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

"And the LORD spoke unto Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend."   - Exodus 33:11 [KJV] In the opinion of infidels, Moses is as vile a hypocrite, and as great an enthusiast as ever existed. You see your calling, brethren. What shall be done unto the men, whom the King of saints delighteth to honour? Treat them as the filth and offscouring of all things, say the world. Thank you, ye sons of folly. You give us an evident token of our salvation, and that of God (Philippians 1:28.) If Moses is not to be credited, Christ is to be rejected. He puts His cause upon the testimony of Moses. “Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, for he wrote of Me”   (John 5:46.)   He was a friend of the Bridegroom. He was admitted to close and intimate converse with Him, before He appeared in flesh. Our Saviour saith to all His disciples, “ye are My friends” (John 15:14.) He admits them into sweet fellowship, and free communion with Himself. A preci...

"And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness." -Malachi 3:3 [KJV] My soul, contemplate this gracious office of thy Jesus, and then see, whether He hath as graciously wrought it on thee. Jesus found our whole nature, when He came to save it, wanting refining and purifying indeed. By the operation of His holy word, and by the influences of His blessed spirit, He brings the souls of His people into the furnace of purification.  By the fire of troubles, of afflictions, of persecutions, He melts down their stubborn nature there. By the Spirit of judgment, and by the Spirit of burning, He purgeth their dross, taketh away their tin, and forms all His people into vessels of mercy and sanctification; that He may at length present them unto Himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that they m...

"So did not I, because of the fear of God." -Nehemiah 5:15 [KJV] We can never praise God sufficiently for His restraining grace; for what should we be without it? What an unspeakable mercy, then, it is, that you cannot be what you would be, nor act as you would act, nor speak what you would speak, nor do the things you would do, because there is in you who fear God a spiritual principle which holds you up, and keeps you back from the ways of sin and death in which the flesh would walk. How this spirit of grace and godly fear kept Joseph in the hour of temptation! How it preserved David when he had Saul in his power as he lay asleep in the cave! How it kept Nehemiah in the fear of God from extortion and oppression!  And how, in thousands of instances, it has preserved the feet of the saints, and kept them from doing things that would have ruined their reputation, blighted their character, brought reproach upon the cause of God, and the greatest grief and distress...