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

  “ Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read” -Isaiah 34:16 [KJV] Our Holy Bible contains the mind of God, the state of men, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners without Christ, and the happiness of believers in and with Christ. Its doctrine is holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its judgments are immutable. Read it to be wise unto salvation, believe it to be safe in the righteousness of God in Christ, and practice it to be godly. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler’s map, the pilgrim’s staff, the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s sword, and the Christian’s charter. Here Paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the ways of hell disclosed. God’s glory is its goal, Christ is its grand object, our good its design, and the redemption of God’s elect is its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, a river of pleasure....

  The lifeboat of free grace has put you on board the vessel of salvation, and that will convey you safely to the port of glory! Do not look at your spiritual destitution, or feebleness, or incapacity, or imperfections, but trust in your Pilot, rely on your Captain, and expect His mercy and merit to land you safe in Heaven at last! As imperfect as you now are, and as imperfect you will be, your dying prayer will still be, "God be merciful unto me — a sinner!" Hope in God! His mercy is great unto the heavens, His grace is as free as the air, His love is as changeless as His nature, His promise is as immutable as His love. Hope in God, for you shall yet praise Him. He will save you for His own sake, and present you before assembled worlds as a monument of His mercy, and a trophy of His grace! -preacher James Smith, 1864 A.D.

"Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end." -Proverbs 19:20 [KJV] What lessons we need day by day to teach us anything aright, and how it is for the most part "line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little." O what slow learners, what dull, forgetful scholars, what ignoramuses, what stupid blockheads, what stubborn pupils! Surely no scholar at a school, old or young, could learn so little of natural things as we seem to have learnt of spiritual things after so many years' instruction, so many chapters read, so many sermons heard, so many prayers put up, so much talking about religion. How small, how weak is the amount of grace compared with all we have read and heard and talked about.   But it is a mercy that the Lord saves whom He will save, and that we are saved by free grace, and free grace alone, through the blood and righteousness of the Son of God. "He of God is made unto us wisdom and...

  "If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering. But if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity." -Daniel Webster, American statesman (1782 - 1852 A.D.)

  "... s uch as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." -Psalm 107:10 [KJV] God's people are here represented not as sitting in death; were they sitting there, they would be dead altogether; but they are sitting in the shadow of death. Observe, death has lost its reality to them; it now can only cast a shadow, often a gloomy shadow, over their souls; but there is no substance. The quickening of the Spirit of God in them has destroyed the substance of death spiritually; and the death and resurrection of Jesus have destroyed the substance of death naturally.   Yet, though the gloomy monster, deadness of soul, and that ghastly king of terrors, the death of the body, have been disarmed and destroyed by "Immanuel, God with us;" yet each of them casts at times a gloomy, darkling shadow over the souls of those that fear God. Is not your soul, poor child of God, exercised from time to time with this inward death? Deadness in prayer, deadness in reading the w...

  "For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance."   - I Thessalonians 1:5 [KJV] The Holy Ghost never comes into any poor sinner's soul, except through the medium of the gospel of the grace of God. Have you ever considered that point? You are praying, perhaps, that the Holy Spirit would teach you, and be in you a Spirit of revelation, a Remembrancer, a Comforter, Instructor, and Teacher. You pray for His gifts, and graces, and sanctifying operations; but have you ever viewed these graces in connection with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Now, if you want the Holy Spirit to come into your soul, you must keep firm hold of the gospel; you must not run away from it to the law or to self; but keep firm, fast hold of it , so far as you have felt its power, and have a living faith in it.   If, then, you are tried, still hold the gospel. If Satan get you into his sieve, still hold the gospel; if in the furnace of a...

  God's Word says, "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is" (Jeremiah 17:7) . I recently saw a sign outside a religious organization that read - "Jesus Believes In You." When I read this sign, the following verse came to mind - "Behold, He putteth no trust in His saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight" (Job 15:15) . Man by nature in an unregenerate state always thinks more highly of himself that he is. He considers himself to be of great value to the Lord. He will even consider himself as someone in whom God believes and trusts, but this is not so. In ourselves we are worthless sinners who deserve eternal damnation. Why, then, would God give His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is infinitely valuable in Himself, to die for such worthless sinners? It is true that God sent His only-begotten, beloved Son to die for the sins of His elect. The value of the sacrifice, the precious blood of Christ, was not du...