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

"Who remembered us in our low estate, for His mercy endureth for ever."   - Psalm 136:23 [KJV] O my soul, never, never forget these two things, thy Lord’s memory, and His mercy. The one was towards thee from eternity: the other endures for ever. What hast thou to do in this little space of time, but to love, serve, and delight in thy mindful, ever merciful Lord?  (1st.) Consider thy low estate. Never lose sight of that. Never forget it, lest thou grow vain in thy imagination, and unmindful of our Lord’s love. At hell’s dark door we lay. Lower we could not be, unless shut up in the bottomless pit. Most awful state! O tremble at the thought! dead in sin. A child of wrath by nature. Under the curse of the law, and the power of the devil. Blind to our danger. Insensible of our destruction. Not a desire to escape damnation. Nay, we sported ourselves with our own deceivings.  Yet, (2d.) He remembered us. Who? Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit . The Father loved us fr...

"At evening-time it shall be light."   - Zechariah 14:7 [KJV] Then must it be miraculous; for nothing short of a supernatural work could produce such an effect. Sunrise at even-tide is contrary to nature; and the rising of the Sun of righteousness is a work of grace. Pause then, my soul, over the promise, and see whether such an event hath taken place in thy circumstances. As every thing in Jesus, and His salvation, in respect to His church and people, is the sole result of grace, not nature; so all the Lord's dispensations carry with them the same evidences.  It is even-time in the soul, yea, midnight darkness, ere first the Lord shines in upon it; it is so in all the after dispensations, when some more than ordinary manifestation is made; it is among the blessed methods of grace, when the Lord surprizeth His people with some rich visits of His love and mercy. "I said , (cried the church, at a time when the waters of the sanctuary ran low)  My way...

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."   -II Corinthians 4:7 [KJV]   Be not surprised if you feel that in yourself you are but an earthen vessel; if you are made deeply and daily sensible unto what a frail body God has communicated light and life. Be not surprised if your clay house is often tottering; if sickness sometimes assails your mortal tabernacle; if in your flesh there dwelleth no good thing; if your soul often cleaves to the dust; and if you are unable to retain a sweet sense of God's goodness and love. Be not surprised nor startled at the corruptions of your depraved nature; at the depth of sin in your carnal mind; at the vile abominations which lurk and work in your deceitful and desperately wicked heart.   Bear in mind that it is the will of God that this heavenly treasure which makes you rich for eternity should be lodged in an earthen vessel. We are to carry about a da...