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

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen." —I John 5:21 [KJV] Idolatry is founded in ignorance of Jesus, the true God, and eternal life. None are spiritual worshippers of God but believers in Jesus. There are many idols in the world, suited to the pride and lusts of our corrupt nature. These we are cautioned against. But, in reading this very exhortation, the idol of "free-will" is ready to present itself; as though disciples, by their own power, were to keep themselves. This notion opposes the Spirit and power of Jesus and springs from that grand idol, pride. Pride introduces the idol of self- righteousness. This blinds the eye to the glory of the righteousness of Christ, freely imputed by God, through faith. Thus this trinity of idols, free-will, pride, and self-righteousness, are in unity with each other.  By the simple faith of Jesus, we are daily to guard our hearts against all their specious pretensions. So also, every outward object su...

"The year of My redeemed is come." -Isaiah 63:4 [KJV] Yes! from everlasting the precise period of redemption was determined, and the appointed time of the vision could not tarry. Every intermediate event ministered to this one glorious area-redemption by Jesus. The church was in Egypt four hundred and thirty years, and in Babylon seventy. But we are told in the former instance, 'the self-same night' the Lord brought, them forth with their armies; and the latter did not out stay the hour of their promised deliverance. So when the fulness of time was come, the Son of God came for the redemption of His people.  And observe how graciously Jesus speaks of them; He calls them His redeemed. They were so in the covenant from everlasting; and when the time arrives for calling them by His grace, He claims them as the gift of His Father, and the purchase of His blood. My soul, is this thy jubilee year? Art thou living as the redeemed of the Lord? If so, plead ...

"I will sing of the mercies of the L ORD for ever." -Psalm 89:1 [KJV] We are surrounded with mercies; mercies for the body, and mercies for the soul. There are indeed times and seasons when all the mercies of God, both in providence and grace, seem hidden from our eyes, when, what with the workings of sin, rebellion, and unbelief, with a thorny path in the world, and a rough, trying road in the soul, we see little of the mercies of God, though surrounded by them. Like Elisha’s servant, though the mountain is surrounded by the horses and chariots of fire, and the angels of God are round about us, yet our eyes are holden, we cannot see them; and at the very moment when God is already showering mercies upon us, and preparing others in reserve, through some trying dispensation, we are filled, perhaps, with murmuring and rebellion, and cry, "Is His mercy clean gone for ever, will He be favourable no more?" This is our infirmity, our weakness; but it no mo...

Perhaps no doctrine is more clearly taught in the Bible than election, yet none has been more opposed, perverted, and abused . This arises from the pride of the human heart. The pride of man will not admit his entire lost and sinful state; but election affirms it. The pride of man disdains to admit truths which he cannot comprehend: but election originates in the infinite mind of God, which none can comprehend. Many distort the meaning of the Scriptures, and endeavor to explain away plain language, unwilling to submit to Divine teaching.  Multitudes, it is to be feared, wrest the doctrine to their own destruction (see II Peter 3:16). -preacher D. Hascall (1847 A.D.)

" Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." —John 1:29 [KJV] Nothing can make poor sinners truly happy, but that which taketh away the cause of all misery, sin. This is effected. The Lamb of God hath taken away all sin, by His sacrifice for us. When, by the eye of faith, we behold this Lamb, then all sin is taken away out of our conscience. When a soul thinks, 'Sin has condemned me before God; the law accuseth me daily; it works wrath in my conscience continually; and I am oft ready to cry out, O wretched that I am, who shall deliver me?' Thanks be to God for a precious Redeemer. The Lamb, which God provided, hath done it for ever. All our iniquities were laid upon Him. "He bare it in His own body on the tree , " the sin, the whole of sin, every sin of all that shall believe in Him, to the end of the world. By the sacrifice of Himself He put all away, out of the sight of God, as one puts away an offensive thing. He bore ...

"Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that Thou shalt cut it down." -Luke 13: 8, 9 [KJV] Do I not behold the Lord Jesus here represented in His glorious office of our High Priest and Intercessor? And is it thus that He so mercifully pleads for the awakened and unprofitable among His people? Pause, my soul! Was it not from the effects of His intercession, that the world itself was spared from instant destruction, when Adam first brake through the fence of God's law?  Is it not now by the same rich grace that thousands are spared from year to year in Christ Jesus, before that they are called to the knowledge of Christ Jesus? Nay my soul! pause once more, over the view of this wonderful subject, and ask thyself was it not from the same almighty interposition that thou was kept from going down to the pit during the long, long period of thy unregeneracy, while thou wert who...

"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." -II Peter 3:18 [KJV] Growth is the sure mark of life. We see this in vegetation, in the animal creation, in the growth of our own bodies, and of every other thing in which there is life. Where, then, there is the life of God in the soul, there will be a growth in that life. Paul says to the Thessalonian church: "We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly" (II Thessalonians 1:3) ; and Peter says, "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."   There is "an increasing in the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:10) , and "a coming in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). It was for this increasing knowledge of the Son of God that...

Living in the Truth! by D. G. Miles McKee Speaking of one of his political opponents Winston Churchill said, “He occasionally stumbles across the truth but manages to pick himself up and hurries off as though nothing had happened.” Alas, some professing believers are also like that. For the gospel centred believer, however, truth is of utmost importance.  It´s neither optional nor the prisoner of subjective interpretation. In the Bible we encounter such expressions as,  "Those that know the  truth ;" (1 Timothy 4:3b), "Those that obey not the  truth ;" (Romans 2:8; Galatians 3:1; Galatians 5:7), "The  truth  as it is in Jesus;" (Ephesians 4:21), "Belief of the  truth ;" (2 Thessalonians 2:13), "Acknowledging of the  truth ;" (2 Timothy 2:25), "The way of  truth ;" (2 Peter 2:2), "We are of the  truth ;" (1 John 3:19),  "Destitute of the  truth ;" (1 Timothy 6:5), "Sanctify them through thy  trut...

" Thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the L ORD shall name." —Isaiah 62:2 [KJV] This is predicted of the church of God; which, according to covenant-transactions of the glorious Trinity, stands in the nearest and dearest relation to JESUS her Head. She is here spoken of as a single person, THOU : she is called "Christ's body," — Colossians 1:24, and "the bride, the Lamb's wife," —Revelation 21:9, of whom, saith God the Father, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love," —Jeremiah 31:3. Yea, saith the Son of God to His Father, of all His beloved members, "Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me. . . .and Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the world , " —John 17:23, 24.  O most comforting truths of God's word! how ancient is the love of God to His church! That God should love us miserable sinners at all is amazing; but that He should love us with the very same everlasting unchang...

"Jesus Christ; the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." -Hebrews 8:8 [KJV] Precious truth to open the year with, and to keep constantly in view amidst all the fluctuating and changeable circumstances arising both within and without, and all around! My soul, meditate upon it: fold it up in thy bosom to have recourse to as may be required. Contemplate thy Redeemer as He is here described. He is Jesus, thy Jesus; a Saviour, for He shall save His people from their sins. He is Christ also; God thy Father's Christ, and thy Christ: the Anointed, the Sent, the Sealed of Jehovah. He is the same in His glorious Person, the same in His great salvation:— "Yesterday;" looking back to everlasting: "Today;" equally so through all the periods of time: "For ever;" looking forward to the eternity to come.  And, blessed thought, He is the same in His love, in the efficacy of His redemption; His blood to cleanse, His righteousness to justif...

"Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not." -Psalm 17:5 [KJV] Without scrupulously or superstitiously observing "days, and months, and times, and years," few of us altogether pass by so marked an epoch as the dawning of another year upon our path without some acknowledgment of it both to God and man. When we open our eyes on the first morning of the year, we almost instinctively say, "This is New-year’s day." Nor is this, at least this should not be, all the notice we take, all the acknowledgment we make of that opening year of which we may not see the close.  When we bend our knees before the throne of grace, we mingle with thankful acknowledgment for the mercies of the past year, both in providence and in grace, earnest petitions for similar mercies to be experienced and enjoyed through the present. Last evening witnessed our confessions of the many, many grievous sins, wanderings, backslidings, and departings from the l...