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

"The man which had the withered hand."   -Mark 3:3  [KJV] Surely the man in the jewish synagogue, which had a withered hand, will, in the history of his disease and cure, furnish me, this evening, with a very improving meditation. Do Thou, blessed Jesus, the great Healer both of soul and body, render it profitable, by Thy gracious instruction to my heart. This poor man had a withered hand, not only sinew-shrunk, but wasting away. He attended divine worship, for Jesus found him in the synagogue. But we do not read that he asked the mercy from Christ. It was Jesus that first looked upon him; and not he on the Lord Jesus. "Stretch forth thine hand," said the Son of God. Instantly the poor man found the powers of nature restored, the shrunk sinew became lengthened, and the hand which had wasted away, was restored.     Pause, my soul! look at the subject as it concerns thyself. How long didst thou attend the means of grace under a withered soul? And to this hour, had no...

"God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord."   -I Corinthians 1:9 [KJV] When God calls His people by His grace, it is to make them partakers of the highest bliss and the greatest glory that He could confer upon the sons of men. And this not only in eternity, but in time; not only beyond, but this side of the grave. He appeals, therefore, to them by His prophet. "Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness?" (Jeremiah 2:31) When the Lord calls His people out of earthly pleasures, is it for no other purpose than to lead them into paths of affliction and sorrow? Does He make them leave the fleshpots of Egypt to starve them in a waste howling wilderness? This was the complaint of the ancient murmurers, that Moses had brought them up out of Egypt to kill them with thirst (Exodus 17:3) . Does He take them from earthly delights to abandon them to misery and despair? O no!  He calls them even in this time st...