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

"For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His." -Hebrews 4:10 [KJV] My soul, see to it, that among other blessed evidences of thine union and rest in Christ, thou hast this also "We which have believed," the apostle saith, "do enter into rest." Our dependence on, and knowledge of Jesus, are such, that we really and truly enjoy the blessings of redemption. And as God the Father, when He had finished creation, rested from all His works which He had made; and as Jesus, when He had finished redemption, entered into His glory; so true believers, when they have once found Christ, and redemption in His blood, no longer weary themselves in the works of sin, or the works of self-righteousness, by way of justification before God; but cease from every thing in self, and rest with complacency and delight in the rich, free, and full salvation that is by Christ.   My soul, what sayest thou to this blessed testimony...

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."   -II Corinthians 5:7 [KJV] The nature of faith is to trust in the dark, when all appearances are against it; to trust that a calm will come, though the storm be overhead; to trust that God will appear, though nothing but evil be felt. It is tender, child-like, and therefore is an implicit confidence, a yielding submission, a looking unto the Lord. There is something filial in this; something heavenly and spiritual; not the bold presumption of the daring, nor the despairing fears of the desponding; but something beyond both the one and the other—equally remote from the rashness of presumption, and from the horror of despair. There is a mingling of holy affection connected with this trust, springing out of a reception of past favours, insuring favours to come; and all linked with a simple hanging and depending of the soul upon the Lord, because He is what He is.   There is a looking to, and relying upon the Lord, because we have felt Him t...