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

" Adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in ALL THINGS." -Titus 2:10 [KJV] What pains and expense are we at to adorn our bodies, which must shortly turn to ignoble dust: and our dwellings, which must soon be burnt up with fire? And shall we not study, and take pains to adorn the precious doctrine of our loving God and Saviour in our lives? Let gay clothing and genteel furniture reprove us for, and remind us of this duty. Let us not be like asses with long ears to hear doctrines, but slow of feet to walk in the ways of holiness. To avoid legality, let us not run into licentiousness. This awfully prevails amongst professors in our day. They incessantly dwell on doctrines. But if you aim to reduce them into experience and practice, they cry out, O, you are as legal as an Arminian.  This is really like one who should receive food into his mouth, chew it for a season, and then spit it out again: but as it passed not into the stomach to be digested, the body is not nou...

Blood that Washes! by D.G. Miles McKee “Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood...” -Revelation 1:5 Currently we seem to hear less and less about believers having been washed in the blood of Christ! We are told that such language is outmoded and meaningless in today’s culture. But is it? I don’t believe so! Let’s look for a moment then at what it means to be washed in the blood. It means that we are totally identified with Jesus in His death. The blood of Christ cleanses us, not because it is a ‘heavenly detergent,' but by totally immersing and identifying us in and with the death of our Substitute. To be washed in the blood means that legally we have been crucified with Christ. His death was our death; His punishment ours. We are now cleansed by His blood ... which is another way of saying that we have been made partakers of the death of Christ. Because the blood has been applied to us, we are legally counted as those who have paid the pena...

"The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the L ORD , to make an atonement for your souls." -Exodus 30:15 [KJV] Pause, my soul, over this sweet scripture, and mark the graciousness of thy God and Father in the blessed truth conveyed in it. What, were all the souls of the redeemed charged equally alike in the account of God? Did God thy Father rate them thus? And did Jesus, thy precious Jesus, purchase all His redeemed with an equal price, when He bought them with His blood? If this be so, my soul, it must follow, that thou, a poor unworthy creature as thou art, overlooked as thou art by the great ones of the earth, and too frequently overlooked in thyself how precious every redeemed soul must be in Jesus's sight, cost as much to Jesus as the soul of Peter, or of Paul, or of any of the patriarchs, apostles, or prophets. Oh, think of this; write it down in the tablets of thy remembrance...

"And the L ORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night." -Isaiah 4:5 [KJV] There is an allusion here to the cloudy pillar which rested upon the tabernacle. It was as a cloud by day, but as a pillar of fire by night. The reason of this is evident. By day, the cloud and the smoke were sufficiently visible; but not so in the night season. In the night, therefore, it was a pillar of fire, that the presence of the L ORD might be distinctly seen.  Spiritually viewed, this night may signify dark seasons in the soul; for there is night as well as day in the experience of God's saints. Now when they are in these dark seasons, they want clearer and brighter manifestations of the Lord's presence than when they are walking in the light of day.  Thus this "shining of a flaming fire by night" may represent the shining in of the Lord's clearer, f...

" He who is washed, needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean ." -John 13:10 [KJV] How precious is the word of the Lord! being in great disorder of body and heaviness of soul, our Lord refreshed and comforted me with these words. Here, Christ most plainly teaches us these blessed truths:  (1st.) That every believer is washed by Him from the filth of all his sins.  (2nd.) That each and every one are equally and alike perfectly clean from all sin, in God’s sight; “not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing , ” (Ephesians 5:27.) — “Justified from all things before God , ” (Acts 13:39.) There is not one condemnation against them from God (see Romans 8:1.)   Therefore, (3d.) They need no other cleansing to make them acceptable to God, pure in His sight, meet to come into His presence now, and to enjoy Him to all eternity.  Rejoice, O my fellow-sinners! and thou, too, my soul! in a lowly, self-abasing, disciple washin...

" ...in the hand of a Mediator ." -Galatians 3:19 [KJV] The hand of a Mediator was the great blessing every, enlightened son of Adam, from the fall, sighed after, and looked for, in every approach to God. Hence the first transgressor, for the want of it, hid himself from the presence of God, amidst the trees of the garden. Hence Israel cried out to Moses, "Go thou near, and hear all that the L ORD our God shall say; but let not God speak with us, lest we die." And Job longed for a day's man, that is, a Mediator, that might lay his hand upon both parties. See then, my soul, thy privileges; for thou hast a Mediator, and a glorious one indeed, in whose almighty hand all thy concerns are eternally secured. "Ye are come," saith the apostle; he doth not say, ye are coming. but, ye are come, to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling." Oh then, in all thy approaches, have an eye to Jesus. Put all thine affai...

