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

"While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them." -Matthew 17:5 [KJV] My soul! see here, how it fared with the disciples in the mount, in the moment of those blessed manifestations which Jesus was making to them; and when, to heighten their felicity, several of the inhabitants of glory came, and spake to Jesus in the view of His disciples; yet so sudden was the change, that, even while Jesus spake, a cloud intervened and obscured all. Somewhat of the same change thou hast thyself known. How often hast thou been made like the chariots of Amminadib, by the overpowering grace that Jesus hath shewn thee! And how often have those blessed moments been followed by a dark and long night! And what ought to be thy improvement of these dispensations? Look still to Jesus, under all. Whatever changes are induced, never forget that His person is the same, and His love the same.   Mark this down. Next look up to Jesus, and tell Him, that as His visits are so sweet, so gracio...

"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."   -I John 5:11 [KJV] How often we are looking and looking in vain for life in ourselves. True it is that if God has quickened our souls we are partakers of life divine, of life spiritual, of life eternal, of the life  that is in Christ and comes from Christ ; and yet how often we vainly seek to find it warm and glowing in our breasts. If once given it never dies; but it is often hidden beneath the ashes, and thus though it slowly burns and dimly glows, yet the ashes hide it from view, and we only know it is there by some remains of warmth. "Your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3) ; and therefore not only hidden as treasured and stored up safely in God, but hidden from the world, and even hidden from the eyes of its possessor.  Christ is our life. There is no other. To look, then, for life in ourselves independent of and distinct from the fountain of life is...