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

"How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!"   -Song of Solomon 7:6 [KJV] My soul! thou hast been refreshed, many an evening, through grace, in beholding thy Lord, both in His person, and in His comprehensive fulness for His redeemed; nor wilt thou be without refreshment this evening, if thy Lord, in His sweet influences, be with thee, to make what is said in this lovely scripture, life and spirit in thine heart. They are the words of Jesus; and they express the love and complacency of delight which Jesus takes in His church. Surely nothing can be more blessed, than to see the high value the Son of God puts upon the church, which the Father gave Him, endeared as it is yet more in being the purchase of His blood! But what astonishment is it to the soul of a poor sinner, to be told, and by the lip of truth, that sinners are fair in Jesus's eyes! "Thou art fair, O love, yea, pleasant."   Now remember, my soul, and in that remembrance let Jesus have ...

"O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted." - Isaiah 54:11 [KJV] The Lord here compares His suffering Church to a ship at sea, under bare poles, labouring in a heavy storm, driven out of her course by contrary winds, as was Paul's case in the Adriatic, and doubtful whether she will ever reach the harbour; as the hymn says, "Half a wreck by tempests driv'n."   What a picture of a tempest-tossed soul! Sun and stars    beclouded, compass lost, chart useless, pilot absent, and breakers ahead! Many, very many of the Lord's dear family are thus "tossed with tempest;" some with a tempest of doubts and fears; others with a tempest of lust and corruptions; some with a tempest of rebellion and fretfulness; others with a storm of guilt and despondency, or with gloomy forebodings and dismal apprehensions. Thus they are driven from their course, their sun and stars all obscured; no clear evidences, no bright manifestations; darkness above...