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

" Nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine." -I Timothy 4:6 [KJV] Many a soul is saying, Alas! I hear and hear again, and do not see that I am profited. I obtain little or no comfort from what I hear.  Consider, (1st.) what you hear. Is it the words of faith, and of good doctrine? There is more danger in words than we are aware of. Words convey corrupt ideas to the mind, and nourish vain hopes and false confidences in the heart. They subvert the promises, and pervert the soul. Many words of this sort have obtained amongst us. Such as the merit of works—perhaps you start at that. You would not hear preachers who use the phrase. But these amount to just the same thing, the terms of the gospel—the conditions of salvation. These are not the words of faith, nor of good doctrine; not the words which the Holy Ghost teaches . They are the words of man’s proud wisdom.  They were hatched in the church of Rome, and are contended for by the greatest enemies o...

"The eternal God is thy refuge." -Deuteronomy 33:27 [KJV] There is, to my mind, much sweetness in the contrast betwixt the eternal God being the refuge of His people, and the lying refuges that most hide their heads in. God's people want an eternal refuge. They have a never-dying soul; and unless they have a never-dying refuge, it is not sufficient for a never-dying soul. Works! these are for time; the never-dying soul wants something to stand when works and wonders cease. Doctrines, opinions, sentiments, ordinances, the good opinion of men, the applause and flattery of the creature—these are of the earth, earthy; they fail when a man gives up the ghost. But a child of God wants a refuge, not merely that his soul may anchor in it in time, but that when time is ended, when the angel proclaims, "There shall be time no longer," and his liberated soul escapes its prison-house, and is wafted into the presence of the eternal God, it may find in Him at ...

"And the angel of the L ORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights, unto Horeb the mount of God." -I Kings 19:7, 8 [KJV] How blessed is it to observe, in the several instances of God's people, that the Lord measures out strength in proportion to their wants, and fits every back for the burden. The prophet was obliged to flee from the king's court, but the King of kings will give him a table in the wilderness. Elijah shall be taught at one time, how to live by faith, when fed by ravens; and at another, how to go forty days and forty nights without food, when sustained by grace in going to Horeb. My soul, canst not thou find in thy experience, similar exercises of faith; if not so splendid, yet at least no less profitable? Hath not Jesus many a time fed thee at His banqueting ho...