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

‘The mere presentation of truth, apart from the influences of the Spirit, can neither renew nor sanctify the heart, [Romans 7] verse 14, &c.’ -An Exposition of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Charles Hodge, p.246, Robert Carver & Bros. Publishers [1859 A.D.]

"All that the Father giveth Me, shall come to Me, and him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out."   - John 6:37 [KJV]   By how many ways does Satan gain advantage over us? Though he cannot engage us in his drudgery, as cooks and scullions in a kitchen, yet he often employs us, to nurse those peevish, deformed, ill-favoured brats, corrupt reason, unbelief, slavish fear, etc. And he gives us no other wages for our service, but distress, dejection, and discontent. O ye children of God, instead of nursing such a vile brood, why do you not rather poison them by divine truths, and dash them in pieces in divine promises, flowing from God’s everlasting love to you. Mark the process of it.    (1st.) Because the Lord loved you, He gave you to His Son. This implies some secret transaction between God the Father, and His Son Jesus, in covenant purposes. ALL, whom the Father loved with an everlasting love, and chose in the morning of eternity, He committed i...

"If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him. But if a man sin against the LORD, who shall intreat for him?" -I Samuel 2:25 [KJV]   It is a very solemn thing to behold a trembling convicted malefactor, when standing before an earthly tribunal, although the judge is of the same nature with himself: for every thing is solemn, earnest, and impartial. But what is the awfulness of a court of human judicature, compared to that day, in which a whole world, all found guilty before God, shall stand before the judgment-seat of Christ?   In this life, there is, for the most part, somewhat to mitigate, and to excite hope in the worst of cases: some tender-hearted friend, some kind neighbour, some feeling relation, will be found to arise, to soften, if not able to relieve, the guilty man's distress. But at that tribunal, where none can plead, and where all hearts are open, what shall be found to stop the overwhelming horrors of the condemned?   Pause, my s...

"He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." - Psalm 107:9 [KJV]   We find the living family of God sometimes set forth under the character of the hungry. Let us see what they are hungering after. Is it pleasure, honour, promotion, respectability? O no; these toys and baubles cannot satisfy the spiritual hunger of a living soul. They cannot hunger after that on which they cannot feed. They hunger then after righteousness, as the Lord said: "Blessed are ye that hunger and thirst after righteousness." They hunger after God Himself in His blessed manifestations; they hunger after the Bread of Life which came down from heaven, that a man should eat thereof and not die.    Christ in the letter of the word cannot satisfy their keen appetite. They must feed upon Him internally, or their famine still continues. To these hungry, famishing souls, to have Christ in the letter is like a starving beggar standing outside a shop where...