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

"It pleased the Father, that in Him should all fulness dwell."   - Colossians 1:19 [KJV]   The religion of nature is the religion of pride. Pride is of the devil. Pride works by a lie, and keeps the soul in unbelief of the truth. Hence, we naturally think some change in us, some good done by us, causes God to be our Father, and we consider ourselves as His very good children. This notion obtains in the mind of many, and is the cause of their rejecting the everlasting covenant of the three-one Jehovah, and denying the covenant relations and transactions of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.    They are so filled with themselves, with their Stuff of inherent righteousness, freewill, moral agency, and one knows not what unscriptural jargon, that they see not all fulness in Jesus, where it pleased the Father it should dwell. Lord! empty us of all self-fulness, that we may receive out of Thy fulness. The Father, by covenant love, took on Him that near and d...

"Who is she that looketh forth as the morning; fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?" -Song of Solomon 6:10 [KJV]   By whomsoever this question is asked, there can be no question of whom it is said; for the church of Jesus, made comely by the comeliness which her Lord hath put upon her, is all this, and more, in every eye that can admire true loveliness; and will be a perfection of beauty, in the upper and brighter world for ever. The first openings of grace upon the soul, after a dark night of the fall, may be compared to the beauty of the morning. But though fair as the moon, it is but a borrowed light, as the moon, and subject to changes in its increasings, and in its warnings also.    As long as the sun's influences are upon this planet, its shinings will be fair. But when objects intervene from the earth, and the sun shines not, there will be an eclipse of all its borrowed lustre. Just so the church; and Oh! how ofte...

"Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents." -Song of Solomon 1:7, 8 [KJV] If you say that you want food and rest, to know Christ for yourself and to enjoy His presence and love, the Lord gives you two directions to attain to the enjoyment of these two blessings: 1. to tread in the footsteps of the flock, to walk in the way in which the saints of old have walked, in the path of tribulation and faith; 2. if you are favoured in any way to live within reach of the shepherds' tents, and have the privilege of hearing the gospel preached in its purity and power, to bring your kids in your arms beside the tent, and to put them down to feed on the juicy herbage.    And be assured that if...