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

"O taste and see that the LORD is good!" -Psalm 34:8 [KJV]   Those views of Jesus are blessed, which not only take in His loveliness, but His usefulness; which tend both to commend Him to our regard, as fair and beautiful, and at the same time full and bountiful; that, like some rich and wide-spreading tree, yea, like the tree of life in the paradise of God, is at once both for shelter and fruit.   My soul, look at thy Jesus thus, and thou wilt then enter into the sense of this delightful verse of scripture: "O taste and see that the LORD is good!" In this experience of Christ consists the proper knowledge and apprehension of Him. An hearsay account of Jesus is but a poor account. By hearing sermons, reading the scriptures, attending ordinances, and the like, men may acquire some knowledge of Him; but until the Holy Ghost form Him in the heart, "The hope of glory," we never taste and see that the Lord is good. It was this which distinguished the church...

"Unto Thee lift I up mine eyes, O Thou that dwellest in the heavens." - Psalm 123:1 [KJV] O how simple, suitable, complete, and blessed a remedy is this for all our distresses, when the Lord is pleased to open our eyes, and fix them on Himself. He must do it all. If the eyes are to be upon Him, He must first give us eyes; if lifted upon Him, He must raise them upwards; if kept upon Him, He must hold them waking. It is good to be in this spot.  There are times and seasons, perhaps, when we seem to have no religion whatever; when we look, and look, and look, and cannot find a grain. Where is our spirituality? where our heavenly affections? where our prayerfulness of spirit? where our tenderness of conscience? Where our godly fear? where our meditations upon God's word? We look, and look, and look— they seem gone. Now, perhaps, in the midst of this uncertainty we are brought into some painful exercise, some affliction, some temptation, some apprehension, something that lies...