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

" Be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee ." -Hebrews 13:5 [KJV] Preach contentment to a covetous carnal mind, and you will just have the same success, as if you bid the surging billows to be calm, or the boisterous winds be still. He possesses nothing which can give true contentment to his mind. Has he riches? they are a curse to him: for he himself is under the curse of the law. O believer! was not this, in a certain sense, your case also? You stand in need of this exhortation—“Be content.” You are the subject of a carnal nature, that is under the curse of the law: for that is ever dissatisfied, craving for more, murmuring against the dispensations of the Lord. Know and consider this. Be humble: be watchful.  Consider, (1st.) what good things of this life you have. Be they little or much, do you deserve them? Have you a right to challenge more from God, the Giver of them? Here set your foot, and let c...

"Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." -Hebrews 7:25 [KJV] If the gracious Lord did not live to make intercession for us, He could hardly be said to save us to the uttermost. But as He ever lives at God's right hand and is ever interceding, ever presenting the perfume of His acceptable mediation, this gives us a certain pledge of His love, His pity, and His power. Is not this very encouraging to all who come unto God by Him? And may we not say, "Such are we, O Lord; we do come, we daily come to Thee by Jesus Christ?"   And do we not need all the encouragement that God may give us out of it? For we often sink very low through temptation and trial and the manifold afflictions of the way. How blessed, then, it is if you can only trace this mark of grace in your soul when others seem almost lost out of sight. If you know anything of internal work, you know t...

"Clouds and darkness are round about Him; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne." -Psalm 97:2 [KJV] What a blessed scripture is here! And what a satisfying answer is given in it to the endless questions which are for ever arising in the human mind, for explaining the ways and works of God towards His creatures! The words are as if the sacred writer had been answering such inquiries, and had therefore made this conclusion; there must be much darkness, which the dim view of short-sighted creatures cannot see through, in carrying on the purposes of Jehovah: but here is an everlasting rule to go by; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne, Who is "Wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working." Oh, my soul! couldest thou call to remembrance this blessed scripture every day, and all the day, in the several exercises of thy warfare, how many anxieties would it save thee? I know as well as can be, in the perfect and ...