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

" My soul shall make her boast in the L ORD : the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad." -Psalm 34:2 [KJV] There was a poor, vain-glorious boaster, who had arrived to the summit of his happiness, and attained the zenith of his glory. The sun of prosperity shone with great splendour upon him. He bid adieu to all care. Down he sat to solace himself. “Soul!” said he, “thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease: eat, drink, and be merry.” But, awful moment! solemn speech! God said unto him, “Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee” (Luke 12:20.)   O how many such fools are there, who think the soul can be made happy, in outward ease, eating and drinking, and carnal enjoyments. Alas! one moment dashes the honey of their comforts, into the gall of disappointment. Not so, that soul who boasts in the Lord. This was not a transient fit of David’s, caused by a warm frame of the passions. For, says he, “I will bless the L ORD at all...

"I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant; for I do not forget Thy commandments." -Psalm 119:176 [KJV] If the Lord did not seek us, we should never seek the Lord. That is most certain. If you are one that seeks the Lord in prayer, in supplication, in secret desire, with many a heart-rending groan, and often by night and by day, be well assured, that you would never have sought the Lord, had not the Lord first sought you. He is now seeking you. It may be (as you fear), some time before He finds you; but He will find you at last. How sweetly the Lord has set this forth in the parable of the lost sheep! The poor sheep has gone astray; and having once left the fold, it is pretty sure to have got into some strange place or other. It has fallen down a rock, or has rolled into a ditch, or is hidden beneath a bush, or has crept into a cave, or is lying in some deep, distant ravine, where none but an experienced eye and hand can find it out. And so with the ...

"The house of the Rechabites." -Jeremiah 35:2 [KJV] My soul, as the prophet had his commission from the Lord, to go unto the house of the Rechabites, and the Holy Ghost hath been pleased to have the event of the visit recorded; do thou go down to it also, and see what instructions thou canst gather there, under His gracious teachings, for thine evening meditation. The house of the Rechabites drank no wine. And was not this to intimate the law of the Nazarites? Surely there was a reference, in this prohibition, to the one glorious Nazarite, even Jesus! The Rechabites had no fixed dwelling-place, but lived in moveable tents; and believers in Jesus, like their Lord Himself, have "here no abiding city, but are seeking one to come." Hence, when the king of Babylon came into the land where the Rechabites had no fixed abode, they had no attachment to the place, and therefore the more readily took their departure. Such, my soul, will be the case with thee, i...