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

"But GOD, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with CHRIST (by grace ye are saved.)"   -Ephesians 2:4, 5 [KJV] My dear brethren in Christ, and thou, O my soul, one chief reason why, at any time, we have so little comfort, and are so low in joy, is, we do not enough believe and live upon the love of God. Let us never think of, or look for any mercy from God, without considering that it flows from love. Is God rich in mercy to any? It is because He loves them. Great love, everlasting, unchangeable love, is the source and spring of rich mercy. It was rich mercy, for God to give us His beloved Son to be our Saviour in time. This was because of his great love to us before time. He loved us from eternity in his Son.    He loves us invariably the same through time, and under all states and circumstances. Yea, when we were forlorn, hopeless, helpless, loathsome, and desperate, even dead in sins, ...

"But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth." -II Thessalonians 2:13 [KJV]   Some of the sweetest enjoyments in grace, are the freeness and undeserved nature of that grace towards the happy objects of its distinguishing favour: and as the first and ultimate design of all, for which grace is given, is the glory of Jehovah; so the promotion of that glory, in the redemption and sanctification of the church of Jesus, is the means and end. Now, my soul, sit down, this evening, and mark well, in the blessed effects wrought in thine own heart, what the apostle hath here said, that if thou art chosen, it must have been from the beginning thou art chosen to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth.    Pause, and ask thyself: art thou chosen? Hath this sovereign act of grace passed upon ...

"Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." -Hebrews 12:2 [KJV] No one can ever run the race set before him, except by looking unto Jesus. He is at the head of the race; He stands at the goal; holding the crown of victory in His hand, which He puts upon the head of the successful runner. And we can only run on as we view Jesus by the eye of faith at the right hand of the Father opening His blessed arms to receive us into His own bosom at the end of the race.    Nor indeed can any one really look to Him but by the special gift and grace of God. He must be revealed to the soul by the power of God; we must behold His glorious Godhead and His suffering manhood by the eye of faith; and we must view Him as the incarnate God; the only Mediator between God and man. We must see the efficacy of His atoning blood to purge a guilty conscience; the blessedness of His obedience to justify a needy, naked soul; the sweetness of His dying love as an inward balm and cordial ag...