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

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." -Isaiah 1:18 [KJV] Whenever our Lord denounces His judgments against hardened and impenitent sinners, we are sure to find a word of grace from His precious lips to our dear trembling souls. His loving heart knew that what He had been declaring against others, His people would take to themselves, reason their hearts into dejection and sorrow, and cast away their hopes and their comforts; therefore, as He frequently, in the days of His flesh, turned aside to His disciples and said, “Come now , ” —let not trouble arise in your hearts, let not terror and dread seize on your spirits one moment; so here, “Let us reason together . ”   Do not reason with flesh and blood—with your carnal notions, and your legal hearts; confer not with Satan, who is your enemy and accuser;—but reason with Me: I am jus...

"Thus saith the LORD: Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live." -Isaiah 38:1 [KJV] My soul! whether or not the decree be as yet gone forth for an early day for thy removal, as here to Hezekiah, it must shortly arrive; and as thou knowest not how soon, it is good to set both thine house and thine heart in order; for he that is best fitted to live, is best prepared to die. How stands thy great account? This body of thine must go down to the chambers of the grave. And surely if the soul be safe in union with Jesus, such an event as the dissolution of the body, is more to be desired than dreaded. If the pearl be safe, no matter though the casket be broken. Pause over the view; for though it be solemn, it is profitable. If a voice from heaven declared the dead to be blessed, who die in the Lord; then will thy death be blessed, if thou art living in union with Christ. See to it this night, this very night, whether this be thy case; all is well if t...

"Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall."   -II Peter 1:10 [KJV] Have you any testimony to your effectual calling? Has grace indeed laid hold of your heart? O that you might know more fully—more powerfully—what a blessed hope of eternal life is laid up in the bosom of this heavenly calling, that it might cheer and encourage you to press on more and more to realise all that is given you in Christ, both for here and hereafter, in present grace and in future glory! In knowing what is the hope of their effectual calling, the saints of God learn that this hope embraces all things which are made theirs in Christ, whether life or death, or things present or things to come, that all are theirs; and for this blessed and all-sufficient reason, that they are Christ's and Christ is God's.  It is by making sure our calling that we make sure our election,—for the one is the ...