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

  Compared with Christ in all beside No beauty can I see The one thing needful, dearest Lord Is to be one with Thee.   The sense of Thy redeeming love Into my soul convey Thyself bestow, for Thee alone My All-in-All, I pray.   Less than Thyself will not suffice My comfort to restore More than Thyself I cannot crave And Thou cans’t give no more.   Loved of my God, for Him again With love intense I’d burn Chosen of Thee ere time began I’d choose Thee in return.   

" There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure." -II Corinthians 12:7 [KJV] I dearly love St. Paul’s experience. For there is so much of the artless simplicity of the poor humble sinner; such a dread of self-glorying, while it ever exalts the rich grace of the dear Saviour. Let us make a few remarks on it, and pray our gracious Lord to bless them.  (1st.) Here is a painful experience, a thorn in his flesh. What was that? Fanciful men have entertained strange ideas. Some have said the cholic: others the ear-ache, others the head-ache, etc. If it were a bodily pain, we might as well guess, the gout in his great toe. But would the apostle have been thus anxious to have a bodily pain removed? Would the most excruciating pain prevent soul exalting? Surely it was something more.  It was the heart-ache. He plainly tells it was, “the messenger of Satan to buffet him.” His very soul was harassed ...