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

     It was Martin Luther who said, “The sea of God’s mercies should swallow up all our particular afflictions.”  Name any affliction that is upon thee, there is a sea of mercy to swallow it up.  If you pour a pail full of water on the floor of your house, it makes a great show; but if you throw it into the sea, there is no appearance of it.  So, afflictions, considered in themselves, we think are very great; but let them be compared with the sea of God’s mercies which we enjoy, they are not so much.  They are nothing in comparison ."

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KCiMdR1ox0   "Eternal Father, strong to save,  Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,  Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep  Its own appointed limits keep;  Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,  For those in peril on the sea!  O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard  And hushed their raging at Thy word,  Who walkedst on the foaming deep,  And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;  Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,  For those in peril on the sea!   Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood  Upon the chaos dark and rude,  And bid its angry tumult cease,  And give, for wild confusion, peace;  Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,  For those in peril on the sea!  O Trinity of love and power!  Our brethren's shield in danger's hour;  From rock and tempest, fire and foe,  Protect them wheresoe'er they go;  Thus evermore shall rise to Thee  Glad hymns of p...

"I said in my haste, All men are liars."   -Psalm 116:11 [KJV] We are prone to be too hasty in our censures of others, while the greatest fault lies at our own door . David here brands all men, with being liars, when he himself was the greatest liar of all, if we take the words in this sense. Here, he even charges Samuel the prophet of the Lord with a lie. For he had anointed him to be king, and assured him of the kingdom. But he spoke in haste, without due thought and deliberation— unadvisedly, under temptation, when he was off his guard, and fled from the rage of Saul. Though some think, David rather uttered the bold language of confident faith. I said in my flight, that notwithstanding all the fury of Saul, and all the suggestions of my enemies to the contrary, “Let God be true, and every man a liar” (Romans 3:4.)     The Lord will surely preserve me. I shall certainly be king. David was the subject, both of faith and unbelief: of a hasty spirit, which ex...

"Return, return, O Shulamite, return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies." -Song of Solomon 6:13 [KJV]   It is the church that is here called upon to return, and most likely by the daughters of Jerusalem. Some have thought the church is so called, as being of Salem, or Shulem, the shortened word for Jeru-salem. And some have thought that Salem is the same with Solomon, as the feminine of Solomon, the wife. And others have supposed, that as Jerusalem means peace, the church is called so, on account of her loveliness. And no doubt, in each sense, the church may well be called so, being married to Christ; being of the "Jerusalem that is above, which is the mother of us all;" and being beautiful, peaceful, and lovely in Jesus, as Jerusalem is the praise of the whole earth, Psalm 48:9 . But wherefore is the Shulamite called upon to return, to be looked upon, and with such earnestness...

"As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance; but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." -I Peter 1:14-16 [KJV]   Grace lays us under the greatest of all obligations to its free and bountiful Giver, and especially to render a believing obedience to His revealed will and word. It is His free, sovereign, and distinguishing grace alone which makes and manifests us to be His children, and therefore it demands of us, as a feeble and most insufficient tribute of grateful praise, that we should walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, and glorify Him in our body and spirit which are His. He that has never known and felt this knows nothing of the riches of God's grace in the manifestation of mercy and love to his soul. Such a one knows, that do what he can, he can never do enough to show forth the praises of H...