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

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." - Romans 8:28  [KJV]   "According to His purpose" —for He had purposed before the world was who His called ones would be, and also purposed that all things would work for their good. The doings of His grace in time, are ever the result of the purposes of His grace before the foundation of the world (Romans 8:30).  "Those who are CALLED according to His purpose." These are called to know themselves as guilty before God and deserving of eternal condemnation. These are called to know the all-sufficiency of Christ to save. These are called to trust in His atoning death as their only hope of salvation. These are called out of the world. They no longer revel in the world's gaieties, or are swayed by its corrupt principles. These are called to be followers of the despised Lord Jesus, treading in His footsteps. This is the calling w

"And he that had been possessed with the devil, prayed Him that he might be with Him. Howbeit, Jesus suffered him not; but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee ." - Mark 5:18, 19 [KJV] Mark this, my soul, and especially when at any time thy Jesus is so graciously revealing Himself to thee, in a way of love, that thou art longing to be absent from the body, that thou mayest be "present with the Lord:" think then, of what Jesus said to this poor man. The thought of being made instrumental in the hand of the Lord in calling sinners to Jesus, made holy Paul willing to wait in a sinful world, and put off his own happiness. Precious frame of mind! Paul knew also, that if the Lord housed His children from the lion's den, and from the mountains of leopards, as soon as He had brought them to the knowledge of Himself, then, in this case, Jesus would have no church in the wilderness. The holy