"For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." -Jeremiah 2:13 [KJV] There is nothing so cutting as the remembrance of backsliding against a good and holy God. There is nothing so wounding to a tender conscience as having sinned against manifested mercy and revealed salvation. It seems almost like doing despite to the Spirit of grace; almost like trampling under foot the blood of the covenant whereby we were sanctified, and treating our best Friend worse than His very enemies treated Him. And as these things are brought to mind, and laid upon the conscience with weight and power, they will sometimes sink us very low into despondency and gloom so as almost to take away our very hope. But the Lord is very merciful and compassionate to those who fear His name. He regards the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their cry. He listens to the s...

" He will reprove the world of sin." -John 16:8 [KJV] Has the Spirit so convinced , so reproved you of sin, of the curse of the law of sin, of the wrath of God revealed against all sin; and of that sin of sins, unbelief, that whosoever lives and dies in, is under the wrath of God: so that you have fled for refuge to Jesus, and have taken shelter in His wounds, to be saved from all sin; then you are blessed: your soul is safe, your salvation is sure.  The Spirit has glorified the Redeemer in your eyes and to your heart. And Christ will glorify your soul with Him in His own kingdom. Is not the Spirit rightly styled the Comforter? Did He not act the part of a comforter, even in convincing of sin? What if your heart was broken and bled for sin, yet it was that you might be comforted with the love, and made joyful in the salvation of Jesus. But having thus convinced you of sin, and brought you to Christ for salvation, has the Spirit done with you? Is the work at an ...

"The Comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me." -Lamentations 1:16 [KJV] Whence is it, my soul, that those distressing thoughts arise? Pause, and inquire. Is the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, indeed withdrawn, when Jesus, thy Jesus, sweetly and graciously promised that He should abide for ever? This cannot be. Is the righteousness of Jesus less; or hath His blood to atone and cleanse, lost its efficacy? Oh no! Jesus' righteousness, and Jesus' all-atoning propitiation, like the almighty Author of both, must be eternally and everlastingly the same; "yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."   Hath God thy Father forgotten to be gracious? Oh no! God thy Father proclaimed from heaven that He is well pleased for His dear Son's righteousness' sake; and never, never, shall a word gone out of the Lord's mouth be altered. From whence then, my soul, is thy leanness, thy fears, and despondency? Canst thou not discover? Oh yes! It is all i...

"Woe to them that are at ease in Zion." -Amos 6:1 [KJV] John Bunyan says, in his plain, homely language: "A Christian man is never long at ease, When one fright's gone, another doth him seize."   Sin will never let him rest long, nor satan let him rest long, nor God let him rest long, nor his own fears let him rest long. He cannot be at ease till his conscience is purged with the blood of sprinkling; till his soul has been blest with a feeling sense and enjoyment of the love of God; till he has sweet manifestations of pardoning mercy, blessed revelations of Christ to his soul, with the voice and witness of the Spirit in his breast.  This is not the ease of Moab (Jeremiah 48:11) but the ease of which the Psalmist speaks when he says "His soul shall dwell at ease" (Psalm 25:13.) All ease but this is the sleep of the sluggard; carnal ease as opposed to spiritual. If then he drop into carnal ease, and for a time sin do not seem to plague, no...

" Speak thou the things which become sound doctrine." -Titus 2:1 [KJV] “Like people, like priest,” is a Scripture adage, (Hosea 4:9.) Professors generally possess the same ideas of the minister they sit under. Our Lord advises, “Take heed what ye hear , ” (Mark 4:24.) The seeds of all heresies are in our nature; they are sooner learned than sound doctrine. Hence Paul’s jealousy of, and advice to Titus. He was not only to preach sound doctrine, but the things also which become it. Sound doctrine is to be highly prized, yet it is not to be alone. Good as it is, to have a sound judgment in the doctrines of grace, yet we are ever to consider, they are all according to, and tend to promote godliness.  They are all of a practical and experimental nature: productive of love in the heart, and holiness in the life. Many err here. Some make little of sound doctrine. They cry out, Away with your doctrines, give us practical holiness. These cast contempt upon the word of...

"Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." -Galatians 2:20 [KJV] See, my soul, how Paul is for ever using Jesus, and feasting for ever upon Him. Oh! seek grace to do the same. He saith, Jesus loved him; Jesus, the Son of God, loved Paul. Now love from any object is valuable, but from the first, and best, and greatest of all Beings, what invaluable love is this? And who did Christ love? "Why me," saith Paul: "who was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious." And how do you know, Paul, that Jesus loved you? "He gave Himself for me," saith Paul. "Gave Himself?" Yes, Himself. Not His gifts only, not His grace, not His mercies, though all creation is His. And whatever He gave must have been an undeserved mercy; for I merited hell, when He bestowed upon me heaven. But even heaven, with all its glories, is nothing, saith Paul, to what Jesus gave me; for He gave "Himself for me." Oh! my soul, wilt thou not look up, wil...

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." -Psalm 51:17 [KJV] The heart that feels the burden of sin, that suffers under temptation, that groans beneath satan's fiery assaults, that bleeds under the wounds inflicted by committed evil, is broken and contrite. This brokenness of heart and contrition of spirit is a thing which a child of God alone can feel. However hard his heart at times may seem to be, there will be reasons of spiritual reviving; however he may seem steeled against any sense of love and mercy, or even of misery and guilt, from time to time when he is least expecting and looking for it, there will be a breaking down of his soul before the Lord; there will be a bewailing of himself, a turning from the world to seek the Lord's favour, and a casting himself as a sinner once more on undeserved mercy, tears will flow down his cheeks, sighs burst from his bosom, and he will lie humble...

" Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of." -II Corinthians 7:10 [KJV] By legal preaching, setting forth the curses of the law, and the terrors of hell, a sinner’s conscience may be made to tremble under the dread of damnation. He may be said to repent. “Judas thus repented himself, and said, I have sinned.” He might be sorry for it. His sin might make his heart ache, and fill his soul with horrors. But here was no godly sorrow. God was not in all his thoughts. No repentance unto salvation: this was out of his sight. His repentance was unto damnation. For “he went out and hanged himself,” (Matthew 27:5.) Natural fears and legal terrors may excite sorrow without the grace of repentance.  (1st.) What then is godly sorrow? It springs from God, it is excited by the views of God, it is directed to God, and arises in the heart on account of God. With David the soul cries, “against Thee only have I sinned,” (Psalm 51:4.) The heart is p...

"Seest thou this woman?” -Luke 7:44 [KJV] My soul, look at this woman at the feet of Jesus; for thy Jesus bids thee look, and gather instruction from the view, as well as the pharisee. Behold how she wept, how she washed the feet of Jesus, and anointed them with ointment. These were sweet tokens of her love and adoration. But were these the causes for which she obtained forgivings? Oh, no. Read what the Lord said to her: "Thy faith hath saved thee." Learn, then, my, soul, in what salvation lies. Love may bring ointment to Jesus. Sorrow for sin, when grace is in the heart, will cause tears to fall. But faith brings nothing, for it hath nothing: it casts itself wholly upon Jesus. Amidst all its guilt, and fears, and tears, it is Jesus only to whom faith looks; it is Jesus upon whom alone it depends. It hath nothing to do with self; neither our own feelings, nor the exercise of our graces.  These are blessed evidences of the work of the Lord upon the heart; b...

"They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward." -Jeremiah 50:5 [KJV] Zion is the seat of all gospel blessings. In it is laid "the precious corner-stone" (Isaiah 28:16) ; in it is "placed salvation for Israel" (Isaiah 46:13) ; the Lamb of God stands upon it (Revelation 14:1) ; mercy, redemption, pardon, comfort, strength, deliverance, and glory come out of it. In turning the face then Zionwards, is implied the seeking of gospel blessings. The redeemed are therefore said "to seek the L ORD their God," Who is only to be found in Zion, His dwelling-place, and where praise waiteth for Him (Psalm 65:1) . But they ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward in no light and trifling spirit, and in no positive certainty that they shall ever arrive there. They have to ask the way step by step, often doubting and fearing whether they be in the way. Having been so often deceived and deluded, they dare no more trust their...

" And the L ORD went His way, as soon as He had left communing with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his own place." -Genesis 18:33 [KJV] Love is the bond of friendship. Unless love be mutual, friendship cannot subsist. The sweets of friendship are enjoyed in free communications. Friends are delighted with each other’s presence. Long absence causes pain. This is true between God and the soul. If you feel concern at the absence of God, you love God: you are a friend of the Lord’s. The Lord stoops to earth: He takes our flesh: He visits and converses with us as friends. This same Lord communes with Abraham.  Consider, (1st.) Abraham was a poor sinner, as we are; he could no more behold the essential glory of the Godhead, without a mediator, than we can. Nor can God in His essential glory, as perfectly holy and righteous, draw near to fallen man, without a mediator, but sudden destruction must be his awful doom. Therefore it was Jesus the Lord, the sinner’s Friend, ...