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

"And the LORD went His way, as soon as He had left communing with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his own place." -Genesis 18:33 [KJV] Love is the bond of friendship. Unless love be mutual, friendship cannot subsist. The sweets of friendship are enjoyed in free communications. Friends are delighted with each other’s presence. Long absence causes pain. This is true between God and the soul. If you feel concern at the absence of God, you love God: you are a friend of the Lord’s. The Lord stoops to earth: He takes our flesh: He visits and converses with us as friends. This same Lord communes with Abraham.  Consider, (1st.) Abraham was a poor sinner, as we are; he could no more behold the essential glory of the Godhead, without a mediator, than we can. Nor can God in His essential glory, as perfectly holy and righteous, draw near to fallen man, without a mediator, but sudden destruction must be his awful doom. Therefore it was Jesus the Lord, the sinner’s Friend, Med...

“In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he that is feeble among them at that day, shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them." -Zechariah 12:8 [KJV] My soul! in the calculation of times and seasons, thou art entering this day upon a new month; stand still and consider what progress thou art making in the spiritual path. Here is a sweet promise for the gospel dispensation. It is an old testament promise to be fulfilled in a new testament day. The weak and feeble, in our spiritual David, being really and truly in David, shall be as David, that is, strong in the grace and strength that are in Christ Jesus. And the whole house of David, every true believer in Jesus, shall be as Jesus; that is, so accounted before God, as one in Christ, and accepted in Him the Beloved; for in the eye of God, and of His holy law, they are one and the same. But what a sad consideration is it that the progress...

"They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them."  -Jeremiah 31:9 [KJV] Until God is pleased to pour out upon us the spirit of grace and of supplications, we cannot worship Him aright; for God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth ; nor can we without this spirit offer up that spiritual sacrifice which is acceptable to Him through Jesus Christ. When this spirit has been once given and kindled in a believer's breast, it never dies out. It is like the fire upon the brazen altar, which was first given by the Lord Himself from heaven, and concerning which God gave this command: "The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out" (Leviticus  6:13).   This fire might sink low; it might be covered with the ashes of sacrifice, but it never was suffered to go out for want of supply of fuel. So at times it may seem to you as if there were scarcely any spirit of prayer alive in yo...