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

"Then is the offence of the cross ceased."   - Galatians 5:11 [KJV] The cross of Jesus was, of old, the great offence both to Jews and Greeks; and, in the present day, we may add, it is so to every one, who, by a perversion of language, calls himself Christian, but yet denies the Godhead of Him whom he presumes to call Maker. And if the believer would but relinquish this distinguishing feature in his Lord's person and atonement for his sins by the blood of His cross, then indeed would the offence of the cross cease.   But, my soul, ask thyself, whether the offence of the cross be ceased in thy view? Yea, rather, whether, like Paul, not only the reproach of the cross is taken away for ever; but thou art crying out with an holy indignation against all rejoicings but in Jesus and His cross? Say, is it not thy daily, hourly song: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world?...

"For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty." - Isaiah 44:3 [KJV] Thirst, as a feeling of the soul, in a spiritual sense, is certainly indicative of divine life. It is as impossible, spiritually viewed, for a man dead in sin to thirst after a living God, as for a corpse in the graveyard to thirst after a draught of cold water from the well. I know for myself that such a feeling as thirsting after God had no place in my bosom until the Lord was pleased to quicken my soul into spiritual life. I had heard of God by the hearing of the ear. I had seen Him in creation, in the starry sky, in the roaring sea, in the teeming earth; I had read of Him in the Bible; I had learnt His existence by education and tradition; and I had some apprehensions of His holiness in my natural conscience; but as to any spiritual thirsting after Him, any earnest desire to fear Him, know Him, believe in Him, or love Him,— no such experience or feeling, I can say for myself, ever dwelt in my bosom. I ...