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

"Will the Lord cast off for ever? will He be favourable no more?" - Psalm 77:7 [KJV] St. Paul speaks of some who had cast off their first faith. What was the consequence? having damnation (I Timothy 5:12.) If the power and liveliness of faith abate in the heart, a sense of condemnation will be in the conscience. Hence, enlightened, sensible sinners call in question the Lord’s love and grace towards them. They are prone to think, they have quite tired out His patience, and that nothing but wrath and misery await them. What shall we say to such?  The Saviour Himself speaks to them. Is it in wrath? Does He say, Because you have forsaken Me, I will cast you off for ever; die and be damned for your folly! I will show you no more favour? True, they have deserved this: they have reason to fear and expect this, was it not for the love of His heart and the grace of His word: therefore, they may joyfully sing, The love divine, which made us Thine, Shall keep us Thine for ...

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." -Revelation 3:20 [KJV] See, my soul, what condescension there is in Jesus! It was but on the last evening that thou were feasted by His own gracious invitation at His table; and now the Lord invites Himself at thine. So earnest is Jesus to keep up the closest acquaintance and holy familiarity with His redeemed, that if they are at any time backward in inviting Him, He will invite Himself. Jesus is prepared to come then this evening, before thou art prepared for Him; yea, not only before thou hast invited Him, but even before thy poor timid and unbelieving heart could have had the idea or expectation of such a guest. And hear what the gracious, kind, affectionate Lord saith. Behold! In which He not only desires to have it heard and known by thee, but all the church shall know His love in this particular, and be witn...

"Love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." -I John 4:7, 8 [KJV]   If ever you have loved Jesus with a pure affection; if ever you have felt him near, dear, and precious to your soul, that love can never be lost out of your heart. It may lie dormant; it does lie dormant. It may not be sweetly felt in exercise; but there it is. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha" (I Corinthians 16:22). You would be under this curse if the love of the Lord Jesus Christ were to die out of your heart. But this love is often sleeping.   When the mother sometimes watches over the cradle and looks upon her sleeping babe with unutterable affection, the infant knows not that the mother is watching its slumbers; but when it awakes, it is able to feel and return its mother's caresses. It is so with the soul sometimes when love in the heart is like a b...