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

"What is your life?"   - James 4:14 [KJV] A short day, full of evils; a span long, replete with crosses. Each revolving day brings its troubles; each fleeting moment, its sorrows. ‘Yes,’ says a soul, ‘I am a living witness of this: I am a mark for the enemy to shoot his fiery darts at; against man he daily renews his attacks, constantly buffets, and is ever busy with his subtle devices. Each morning I rise, I am brought into the field to exercise my arms; or on the stage, to conflict with my enemies. Truly, I am almost worn and wearied out. What with a sense of indwelling corruptions, the plague of my heart, the attacks of Satan, the troubles of the world, want of the sense of my Lord’s love, and the workings of unbelief;—my life is one continued scene of sorrow and distress.’ Remember, for your comfort, your life is short: your rest shall be eternal and glorious. Consider what one sweetly says, “It is the great work and difficulty, and yet duty of a christian, ...

"And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship; and so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land." -Acts 27:44 [KJV] This is the beautiful conclusion of a history, which, during the providence wherein Paul the apostle and his companions were in shipwreck, afforded large opportunity for the exercise of faith. The issue, it appears, was not doubtful from the first; for an angel of God had assured Paul, that God had given unto him the lives of all that sailed with him. And so it proved; yea, the very wreck of the ship furnished out means for the people's safety. Now, my soul, here is a very precious instruction for thee. In the exercises of thy life, learn from hence to abide firmly by the promise, when every thing leading to its accomplishment seems to fail. God hath said, that eternal life, with all its preliminaries, is in His Son; and that "he that hath the Son, hath life, and shall not come into condemnation." Now...

"He will keep the feet of His saints."   -I Samuel 2:9 [KJV] The Lord sees His poor scattered pilgrims traveling through a vale of tears, journeying through a waste howling wilderness, a path beset with gins, traps, and snares in every direction. How can they escape? Why, the Lord keeps their feet, carries them through every rough place, as a tender parent carries a little child; when about to fall, graciously lays the everlasting arms underneath them, and when tottering and stumbling, and their feet ready to slip, mercifully upholds them from falling altogether. Thus the Lord keeps the feet of His saints. But do you think that He has not different ways for different feet? The God of creation has not made two flowers, nor two leaves upon a tree alike; and will He cause all His people to walk in precisely the same path? No; we have each our path, each our besetment, each our trials, each peculiar traps and snares laid for our feet. And the wisdom of the all wise a...

Particular Redemption, Limited Atonement, Definite Atonement & Effectual Atonement  These are all words used to describe the atoning work of Christ on the cross.  He died for a particular people.  His intention to save was limited to the elect.  His atonement was with a definite purpose for a definite people.  His atonement was effectual.  All for whom He died must be saved.  These terms are all well and good in their place, but a better word is plain old SUBSTITUTION.   All of these terms point to a real, substitutionary death on the cross.  SUBSTITUTION IS THE GOSPEL.    To deny, water down, or omit in our preaching the particular, limited, definite, effectual death of Christ on the cross ( substitution ) is to deny, water down, or omit the Gospel of Christ.  The meaning of substitution is so simple that adjectives are not even needed to describe it. -unknown preacher of righteousness

"Where two or three are gathered together in My name there am I in the midst of them."   -Matthew 18:20 [KJV] Our hopes and comforts rise or fall, according to our conceptions and belief of what Christ is in Himself, and what He is to us. Attend to this. You will find this true in your experience. Therefore it is of no small moment, whether you believe Christ to be God over all, or only a mere man. Yea, it is of the utmost importance: it enters into the very life, peace, and joy of your soul. Our Lord here puts this beyond a doubt. None but God is, at one and the same time, in more places than one. But Christ declares, “Wherever My disciples are gathered together in My name, there am I.”  Therefore Christ is the omnipresent God. This is the joy of our faith; this, the glory of our souls. Now, it should be our grand concern to bring this into experience and practice. (1st.) Remember  “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” ...

"Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind, and the lame, the woman with child, and her that travaileth with child together, a great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My first-born."   -Jeremiah 31:8-9 [KJV] It is blessed at all times to be refreshed with God's promises concerning the latter-day glory; but more especially at a time when things are most unpromising. The present hour is eminently so. Therefore, my soul, see what a cluster of mercies are folded up on this one branch of them; and let thine evening meditations be sweet of Jesus and His sure work, in whom, "All the promises are yea and amen, to the glory of God the Father, by us." Observe, in this ble...

