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

“ We do not find rest, hope, nor comfort in our faith but in Christ.” If you will give careful thought to that statement, it will be of great help to you. Faith is not a foundation, a refuge, nor a source of help. Faith is a means, a look, an empty hand. I T IS CHRIST WHO IS OUR REFUGE , Who protects from every storm. He is our rock on which we build. He is our source of every mercy and our only plea. My faith may be weak or weaker, but He cannot fail. If all my debts have been paid by my Surety, I don’t have to be ashamed to come before God. The praise and credit goes not to my boldness and faith but to my gracious Benefactor! I am not debt-free because I believe (though I do, and that faith united me to Him) BUT BECAUSE HE SET ME FREE AND PAID MY DEBT. Christ is our confidence and our assurance. The moment I seek a reason for hope in anything I do, even in the blessed grace of faith, I forfeit any possibility of peace. “Blessed is that man that maketh the L ORD his trust” (P...

The sacrifice of Christ unites all the attributes of God together for a believer’s interest. The flames of justice focus on Christ so that the streams of mercy might flow down to us. Rivers of mercy do not quench the flames of justice nor the flames of justice suck up the rivers of mercy. As the sacrificing of Christ is a vengeance against sin, it is an act of justice; as it is the means of remission of sins, it is an act of mercy. Both justice and mercy join hands to lift the fallen creature up. God is just in being merciful and merciful in being just so we well may cry aloud with the Psalmist, “ Gracious is the LORD, and righteous” (Psalm 116:5) . Justice struck Christ, the sacrifice, that the streams of mercy might be fully released to sinners. Compassion helped justice to a satisfaction more honorable than could have been had from creatures for it was fully satisfied in punishing Christ for our sins; and justice helped mercy to a fuller and more illustrious exercise of itself th...

"In W hom, though now ye see H im not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." - I Peter 1:8 [KJV] Here we have linked together faith, love, joy, and glory. The word translated "rejoice" means a high degree of joy, and signifies literally, to leap with joy. Spiritual joy, holy joy, is therefore distinguished from earthly joy, natural joy, not only in nature, but in degree. Natural joy can never rise very high, nor last very long. It is of the earth, earthy, and therefore can never rise high nor long endure. It is always marred by some check, damp or disappointment; and, as in the bitterest cup of the righteous "There's some thing secret sweetens all," so in the sweetest cup of the ungodly there is something secret embitters all. All their mirth is madness; for even "in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness." God frowns upon all the worldling's pleasure, conscience condemns i...

We cannot keep our eye too exclusively or too intently fixed upon Jesus. All salvation is in Him. All salvation proceeds from Him. All salvation leads to Him. And for the assurance and comfort of our salvation we are to repose believingly and entirely on Him. Christ must be all! Christ the beginning ­ Christ the center ­ Christ the end. Oh, sweet truth to you who are sensible of your poverty, vileness, and insufficiency, and of the ten thousand flaws and failures of which, perhaps, no one is cognizant but God and your own soul! Oh, to turn and rest in Christ ­ a full Christ ­ a loving Christ ­ a tender Christ, whose heart's love never chills, from whose eyes dart no reproof, from whose lips breathes no sentence of condemnation! Christ must be all! -preacher Octavius Winslow (1808-1878 A.D.)

"Whom having not seen, ye love."   - I Peter 1:8  [KJV] How this speaks to our hearts; and cannot some, if not many of us say too, "Whom having not seen, we love?" Do we not love Him, dear readers? Is not His name precious to us as the ointment poured forth? But we have not seen Him. No, not by the eye of sense and nature; but we have seen Him by the eye of faith; for He has manifested Himself to us, or to some of us, and we have seen His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. It is, then, by faith that we see Jesus. We read of Moses that, "by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing H im who is invisible." So by faith we see Jesus who is invisible; for as faith is "the substance of things hoped for," so is it "the evidence of things not seen." Thus we see that it is by Jesus coming to the soul and manifesting Himself unto it that we see Him. ...

  Now I have found the ground wherein My anchor, hope, shall firm remain, The wounds of Jesus, for my sin Are born away in the Lamb slain; Whose mercy shall unshaken stay, When heaven and earth are fled away. [O grace, thou bottomless abyss, My sins are swallowed up in thee! Covered is my unrighteousness; From condemnation I am free. For Jesus’ blood, through earth and skies, Mercy, eternal mercy, cries.] Jesus, I know, has died for me; Here is my hope, my joy, my rest; Hither, when hell assails, I flee; I look into my Savior’s breast. Away, sad doubt and anxious fear; Mercy and love are written there. Fixed on this ground will I remain, Though my heart fail and flesh decay; This anchor shall my soul sustain, When earth’s foundations melt away. Mercy’s full power I then shall prove, Loved with an everlasting love. Tune: "Faith of Our Fathers"

"And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt."   -Hosea 2:15  [KJV] Now the "valley of Achor" signifies the "valley of trouble." It was the valley in which Achan was stoned. And why stoned? Because he had taken the accursed thing; because his eye had been captivated by the Babylonish garment and golden wedge, and he had buried them in the tent. This may throw a light on what the "valley of Achor" is spiritually. Perhaps you have been guilty of Achan's sin; you have been taking the accursed thing; have been too deeply connected with the world; have done things which God's displeasure is against. Let conscience speak in the bosom of each. The consequence has been, that you have got into the "valley of Achor!" Trouble, sorrow, and confusion are your lot, and you do not ...