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

“ Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. ...I will speak of the glorious honor of Thy majesty, and of Thy wondrous works. And men shall speak of the might of Thy terrible acts: and I will declare Thy greatness.” -145 th Psalm When I consider the absolute independency of God and the necessary total dependence of all created things on Him, their first cause, I cannot help standing astonished at the pride of impotent, degenerate man. He is so prone to consider himself as a being possessed of sovereign freedom and invested with a power of self-salvation, able, he imagines, to counteract the designs even of infinite wisdom and to defeat the agency of Omnipotence itself. “ Ye shall be as gods,” said the tempter to Eve (Genesis 3:5); and “ye are as gods” says the same tempter to her apostate sons. One would be apt to think that a suggestion so obviously false and flattering, a suggestion the very opposite of what we feel to be our...

"For we walk by faith, not by sight" -II Corinthians 5:7 [KJV] The nature of faith is to trust in the dark, when all appearances are against it; to trust that a calm will come, though the storm be overhead; to trust that God will appear, though nothing but evil be felt. It is tender, child-like, and therefore is an implicit confidence, a yielding submission, a looking unto the Lord. There is something filial in this; something heavenly and spiritual; not the bold presumption of the daring, nor the despairing fears of the desponding; but something beyond both the one and the other—equally remote from the rashness of presumption, and from the horror of despair. There is a mingling of holy affection connected with this trust, springing out of a reception of past favours, insuring favours to come; and all linked with a simple hanging and depending of the soul upon the Lord, because He is what He is . There is a looking to, and relying upon the Lord, beca...

“ And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice.” -John 10:4 [KJV] In the countries of the east, the shepherd goes before the sheep and they follow him. When he says, “Let us go to the well,” they follow him. When he says, “Let us go down into that dark valley,” they go after him. So it is with Christ. Christ never called a sheep to go where He never went Himself. He has borne all that He calls His sheep to bear. Christ went in a lower level of sorrow than you will be called to go. Do not be alarmed then when you are called to suffer, you will not be called to go where He has not gone. Do not be afraid to put down your tender feet where He put down His. And it is still true that He goes before you. “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall th...

"...Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that He Himself also is compassed with infirmity" -Hebrews 5:2 [ KJ V] Thanks be unto God for our compassionate and faithful High Priest, Jesus Christ ( Heb rews 2:17 ) . Our blessed Saviour knows our frame; He knows that we are but sinful dust ( Psalm 103:13-14 ) . But in spite of all that we are ( Psalm 39:5 ) and all that we have done ( Rom ans 3:23 ) the Lord is longsuffering and compassionate toward His children ( II Peter 3:9 ) . So much that He loves the unlovely ( Rom ans 5:8 ) , so much that Christ justifies the ungodly ( Rom ans 4:5 ) , so much that the Redeemer died to save sinners ( Rom ans 5:6 ) . We read that His compassions fail not and are new every morning ( Lam entations 3:22 ) . We read when He saw a multitude of sinners as sheep that were scattered having no shepherd, He was moved with compassion ( Matt hew 9:36 ) . What a blessed Shepherd ...

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus" -Romans 8:1 [KJV] The freedom of the believer is just what it is declared to be - entire exemption from condemnation. From all which that word of significant and solemn import implies, he is, by his relation to Christ, delivered. Sin does not condemn him, the law does not condemn him, the curse does not condemn him, hell does not condemn him, God does not condemn him. He is under no power from these, beneath whose accumulated and tremendous woe all others wither. A brief and simple argument will, perhaps, be sufficient to establish this fact. The pardon of sin necessarily includes the negation of its condemnatory power. There being no sin legally alleged, there can be no condemnation justly pronounced. Now, by the sacrifice of Christ all the sins of the Church are entirely put away. He, the sinless Lamb of God, took them up and bore them away into a land of oblivion, where e...

“ Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?” -Isaiah 2:22 [KJV] “ But seek ye first the kingdom of God, AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS” -The Master, Christ JESUS “The LORD our righteousness” as per Matthew 6:33a I had a professor in Bible college who likened salvation to a door. He said that salvation was all of grace, the work of God, but it hinges or turns upon the will of man. Contrast his heretical thoughts with the words of Augustus Toplady, author of Rock of Ages . “ God’s everlasting love , His decree of election , and the eternal covenant of redemption are the three hinges on which the door of man’s salvation turns. When man fell from God, infinite justice put a lock upon the door: a lock which nothing but the golden key of Christ’s blood and righteousness can open. The Holy Ghost (if I may venture to use so familiar a comparison) is, as it were, the omniscient Keeper of the door, and He l...

“ And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” - Isaiah 35:10 [KJV] I hope the reader will indulge me with one short observation on the subject of Jesus giving Himself a ransom for His people. Never in all the annals of mankind was there ever heard of such unparalleled love. Suppose some generous prince, out of compassion to any of his captive subjects, were to abridge his pleasures, and give large sums of money to bring them out of captivity- - how would the deed be applauded, and his name be idolized to all generations! But supposing this generous prince was to give himself for them, and exchange their persons in slavery by voluntarily surrendering up himself to such a state- - what would be said of this? And yet the Lord Jesus hath done this, and infinitely more, not for friends, but enemies; not for those who loved ...