"As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing."   -II Corinthians 6:10 [KJV]   Though the Christian in himself is sorrowful, and has reason to be so all the day long, yet so far as he has any views by faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, any good hope through grace, or any manifestation of His Person, work, blood, and love, he may be always rejoicing. Nay, his very sorrow opens up a way for joy. There is no room in a worldly heart for spiritual joy, for the Lord gives joy in sorrow. When the heart is sunk in gloom and fear, and doubt and distress take possession of the mind, when family afflictions, or painful bereavements, or trying circumstances fill the heart with grief and dismay, that is the very time for the Lord to pour joy into the soul. As afflictions abound, so do consolations. Sorrow and joy are linked together as night and day, as sun and moon, as heaven and earth. Without sorrow there can be no joy, for joy is its counterpoise. If you had everything your heart c...

"Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light."   -Ephesians 5:8 [KJV]   Unregenerate persons, raised from indigence to opulence, do not love to hear of their pedigree: they see not the hand of the Lord in it. What detracts from their character and merit, hurts them. But disciples of Christ like to hear of, love to look back upon what they were by nature, that they may ascribe fresh praise to the Lord, who of His mere grace “raised their degenerate souls out of the dust, and lifted their needy souls from the dunghill, and has set them with the princes of His people” (Psalm 113:7, 8.)     We are here reminded, “Ye were” —what? dark , having some glimmering light of God, His truth, His ways, etc. Nay more, darkness itself. Blind to them, as if totally deprived of sight. Ignorant of them as a beast: as dark, respecting them, as we should be of natural objects without the sun. We walked in darkness, and knew not th...

"The hidden manna." -Revelation 2:17 [KJV]   We have an authority from Jesus Himself, to say, that He, and He alone, is the manna of the gospel; for in His discourse with the Jews, He called Himself, in allusion to the manna of the wilderness, "the living bread," and "the bread of God which came from heaven," of which, He said, "whosoever should eat, should live for ever." But when Jesus imparts this blessed food to His people, it is hidden. And, indeed, many of the properties of it are made more blessed, from the very nature of its secrecy.   My soul, ponder over the subject a few moments, this evening, and behold in it, how truly gracious it is in the Lord, to hand to His people in secret, those enjoyments of Himself, of which the world is altogether unconscious. Mark the outlines of it, and trace it in its effects in thine own experience. Though Jesus was preached to the world, both by the law and the prophets; and when appearin...

"He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure." -II Samuel 23:5 [KJV]   O the blessedness of having a manifest interest in the blood of the covenant, and thus to have a testimony that God has made a covenant with His dear Son upon our behalf; that our names are written in the book of life; and that Christ is our Mediator at the right hand of the Father! What are all earthly blessings compared with this? What are health and strength and riches and all the goods of this life; what is everything that the carnal heart can desire or the covetous mind grasp; what is all compared with an interest in the everlasting covenant, and in the love and blood and righteousness of the Lord the Lamb? What is earth, with all its attractions, compared with an interest in the precious, precious blood of a dying Jesus?  You will find it so when you come to lie upon a bed of languishing and pain; when the cold drops of sweat stand upon your forehead, an...

"Hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us."   -I John 3:24 [KJV] “That the soul be without knowledge, is not good”  (Proverbs 19:22.) What knowledge is to be compared with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ? All other will perish. But, “This is life eternal”   (John 17:3.)  “For He is the true God and eternal life” (I John 5:20.) Does He abide in us? Could we possess the whole world without this, we should only grasp a phantom. We might as well seek to fill our belly, and satisfy our hunger with the east wind, as be happy without Christ abiding in us. (1st.) What is implied in this? We know what it is to receive and entertain a friend in our dwelling. According to our love to him, and delight in him, so we treat him. Love will set the best things before him, give him the pre-eminence in all things, and accommodate him with the best room in our house. Yea, love is jealous, lest all things should not please, a...

