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

"Giving all diligence: add to your faith." -II Peter 1:5 [KJV] Here is the Christian’s work. All diligence is required in it. O believer, be assured (the Lord impress it upon your heart and mine) there is no being a lively, comfortable disciple, without it. Beware you do not add to your faith licentious notions and Antinomian sloth, instead of Christian virtues, holy tempers, and heavenly affections, which adorn our profession, and glorify our Saviour.  Ever remember, you are called to honour Christ by your life on earth, as well as to be saved by and enjoy Him in heaven. By faith we receive Christ, rest upon Him, and look to Him alone for justification unto eternal life. But a lively faith will not leave us barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  If there be not an habitual disposition of soul, to add to faith, virtue, knowledge, patience, godliness, etc., we should examine and see to it; lest, instead of Christ dwelling in our hearts ...

"Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." -Hebrews 2:17 [KJV] What heart can conceive or tongue express the infinite depths of the Redeemer's condescension in thus being made like unto His brethren—that the Son of God should assume a finite nature, subject to the sinless infirmities necessarily connected with a time-state and a dwelling on earth; that He should leave the bosom of His Father in which He had lain before all worlds, and should consent to become a denizen of this world of tears; to breathe earthly air; to be an eye-witness of, and Himself share in human sorrows; to have before His eyes the daily spectacle of human sins; to be banished so long from His native home; to endure hunger, weariness, and thirst; to be subject to the persecutions of men, the flight of all His disciples, an...

"For I know that this shall turn to my salvation, through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." -Philippians 1:19 [KJV] Blessed frame of mind! when, like Paul, however unpromising circumstances are, to be able to say, `I know that this exercise, be it what it may, is among the all things which work together for good to them that love God, and are the called according to His purpose!' My soul, do thou, once for all, mark down this one certain and never-to-be-questioned truth: that thy God, thy Jesus, hath but one end in view from all the providences He appoints to His people, and is invariably and everlastingly promoting it, however to thy apprehension at times, things seem to run counter. And when thou hast settled this in thy mind, as a certain fixed principle, next take into the account all, or (at least as thou canst not know all,) some of the many foundations on which the certainty, for the accomplishment of a final issue of good ...