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

" Then said JESUS unto His disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself." -Matthew 16:24 [KJV] We are called to follow Christ in the regeneration, (Matthew 19:28.) That is, in the new state of things, called, “the time of reformation,” (Hebrews 9:10) wherein He has set all things right between God and us sinners. Christ has not left us any thing to do, whereby to satisfy divine justice, and to fulfil the holy law, in order to procure God’s favour, and a title to His kingdom: but only to come after Him, to reap all the glorious spoils and victories of the law-fulfilling life, and sin-atoning death, in our perfect reconciliation to God, justification before Him, acceptance and peace with Him.  O soul, this knowledge is essential to thy following Christ, in faith and love. Without this you cannot come after Him one step. Therefore in love He bids thee deny thyself. As though He had said, all things in the old creation of fallen nature are contr...

"That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." -I Corinthians 2:15 [KJV] It is true that real grace can suffer neither loss nor diminution, but its manifestations and its actings may. Who that possesses faith is not conscious that it ebbs and flows, rises and sinks, is strong and weak, and varies from day to day and from hour to hour? Thus when a sharp trial comes, its immediate effect is to depress faith. It falls upon it like a weight, and bends it down to the ground. Faith may be compared to the quicksilver in a weather-glass, or in a thermometer. The quantity of mercury in the bulb never varies; but it rises or falls in the tube, according to the weight of the air, or the heat of the day. Thus faith, though it abides in the heart without loss or diminution, yet rises or sinks in the feelings, as the weather is fair or foul, or as the sun shews or hides himself. Did Job's faith, for instance, mount equally high when ...

"And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads." -Revelation 22:4 [KJV] My soul, thy morning thoughts were directed to the sweet subject of being called to fellowship with thy Lord Jesus Christ in grace. Do thou, this evening, beg of God the Holy Ghost to enable thee to connect with it the transporting subject of the everlasting enjoyment of Jesus in glory. This is the great end and final consummation of all. This blessed scripture leads immediateIy to the contemplation: "They shall see His face;" and on "their foreheads shall be His name:" that is, the token of their oneness, union, and relationship in and with Jesus; so that He will be their glory, their supreme happiness and joy; and thus He will never cease to be the immediate Head of all His body, the church, "the fulness that filleth all in all;" yea, the only and everlasting medium of communication in glory, as He is of grace in this life. Pause, my...