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

" Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." -II Corinthians 7:7 [KJV] “Cleanse ourselves!” What! was holy Paul the subject of filthiness? Yes: he, as well as the holy saints of Corinth, constantly wanted cleansing, by the blood of Christ. St. Paul, again and again, declares against the proud notion of sinless perfection. He well knew, that regenerating grace and adopting love, do not entirely destroy the infection of our nature; but hereby being brought into a holy state, we are set above the power of sin. We hate the defilement of it; and we ever have the precious blood of the Lamb to have recourse to, for cleansing from it. “The Son of God has made us free indeed” (John 8:36.)   Free from the slavery of sin, and the bondage of the law: free to come to Him, that we may wash our garments, and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. Do you see and lament that you are the subject of...

"Then went king David in, and sat before the L ORD . And he said, Who am I, O Lord G OD ? and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto? And is this the manner of man, O Lord G OD ? ” -II Samuel 7:18, 19c [KJV] The language of David, under the overwhelming views he had of divine goodness, as it concerned himself, is suited to the case of every child of God, as he may trace that goodness in his own history. Surely, every awakened soul may cry out, under the same impression, - "Who am I, O Lord G OD ? and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto?" My soul! ponder over the sweet subject, as it concerns thyself. Behold what manner of love the love of God is from the manner of man. View it in each Person of the Godhead. What is the highest possible conception any man can have of the love of God our Father to us? Was it not, when, as an evidence of the love He had to our nature, He put a robe of that nature, in its pure and holy state, up...

"Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." -Proverbs 22:15 [KJV] We profess to believe in an Almighty, All-present, All-seeing God; and we should be highly offended if a person said to us, "You do not believe that God sees everything, that He is everywhere present, that He is an Almighty Jehovah:" we should almost think that he was taking us for an atheist. And yet practical atheists we daily prove ourselves to be. For instance, we profess to believe that God sees everything, and yet we are plotting and planning as though He saw nothing; we profess to know that God can do everything, and yet we are always cutting out schemes, and carving out contrivances, as though He were like the gods of the heathen, looking on and taking no notice; we profess to believe that God is everywhere present to relieve every difficulty and bring His people out of every trial, and yet when we get into the difficulty ...