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

" 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...