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

"Thought," says a Christian church father, "is the sleepless lamp of the soul." It is a lamp, indeed, that burns with varying brightness – flaming up in moments of intense study and utterance, and dying down in sleep till there is only the pale glimmer that remains in dreams. But it is a lamp that is never really quenched, for however profound the slumber, it only requires a word to wake us and to bring all our mental powers into instant activity. Thus must it be with the holy lamp of watchfulness – always trimmed and burning, but not of necessity shining always in full strength. That is to say, we need not be every moment thinking of Christ's return, talking of it, and preaching it. There should be ever in our  hearts the calm certainty and the sober hope that keep us ready for this event at any moment. But this hope should rather minister to us than be ministered to by us. Instead of perpetually dwelling on it and reiterating it, we should be ...

" Behold, we come unto Thee; for Thou art the L ORD our God." -Jeremiah 3:22 [KJV] Peter was an awful backslider: his crimes deserved hell: so do yours and mine . Both he and we should be sent there, if love did not reign in heaven, and grace abound to sinners on earth. One look of love from Christ broke Peter’s heart, made him weep bitterly, and return to a crucified Saviour earnestly. A bone broken and set, is stronger than it was before. This I am sure of, a heart broken by forgiving love, grows stronger in love: having much forgiven, we love much. I have often thought, fresh love added speed to Peter’s feet, when he ran to the sepulchre, to see his dear, his crucified Lord (John 20:4.)   See the happy effects of loving speeches and gracious words from a loving Lord. We saw the backsliding children arraigned, and their conduct condemned, in our last meditation. What was the sentence passed on them? Was it “Go ye cursed, vile wretches! ye have gone from Me in...

"And this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS ." -Jeremiah 23:6 [KJV] Begin this month, my soul, with contemplating thy Jesus in this glorious distinction of character; and beg of God the Holy Ghost, Who hath here declared that, under this character, Jesus shall be known and called, that every day through the month, and through the whole of life, thou mayest find grace and strength so to know and so to call Jesus, as to be everlastingly satisfied that thou art made the righteousness of God in Him. And first, my soul, consider Who and what this Holy One is. He is the Lord Jehovah. In the glories of His essence, He is One with the Father. In His Personal glories, He is the Lord thy Mediator.  And in His relative glories, He is thy righteousness. For, by virtue, of His taking thy nature, what He is as Mediator and as the Surety of His people, He is for them . Pause over this blessed view, and then say, What can be more blessed than thus to ...

"O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help." -Hosea 13:9 [KJV] God is all-wise, and therefore takes no rash, precipitate steps. As the original plan of salvation was devised by infinite wisdom, so all the successive steps of the execution of that plan are directed by the same boundless wisdom also. "Wherein He hath abounded towards us , " says Paul (Ephesians1:8) , "in all wisdom and prudence."   Thus, in his dealings with His people, God does not put them at once into possession of all the blessings which He has laid up for them. He has pardoned, for instance, their sins; but He does not immediately, when He calls them by His grace, put them into possession of this blessing. He has first to teach them their need of it. He has to prepare their heart for the right reception of it. It is no common gift, and He has to teach them how to value it. They are saved from wrath and eternal misery, from His dreadful displeasure and ...