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

" Ye are risen with Him, through the faith of the operation of God." -Colossians 2:12 [KJV] Who are risen with Christ? All the members of His mystical body. He is their Head and Representative. They are all mystically risen with Him. But they have no knowledge or comfort of this, till another resurrection is experienced by them. This is what the apostle here alludes to. This is by faith. As soon as any poor sinner knows, understands, and believes, that Christ died for our offences, and was raised again for our justification, that soul is actually risen with Christ.  Here, behold, (1st.) the preciousness of faith.  (2d.) Whose operation it is.  (3d.) The glorious effects it hath upon the heart and life. It brings Christ into the soul. Faith causes the soul to ascend up to a risen Saviour.  Thus, this living, powerful, influencing grace, which is the work of the Holy Ghost, is distinguished from a dead faith, a lifeless assent, a barren notion, which float...

"Brethren, farewell." -II Corinthians 13:11[KJV] To fare well, spiritually understood, is to have everything that God can make us happy in. All God's people will eventually fare well. They all stand complete in Christ: nothing can touch their eternal safety; for they are all complete in Him, "without spot, or blemish, or any such thing." In this point of view, they must all in the end and for ever fare well. But when we come to the matter of experience, we often find that those very times when God's people think they are faring ill, are the seasons when they are really faring well; and again, at other times, when they think they are faring well, then they are really faring ill. For instance, when their souls are bowed down with trouble, it often seems to them that they are faring ill. God's hand appears to be gone out against them: He has hidden His face from them; they can find no access to a throne of grace; they have no sweet testimoni...

"For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry." -Habakkuk 2:3 [KJV] My soul, there is always a set time to favour Zion. It may not be so early as we could wish; it may not come at the time we look for it; yea, it may be deferred until our impatience hath given over the very expectation of it; nevertheless, "it will surely come; it will not tarry." We are like children, who wish to gather the fruit before it is ripe; but there is no haste with God. He stops until the mercy, intended to be given us, is fully prepared, and our souls as fully ready to receive it. And what endears the mercy (be it what it may) yet more, is, that from everlasting it hath been appointed. "The vision is for an appointed time." So that, however tedious it may seem in coming, it will neither go a moment beyond the appointment, nor come a moment be...