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

" Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple." —Luke 14:33 [KJV] "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again , " saith Christ, —John 3:7 . The blessed effects of this spiritual birth will be evident in the life. Earthly objects will be forsaken: heavenly ones prized. Jesus will be chosen as our Beloved Master and only hope . He being esteemed our treasure, our hearts will be with Him, our affections towards Him; and it will be our chiefest delight to hear His voice, and to follow Him in the regeneration. Coming to Christ, is turning our backs upon the "lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life."   By the faith of Jesus we renounce and forsake all these things as our curse and shame. The clearer views we have of Christ's glory, and the stronger our faith is in Him, so much the more we become dead to all things beside Him. Thus it is manifest who are the disciples of...

"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners ." -I Timothy 1:15 [KJV] Hearken, my soul, to the proclamation from heaven! Is this the faithful saying of a faithful God? Surely, then, thou mayest well regard it, for it is for thy life. And if it be worthy of all acceptation, it must be eminently so of thine; for thou hast been a transgressor from the womb. But did Jesus indeed come to save sinners? Yes, so the proclamation runs. Sinners, enemies to God.  Jesus, it is said, "received gifts for the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among them;" and with that tenderness which distinguished His character, He said Himself, that He "came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Well, then, my soul, up on this warrant of the faithful word of a faithful God, wilt thou not so fully rely as to believe unto salvation? If any inquiries arise contrary to this belief...

"That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." -II Corinthians 4:10 [KJV] It is in this earthen vessel, our poor mortal body, that both the death of Jesus and the life of Jesus are manifested. In the trouble, the perplexity, the being cast down, is the dying of Jesus; in not being distressed, in not being in despair, in not being forsaken, in not being destroyed, is the life of Jesus. Thus in the same body there is a dying Christ and a living Christ, Christ in His cross in His weakness, and Christ at the right hand of God in His power.  To know these two things is to know the power of Christ’s resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, those two divine blessings which the soul of Paul so longed to realise and experience. In the knowledge then, the experimental knowledge, I mean, for all other is of no avail, of Christ crucified and Christ risen, consists the spiritual life of a child of God. So to live is to live a life of faith in th...