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

"Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him." - Genesis 42:8 [KJV]   How affecting is the history of Joseph! Who can read it without emotion of soul? What amazing scenes of Providence open to our view! Spiritual minds may see many things in it typical of our beloved Saviour. Here, Joseph’s brethren are introduced to him, as governor of Egypt. He knew them: they knew not him. How does he deal with them? Does he instantly make himself known to them? No: though he had the most tender affections of heart to them, and wept tears of joy at the sight of them; yet he speaks roughly, and sends them to prison.    Why this? to bring their sin to their mind, and to affect them for their cruelty towards him, with a deep sense of their guilt. See we not somewhat typical of the conduct of Christ, our brother in the flesh, in all this?    (1st.) Christ knew us before we knew Him: He knew us from eternity, when we were chosen in Him, and given to Him.  ...

"Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see." -Revelation 3:17, 18 [KJV]   My soul! take a leisurely view of what the Redeemer hath here stated of the church of Laodicea, and gather from it thine evening improvement. What a melancholy representation hath Jesus given! It would have been bad enough to have been in this state, even had the church been seeking deliverance from it; but to fancy herself well when very ill, to have the spots of death upon her when she supposed herself recovered, what can be more awful? See to it, my soul, that this be not thy case; ponder over the several characters here drawn...

  "...by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil."   -Proverbs of Solomon 16:6 [KJV]    There is a very close and intimate connection between godly fear and being "holy in all manner of conversation." When do we drop into levity of conversation? When do light and frothy words fall from our lips? When do any of those hasty bursts of temper, or those fretful expressions, or that mere carnal, worldly talk to which we are naturally prone, hover upon our lips and break forth, more or less unguardedly, from our tongue?    Is it not when this godly fear is not playing its streams as a fountain of life to well water the soul and soften it into humility and love, and is not springing up in wholesome checks and godly admonitions to keep the tongue as with a bridle and to rule that little member which, though so little, if untamed, defileth the whole body?    But if this fear be in exercise, it will restrain that levity of speech which not on...