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

     If the Holy Spirit enables us to be honest, it is a fact that there can be no real inward joy when we evaluate ourselves.  Whenever we look within we get discouraged because all we see is corruption.  Yes, we do believe Christ, but we do not pray enough, we do not read the Bible as much as we ought, we don’t love the Lord like we should, we do not love each other like we are supposed to; our hearts are sometimes cold and seemingly lifeless.   Every thought, every deed, every motive, every imagination is polluted by sin.  Who among us can find any comfort in our own conscience with regard to our relationship with a holy God upon the basis of anything within us.  Let this be established, the heart can only be genuinely comforted when we look away from self and cast the eyes of our souls upon Christ Jesus the Lord .   He is our hope, our joy, our confidence, our righteousness and our salvation.  When we look only...

More marred than any man’s The Savior’s visage see; Was ever sorrow like to His Endured on Calvary.   Oh, hear that piercing cry! What can its meaning be? “My God, my God, O why hast Thou In wrath forsaken Me?”   Oh ‘twas because our sins, On Him by God were laid; He Who Himself had never sinned, For sinners, sin was made.   Thus sin He put away By His great sacrifice; Then, Conqueror o’er death and hell, He mounted to the skies.   Therefore let all men know, That God is satisfied; And sinners all who Jesus trust, Through Him are justified.     The cross He bore is health,   Though shame and death for Him;   His people’s hope, His people’s wealth,   Their everlasting theme.         -Hymn, “I Love Thy Kingdom Lord” SM  Words by W. Russell, 1861 A.D.     -------O-------     JESUS IS OUR SAVIOR               Oh, to think that such an one as Jesus shou...

"That your love may abound yet more and more, in knowledge and in all judgment." - Philippians 1:9 [KJV]   The soul that is not concerned that it may be so with him, is not alive to God. We see many professors, who have lost a warm sense and comfortable feeling of divine truths. But are they deeply concerned for it? Do they earnestly wrestle with God, fervently crying out, O that it were with me as in months past? Alas! no: they say, We are not called to live upon our frames and feelings. Very true: neither, blessed be God! are we called to live without warm frames and comfortable feelings. O, let us beware, lest we despise the comforts of the Holy Ghost! Some professors, by their spirit and conduct, remind us of the fox in the fable, who lost his tail in a trap, and told his brethren he ran so much the lighter without it.    So some, having lost their warm and lively feelings, think little about them, and seem to say, they can run well without them. Truly, ...

"But Mary stood without at the sepulchre, weeping; and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre." -John 20:11 [KJV]   Behold, my soul! in this woman, a delightful instance of what thy love should be to thy Lord. If at any time thou dost miss thy Jesus, and longest for His return, where wouldest thou expect Him.? Surely at His ordinances, in His word, at His throne of grace, where Jesus "feedeth His kids by the footsteps of the flock, and beside the shepherds' tents." How do men of the world pursue the object of their wishes, but where it is to be found? Are they thirsty? they haste to drink. Are they cold? they seek the fire. Follow this plan. If Jesus be away, seek Him where He hath directed thee to come. So Mary waited at the sepulchre; and as she waited, she looked in, while she wept, to see the place where Jesus had lain. Sweet view of a sincere seeker! The heart and eye are both engaged, and all the affections are going fort...

"That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." - Romans 8:4 [KJV]   A person may be "in the flesh," as indeed we all are, and yet not "walk after it." To walk after it implies, a setting it up as a pattern, and walking in accordance with it. But a person may be dragged after another, as we see sometimes a child is dragged unwillingly along by its mother, who does not willingly walk with her. The child is not walking after its mother, nor hand in hand with her, nor side by side; but is compelled against its will to go a road which it hates, as to go to school when it fain would go to play. So in a sense it often is with the child of grace; he is often dragged on by the flesh. He does not go after it willingly; he does not sin wilfully, but is entangled by the strength of the flesh, dragged on contrary to his best wishes, and sometimes in spite of his earnest cries, tears, groans...