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

"I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only. "   —Psalm 71:16 [KJV] Wise travellers provide things needful for their journey, and guard against such as lie in wait, by the way, to rob them. Our gracious God calls not His dear children to forsake their native country, to travel to the heavenly city, without furnishing them with a rich supply of all things necessary for their comfort, and also strength to protect them from the power of every enemy. No soldier of His goeth a warfare at his own charge; Christ being both their righteousness and strength, they can want nothing; neither riches nor power.  Hence, they go on from day to day, glorying in Him, as their richest treasure, and trusting in Him as their almighty strength; and this is their constant song in the house of their pilgrimage, and all through their journey: "Surely, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength , "   —Isaiah 45:24 . Je...

" And David said,  Seemeth it to you a light thing to be a king's son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man and lightly esteemed?" -I Samuel 18:23 [KJV] Did David indeed set by so high an honour in being allied to the family of an earthly prince; what then must be the dignity to which believers are called, in being heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ? The apostle was so lost in the contemplation of this unspeakable mercy that he cried out with holy rapture, “Behold! What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!" My soul, art thou begotten to this immense privilege? Ponder well thy vast inheritance. Not a barren title, not an empty name; this relationship brings with it a rich revenue of all temporal, spiritual, and eternal blessings. Sons in law and in grace to God in Christ, believers are born to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. They have the spirit of adoption a...

"Wilt Thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise Thee? Shall Thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave, or Thy faithfulness in destruction?" -Psalm 88:10, 11 [KJV] This is not the language of a soul dead in trespasses and sins, but it is the breathing of a living soul struggling and grappling with death. What a difference there is, where there is life working in and under death, and where death reigns absolutely! between the quickened soul and that in which there is nothing but death, death without one spark of spiritual life, death without one ray of heavenly teaching. There is no groan, no sigh, no lamentation, no piteous inquiry, no pouring out of the heart before God, where the soul is utterly dead, any more than there is life and breath in a corpse in the tomb.  But wherever life is implanted in the soul from the Fountain of life, that life groans under death. It sighs from out of the grave; it gasps for breath, under the corpse which...