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

"The same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you ."   -John 20:19 [KJV] There is a peculiar blessedness in this first visit of the Lord Jesus to the whole college of disciples (at least as many as were present of them) after He arose from the dead: and the manner of relating it is peculiarly striking also. It was the same day at evening; and it was the first day also; as if the Lord Jesus would again and again honour the day, as well in the evening as the morning of His resurrection, and make that day for ever memorable to His church, and among His people.   My soul! thou hast celebrated thy Lord's triumphs over death, in the morning, both at home and abroad, in His church, at His ordinances, at His table, and among His disciples; but learn hence also, that at evening time Jesus will make it light by the swee...

"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." - II  Timothy 2:3 [KJV] We often get into states and frames of mind, where we need something else besides consolation. A child would not grow, if it were always fed upon sweetmeats. It must have exercise, and be exposed to the weather, and have the cold winds blow upon its face, and be hardened, so as to enable it to bear the chill winter and the nipping frosts.  So the child of God is not always petted, and fed upon love-tokens. He is not always carried in the warm bosom, or sucking the breasts of consolation, but he has to learn lessons to fit him to be a soldier. The soldier, we know, has to endure hardships. He has to lie all night upon the wet grass; to be pinched with hunger, parched with thirst, and nipped with cold; to make harassing marches; to hear the roar of the cannon and the whistling of the bullets, "the thunder of the captains and the shouting;" to see the flash of the sabre uplift...