and home, as "waiting patiently for what we see not," even "the redemption of our body."   Now it is by hope that we hang upon and cleave to the Lord Jesus, and thus by this grace we abide in Him. It is therefore spoken of as an "anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that which is within the veil." What holds the ship firm in the storm, and prevents it falling upon the rocks? The anchor. The ship abides firm as long as the anchor