" And he said unto them, Say now unto her, Behold; thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people." -II Kings 4:13 [KJV] What an interesting account, though short, is here given of the Shunamite. The sacred historian calls her "a great woman,"  and certainly, she here manifests that she had a great mind. What she had done for the prophet, she sought no recompence for. Neither the favours of the king, nor the captain of his host, were of any value to her and her husband. Dwelling with content in what she had, and "among her own people,"  was in her view enough of earthly enjoyment.   But is there not a spiritual improvement to be made of the passage? Do not the people of our God "dwell alone?"  And have they not been from everlasting so appointed, in the purposes of God their Father...

"I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against Him." -Micah 7:9 [KJV]  It is a view of our sins against God that enables us to bear the indignation of the Lord against us and them. As long as we are left to a spirit of pride and self-righteousness, we murmur at the Lord's dealings when His hand lies heavy upon us. But let us only truly feel what we rightly deserve: that will silence at once all murmuring. You may murmur and rebel sometimes at your hard lot in providence; but if you feel what you deserve, it will make you water with tears of repentance the hardest cross. So in grace, if you feel the weight of your sins, and mourn and sigh because you have sinned against God, you can lift up your hands sometimes with holy wonder at God's long suffering mercy that He has borne with you so long; that He has not smitten you to the earth, or sent your guilty soul to hell. You will see, too, that the heaviest strokes were but fatherly c...

"O LORD, Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, and every one mocketh me." - Jeremiah 20:7 [KJV]   A poor deluded perfectionist lately made a great noise in London: he blasphemously pretended to be as holy as God Himself, to have revelations from Him, and peremptorily fixed upon a day when the world was to be destroyed. He deceived many, and alarmed more. But time proved how artfully he had been deceived himself; and now, what is most awful, he has cast off all sense of religion, ridicules it, charges all his delusion upon God, and quotes these very words of Jeremiah, to prove that God had deceived him. One would not mention this by way of reflection, or triumph over this unhappy man; but, as a caution against this mad, wildfire notion of sinless perfection, which so spreads itself among a certain description of professors. But did God really deceive Jeremiah?    Can we suppose that ...

"Being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ."   -I Corinthians 9:21 [KJV]   Sit down my soul, this evening, and ponder over this blessed distinction which the apostle makes between the lawless conduct of those, who, from a mere conviction of the truth in the head, but who never felt the influences of it in their heart, hold the truth in unrighteousness; and those who, while conscious of being under the law to Christ, are not without law to God.   To thee, my soul, who hast been brought under the condemnation of God's holy law, and hast been enabled, through sovereign grace, to take refuge in the person, blood, and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ; to thee, justification by faith, so far from relaxing thine obedience to the law of God, has proved the best of all motives to the practice of it. Thou knowest thyself to be bought with a price; and therefore, as the Lord's property, both by His purchase, and thy voluntary surrender, it is ...

"Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." -Galatians 2:20 [KJV] Many of the saints of God may not be so highly favoured as to take up into their lips Paul's language of strong, personal assurance. They may hope, and at times may rise beyond a hope, into a sweet confidence, by the shining in of the Sun of righteousness, that the Son of God has loved them, and given Himself for them. But the strength of Paul's persuasion and the full expression of his confidence so far outstrip both their assurance and their language, that many real saints of God confess they come short both in heart and tongue. Yet their coming short of this blessed certainty as an enjoyed reality in the heart, and as a declared confidence by the mouth—for conscience and tongue must move together where God works—does not affect the fact.  Clouds and mists sometimes obscure the sun, but they do not blot Him out of the sky. So the mists and fogs of unbelief may obscure the Sun of righteousne...

"He hath put a new song in my mouth."   - Psalm 40:3 [KJV] Some sing, when they have cause to be sad: others are sad, when they have reason to sing and rejoice. Some go on merrily to hell; others go on sorrowing to heaven. When the grace of Jesus is in the heart, a new song is put into the mouth. This is a song of new covenant love. This we are to sing all our days on earth, and for ever and ever in glory. In passing the streets, we meet with many occurrences, which remind us of our Beloved. It is sweet to spiritualize carnal things. I was much delighted with a carnal song, which concludes thus:  "All the time is thrown away, But what is spent in love."   I thought this was very true of the love of our Saviour. This Psalm is applied to Christ in His manhood state (see Hebrews ch. 10.) A new song was put in His mouth on our accounts. He says, “Many shall see it, and fear, and trust in the LORD.” See hence, our spiritual joy springs from seeing Christ’s ...