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

"He hath put a new song in my mouth."   - Psalm 40:3 [KJV] Some sing, when they have cause to be sad: others are sad, when they have reason to sing and rejoice. Some go on merrily to hell; others go on sorrowing to heaven. When the grace of Jesus is in the heart, a new song is put into the mouth. This is a song of new covenant love. This we are to sing all our days on earth, and for ever and ever in glory. In passing the streets, we meet with many occurrences, which remind us of our Beloved. It is sweet to spiritualize carnal things. I was much delighted with a carnal song, which concludes thus:  "All the time is thrown away, But what is spent in love."   I thought this was very true of the love of our Saviour. This Psalm is applied to Christ in His manhood state (see Hebrews ch. 10.) A new song was put in His mouth on our accounts. He says, “Many shall see it, and fear, and trust in the LORD.” See hence, our spiritual joy springs from seeing Christ’s ...

"Now thou art commanded, this do ye: take your waggons out of the land of Egypt, for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours." -Genesis 45:19-20 [KJV]   What effect must the first news of Joseph being alive, and his exaltation at the right hand of Pharaoh, have had upon the mind of the patriarch Jacob! And what a flood of overwhelming joy must have broke in upon the poor old man, when convinced of the certainty of the account! But what are all these feelings of nature, compared to the triumphs of grace, when the poor sinner is first made acquainted with the wonders of redemption, wrought out and accomplished by one that is his Brother, even our spiritual Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ?   Yes! Thou risen and exalted Saviour! By faith I behold Thee on the right hand of the Majesty on high; and all power is Thine in heaven and on earth. I hear Thee giving comm...

"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." -John 6:63 [KJV]   It is through the word that the soul in the first instance is cleansed. It is by the word that the soul is begotten again unto eternal life. It is, too, by the word applied to the heart that the blessed Spirit from time to time keeps alive communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. Is it not so in vital experience? Some passage of Scripture drops into the soul, some promise comes warm into the heart, and as it comes it makes way for itself. It enters the heart, breaks down the feelings, melts the soul, and draws forth living faith to flow unto and centre alone in the "altogether lovely."     There are many times and seasons when the word of God is to us a dead letter; we see and feel no sweetness in it. But there are other times, through mercy, when the word of God is made sweet and precious to us; when we...

"When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue fainteth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them."   - Isaiah 41:17 [KJV] It is common to hear people say, ‘Such-an-one is a great believer.’ What idea strikes our mind of such a person? Are we not apt to think he is very rich in himself, having a vast stock of inherent righteousness? This is wrong: he is just the reverse. He is one, who knows himself to be poor and needy. His great faith leads him out of himself, to the great God and our Saviour, to receive, out of his fulness, grace upon grace . He confesses, I am a poor and needy sinner, living upon the unsearchable riches of Christ .    The sight of our poverty, and sense of our need, the Holy Spirit keeps up in our minds all through life. This makes Christ, and His riches of grace, precious to us. Some say, Such-an-one is only a seeker of the Lord. This is just what God’s children are al...

"Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." - Isaiah 53:4 [KJV]   My soul! call up, this evening, all thy most earnest and most solemn thoughts, to the meditation of a subject, which the Holy Ghost opens to thy view in these words. And if the Lord the Spirit, that proposeth to thy soul the solemn consideration, will graciously instruct thee through it, perhaps it will lead to such views of Jesus as may not before so fully have struck thine attention.    Oh, Lord! guide Thy servant in it! Now here it is said, "He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." By which, it may be supposed, is meant, both the curse and the punishment. And certain it is, that unless Christ bore both, the sinner is not freed. From the sinner, or his surety, God's justice must exact full payment. But if it be found that in the surety that exaction hath been made, and fully paid, then is the sinner free; for from both it would be unjust to exact.   Now ...

"But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." -I Corinthians 1:30 [KJV]   Consider what heavenly blessings there are for those who have a living union with the Son of God. Everything is provided for them that shall be for their salvation and their sanctification: not a single blessing has God withheld that shall be for their eternal good. View them as foolish, ignorant, unable to see the way, puzzled and perplexed by a thousand difficulties, harassed by sin, tempted by Satan, far off upon the sea. How shall they reach the heavenly shore?  God, by an infinite act of sovereign love, has made His dear Son to be their "wisdom," so that none shall err so as to err fatally; none shall miss the road for want of heavenly direction to find it or walk in it. Their glorious Head, who is in heaven, is made of God unto them wisdom on earth to bring them to their heavenly inheritance....