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

"Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. " -Isaiah 40:1 [KJV] (1st.) Who are the people of God? “I am of that number,” saith one;  “for I feel my heart is full of comfort, as ever it can hold.”  It may be so. Then, this text is not for thee. But it will do thee no harm to examine into the nature of thy comforts, the tendency of them, and how thou contest by them. Saith another, “I am sure I cannot think myself one of the people of God.”  Why not? “Because, instead of the comforts of God’s children, I have continual sorrows and conflicts, am oppressed by Satan, harassed with temptations, groan under a body of sin and death, and dread, after all, that I shall perish in my sins, through unbelief."  Thou art the very person, one of the happy number of the Lord’s people, of whom He here speaks. He describes His people as poor and afflicted, who trusted in His name (Zephaniah 3:12.) What is His holy and blessed will concerning you?  Why, (2d.)...

"...who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for His body's sake, which is the church." -Colossians 1:24 [KJV] What can the apostle mean from these expressions? Not, surely, that the sufferings of Jesus were incomplete , or that the sufferings of His people were to make up a deficiency: for in treading the wine-press of the wrath of God against sin, Jesus trod it alone, and of the people there was none with Him. And so perfectly finished and complete was the whole work of redemption by Jesus, that by the one offering of Himself, once offered, "He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."  But what a sweet scripture is this of the apostle's, when it is interpreted with reference to Jesus, that in all the sufferings of His people Jesus takes a part! Jesus suffered in His own person fully and completely, when as an expiatory sacrifice for sin He died, the just fo...

"Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe."   -Psalm 119:117 [KJV]   We are surrounded with snares; temptations lie spread every moment in our path. These snares and temptations are so suitable to the lusts of our flesh, that we shall infallibly fall into them, and be overcome by them but for the restraining providence or the preserving grace of God . The Christian sees this; the Christian feels this. He has had, it may be, a bitter experience of the past. He has seen how, from want of walking in godly fear, for want of circumspection and standing upon his watch-tower, he has been entangled in times past in the snares of death.  He has rued (- to   lament, regret & grieve ) the consequences, felt the misery of having slipped and fallen; the iron has entered into his soul; he has been in the prison house, in bondage, in darkness, and death; in consequence of his transgressions he has been "the fool"  described in Psalm 108, as "afflicted because of ...