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

Ref: Luke 18:9-10 [KJV] Message from preacher Henry Mahan (27 minutes). Link:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqPzxX13J90

"But if He thus say, I have no delight in thee; behold, here am I; let Him do to me as it seemeth good unto Him."   -II Samuel 15:26 [KJV]   Here is majesty in distress: a kingdom in confusion: and the king’s royal heart struck with a panic. Every circumstance concurs to heighten poor David’s sorrow. His own son had stolen away the heart of his subjects—raised a most unnatural rebellion against his royal father, and caused him to flee from his city. Very excellently, says one, “Let a child of God be but two or three years without an affliction, and he is almost good for nothing. He cannot pray, nor meditate, nor discourse at that rate he was wont to do. But when a new affliction comes, he finds his tongue: he comes to his knees with fervency, and lives at another rate.”    Perhaps David was never more weaned from self-confidence, nor did his faith ever run higher, nor was his soul bowed lower, nor did he ever breathe with more humble submission to divine sovereignt...

"Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, Thou shalt purge them away ." - Psalm 65:3 [KJV] My soul, ponder over this important verse. It is but short, but it is full of precious things. Blessed the man that can, from his heart, make use of what is here said as his own experience! He hath learned much of Christ, that can do so. In a time when a sense of sin abounds, when comforts run low, and the rebellion of the remains of indwelling corruptions riseth high; when the enemy cometh in like a flood, and no answers return from the sanctuary; yea, when the very spirit of prayer fails, and the heaven that is over the head, is as brass, and the earth that is under the feet, is as iron; then to rest simply upon Christ, and to say, "Iniquities prevail against me!"    I feel the dreadful consequences of a fallen state; but all those transgressions Jesus will purge them away; though the Canaanites are yet in the land, my almighty Joshua will, by little a...

"O that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat! I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments." -Job 23:3, 4 [KJV] Was not Job in the same spot where we often are? If this aged patriarch had not known what it was to be shut up in his mind, harassed and distressed, and well-nigh overwhelmed with the attacks of the wicked one, he would not have said, "O that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat! I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments." Has that ever been, is it now, the genuine feeling, the real experience of your soul? Do look into your heart, you that fear God. Do look for a moment, if you have never looked before, at the work of grace (and where are you, if you have never looked at it?) and consider if you know any of these matters. Did you ever, in a feeling of darkness, gloom, bondage, and distress of soul, cry (I do not say the words, it is the feeling...