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

"Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil."   —Ephesians 5:15, 16 [KJV] Light and life are communicated from Jesus to His members, not merely to fill their heads with gospel truths, as matters of speculation, or to make them fluent talkers about religion, but chiefly to affect their hearts, renew their minds, and cause them to be close, consistent WALKERS with Jesus. Without this, we only seem to be religious, and deceive our hearts, while our religion is vain: for we cannot stand approved in the sight of God, before men, nor to our own consciences.  "The wise man's eyes are in his head;"  he looks around him and sees the evil of sin, the vanity of this present world—that its gay pleasures, alluring pastimes, bewitching diversions, are the gilded bait of the god of this world, whereby he ensnares unwary fools to kill their precious time, and to blind and destroy their immortal souls! The wise man lo...

"When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." -Psalm 61:2 [KJV] Yes, Lord! I would make this my morning, noon, and evening petition, that the great glorifier of Jesus would gently lead me to Him who is a rock, and whose work is perfect. I know, dearest Lord, in theory, and can even reason upon it in seasons of coolness, that Thy strength and Thy security never fail; the failure is in me and my unbelief. And it is only when I lose sight of Thee and Thy promise, that I am tossed about with doubts and misgivings. If Jesus be out of sight, and thwarting dispensations arise, Oh! how soon is my poor forgetful heart ready to exclaim with the church of Old, " I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD."  Then come on the reasonings of flesh and blood. And then the question, whether my interest in Jesus and His salvation be sure? And then my poor heart goes forth, like the dove of Noah from the ark, having lost sight...

"That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." -Hebrews 6:12 [KJV]   Patience is necessary in order to prove the genuineness and reality of faith. The Lord generally—I may say invariably—does not accomplish His purposes at once. He usually—I might say almost invariably—works by gradations. Is not this the case in creation? Do we see the oak starting up in all its gigantic proportions in one day? Is not a tiny acorn committed to the ground; and is not the giant oak, whose huge limbs we admire, the growth of a century? Men and women are years growing up to their full stature. So spiritually. "He that believeth shall not make haste."  Faith in the soul is of slow growth for the most part; for the Lord takes care that every step in the path shall be tried by the perplexities and difficulties that surround it.   And He has appointed this that it may be a means of distinguishing the faith of God's ele...