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

" Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" —Genesis 3:1 [KJV] It is the grand masterpiece of that wisdom which is earthly, sensual, devilish, to call in question the truth of God's word; to insinuate a doubt about it . But here appears more modesty even in Satan, than in some of his servants; for he only puts a query upon it, whereas they absolutely deny and ridicule the truths of Jehovah . In the same way that the old serpent attacked and prevailed against the innocence of our first parents, he still attempts to destroy the comforts and oppose the holiness of God's children by artful suggestions against the truth of God's word. If he can but raise a doubt in our minds concerning what the Lord hath spoken, he strikes at the very foundation of our faith, hope, love, and obedience. As he abode not in the truth, he is a restless implacable enemy to the truth, and to every soul who embraces the truth as in Jesus . Really, one f...

"And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people: for the thing was done suddenly." -II Chronicles 29:36 [KJV] Sweet thought, ever to keep in view, that it is the Lord that prepares the heart, and gives answers to the tongue. And Oh! how sudden, how unexpected, how unlooked-for, sometimes, are the visits of His grace! "Or ever I was aware (saith the church) my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadab." Is my heart cold, my mind barren, my frame lifeless? Do Thou, then, dearest Lord, make me to rejoice, in warming my frozen affection, making fruitful my poor estate, and putting new life into my soul. All I want is a frame of mind best suited to Thy glory.  And what is that? Truly, that when I have nothing, feel nothing, can do nothing, am worse than nothing, that then, even then, I may be rich in Thee amidst all my own bankruptcy. This, dear Lord, is what I covet. And if Thou withholdest all frames which might melt, or wa...

"...and be gracious unto thee." -Numbers 6:25 [KJV] How sweet the gospel is! But what makes the gospel sweet? That one word which sheds a perfume through the whole—grace. Take grace out of the gospel and you destroy the gospel; you nullify and overthrow it; it is the gospel no more. Grace pervades every part and every branch of the blessed gospel; it is the life of the gospel; in a word, it is the gospel itself. "Be gracious unto thee." In what, then, is God gracious? In a broken law? What does that know of grace? In resolutions of amendment, creature performances, and human righteousness? Can the Lord, will the Lord shew Himself gracious in these? I have read of a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers. We might as well expect to make sunbeams out of cucumbers as to make grace out of the law; it is cold as cucumbers; there is no sun in it. Grace, to be grace, must come out of the gospel . It is in the gospel, and out of the gospel must it ...