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

"—That in all things He might have the pre-eminence."   -Colossians 1:18 [KJV]   We cannot be happy, till this truth is brought into the experience of our hearts. The regenerate soul is ever at war with the flesh, for it opposes the pre-eminence of Christ. And is also at war against the proud notions of profane, as well as self-righteous men, who reject Christ our precious Head, from having the pre-eminence in the salvation of the body. They put Him in subordination in many things, instead of giving Him the pre-eminence in all things.    When our Lord says, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work , ” (John 5:17) some self-sufficient sinners become bold intruders, and add, “Lo we work also, and our works must have some part in our salvation.” Well, it will be so, till the law of works, which has the pre-eminence in their hearts, kills their legal hopes and self-righteous confidence.    Soul, can you say with St. Paul, “I, through the law, am d...

"There they made Him a supper."   -John 12:2 [KJV]   We are very apt to suppose the blessedness of those hallowed seasons in which the Lord Jesus ate and drank familiarly with His disciples, as peculiarly given to the followers of our Lord in the days of His flesh. And, no doubt, there was a precious savour which Jesus manifested upon those occasions. He that laid aside His garments, and condescended to wash His disciples' feet, may well be supposed to have said and shewn a thousand gracious things in those seasons, which are not recorded. But, my soul, depend upon it, if we make Jesus a supper, or if Jesus invites us to His own, which is the same thing, there will be always a blessed savour of His person, work, and righteousness, when His person is the subject of discourse, and His work and righteousness the rich food of the soul.    Our ordinary meals would be truly sanctified, if the love, and grace, and favour of the bountiful Giver of them, became ...

"Nevertheless My lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer My faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips." - Psalm 89:33, 34 [KJV]   We live in a changeable, ever-changing world. All without us is stamped with mutation, death, and decay; and as regards ourselves everything within us tells us how frail, weak, and mutable we are. Thus, as viewed by the eye of sense and reason, uncertainty and changeability are ever seen to be deeply stamped, not only on every event of time, but on all we are and have in body and soul; and this experience of what we feel in ourselves and see in all around us often wonderfully tries both our faith and hope, for we are apt to measure God by ourselves, and judge of our state before Him, not according to His word, but according to the varying thoughts and exercises of our mind.    But when we can look by faith through all these mists and fogs which, as resti...