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

"Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God." -Mark 4:11 [KJV] When the Son of God came from heaven to earth, then was the mystery of eternity revealed and the kingdom of God made manifest to the sons of men . What, to all of them? No: many, when Christ was on earth, and ever since, have neither eyes to see, ears to hear, nor hearts to understand the mystery of the kingdom of God. The god of this world blinds their eyes, stops their ears, and shuts their hearts against spiritual mysteries. And they are honest enough to proclaim it with their tongues, saying, Where mysteries begin, there religion ends . Lord, why am not I left in natural blindness, ignorance, and stupidity of soul! O why me, Lord, and not others!  (1st.) The mystery of the kingdom of God is that revealed truth, whereby the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, will get everlasting honour and glory to all the attributes and perfections of the Godhead, th...

"Knowing that tribulation worketh patience."   - Romans 5:3 [KJV] Have former trials been blessed to thee, my soul? Why then depend upon it, this, be it what it may, will be also. The covenant love and faithfulness of God in Christ are both the same now, as they ever were. If the Lord hath hitherto been making all things work together for good, so will He now. Only pause and consider why it must be so. Thy God is the same God as ever is He not? And His love to thee the same, because it is in Jesus; His covenant the same, His promises the same; the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus in efficacy the same. Well then, as all the perfections of God are engaged for God's people, certain it is, that no trial to His people can arise which He knew not, nay, which He appointed not, and for which He hath not made a suitable provision. Well then, what trouble of thine can be so great, as to counteract and overcome divine strength? What burden so heavy that Jesus ...

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." -II Corinthians 4:17 [KJV] The Hebrew word "glory"  literally signifies "weight;"  and the apostle seems to have some allusion to that circumstance by connecting, as he does, the two words together. There is indeed a natural connection between what is weighty and what is solid and substantial. He would thus represent future glory as something solid, lasting, and durable, and therefore utterly distinct from the light, vain trifles of time, and even the passing afflictions of the day or hour. But he seems chiefly to be alluding to the exceeding greatness of that glory which is to be revealed as compared with our present faculties of body and mind and all our present conceptions. It is as though he should say, "In our present imperfect state, with our limited faculties of mind, and our weak, frail tabernacle, we could not...