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

The words of Elijah express the hearts of all God’s people in every apostate age. " And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away " [I KINGS 19:14 ] . There is no doubt that God is jealous of His Bride, the Church which the Lord Jesus purchased with His own blood. He says so time after time. But the true people of God are jealous for God and His glorious name in the world. Elijah was rebuked to some degree for his lapse of faith, for his inability to see that there were other believers besides himself, and for his giving up and requesting to die. But he was not rebuked for his "jealousy" for the living God. Where there is love for God, there is holy jealousy for His glory and honor. The subjects of the beloved King cannot bear to hear His name...

"I will put M y fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from M e." -J EREMIAH 32:40 [KJV]   As the fear of God springs up in a believing soul, and is maintained and kept alive by the influences which come out of Christ as a covenant Head, it produces, as its effects, an abiding in Him. We cannot depart from Him through the fear of God. It is therefore called "a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death." If a fountain of life, it must be fed out of Him who is the life; and as it departs from the snares of death, it cleaves more fully and closely to Him as these snares are broken to pieces and left behind.   If we examine the movements of godly fear in our hearts, we shall see that all its tendencies are toward life and the Source of life; toward hatred of sin and love of holiness; toward a desire after the enjoyment of heavenly realities, and a deadness to the things of time and sense; toward a knowledge of Christ in the mani...