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

"And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said unto him, Zaccheus, make haste, and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house ." Luke 19:5  Precious Jesus! what an instance is here of the freeness, fulness, and sovereignty of Thy grace! And was there "a needs be," O Lord, that Thou shouldest go to the place where this publican was? "A needs be" to look up and see him? "A needs be" to call him? and "A needs be" to abide at his house? Is this Thy manner, O Lord, in calling sinners? So then it was not Zaccheus seeking Jesus, but Jesus seeking Zaccheus. His curiosity, as he thought, led him thither; but it was the prevenient grace of Jesus in the poor man's heart, that first awakened that curiosity in him. And did Jesus seek Zaccheus, call Zaccheus, incline Zaccheus to receive Him, and bring salvation to his heart and house that blessed day? Oh! then for grace to see, and enjoy Jesus in all. Yea, I see, ...

"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations."   -II Peter 2:9 [KJV] Few will sincerely and spiritually go to the Lord, and cry from their hearts to be delivered from the power of a temptation, until it presses so weightily upon their conscience, and lies so heavy a burden upon their soul, that none but God can remove it. But when we really feel the burden of a temptation; when, though our flesh may love it, our spirit hates it; when, though there may be in our carnal mind a cleaving to it, our conscience bleeds under it, and we are brought spiritually to loathe it and to loathe ourselves for it; when we are enabled to go to the Lord in real sincerity of soul and honesty of heart, beseeching him to deliver us from it, I believe, that the Lord will, sooner or later, either remove that temptation entirely in His providence or by His grace, or so weaken its power that it shall cease to be what it was before, drawing our feet into paths of darkness and evil.   As...