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

"At that day, saith the LORD, thou shalt call Me Ishi, and shalt call Me no more Baali." - Hosea 2:16 [KJV] Many people say, “The Scripture is a dead letter.” Who told them so? not God in His word. True, St. Paul says, “The letter killeth” (II Corinthians 3:6.) This cannot prove the Scripture to be a dead letter; but only, that the letter of the law is a ministration of death. Therefore, even the law cannot be a dead letter: for that which killeth cannot be dead itself. St. Stephen calls it, “The lively oracles” (Acts 7:38.) Our Lord says, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63.)    If we are dead to the law and married to Christ, here is a precious word of spirit and life from our loving Bridegroom to us this night. Married by faith: this is what constitutes “that day,” that gospel-day of our espousals. Whatever may be in the womb of God’s purpose and decree concerning any sinner, yet he can enjoy no comfort of...

"Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the LORD of Hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered."   - Zechariah 13:7 [KJV] That this blessed scripture points to Christ, and to Him only, the Lord Jesus Himself fully confirmed in His discourse with His disciples at the Mount of Olives, Matthew 26:31 . And indeed of whom could Jehovah thus speak, as "fellow to the LORD of Hosts," but to Him, who, "though in the form of God, and with whom it was no robbery to be equal with God, yet took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men?" But what call is this to the sword? Was it the flaming sword at the gate of Paradise, which was placed there to guard the way to the tree of life? And had the sword been for so many ages sleeping? Could none presume to enter but Jesus? And if He enters, the sword of God's justice must first awake, and be sheathed in His heart? And ...

"I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation." -Habakkuk 3:18 [KJV] If ever, as we pass through this wilderness, we feel one drop of solid joy, of true happiness, it must flow, it can flow only from one source—the manifestation of Christ to our souls. This joy may be very transient: we may have to look upon it through a vista of many years; and doubts and fears may becloud the mind whether we ever rejoiced truly in Christ, or whether our joy might not have been "the joy of the hypocrite" that perisheth.    And yet we are brought to this point—we can find joy and peace in Him alone. Sin, the world, the things of time and sense, business, amusement, pleasure so called, afford now no joy; there is an aching void, a feeling of dreariness and misery connected with everything short of communications of mercy, favour, and love.    So that though we may not be enabled to say, 'we greatly rejoice at all times, in all places, at all se...