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

  "And Peter said unto Him, Lord, dost Thou wash my feet ? " -John 13:6  [KJV] My soul! dost thou want some sweet, some tender, some more than ordinarily interesting view of thy Jesus, this evening, to draw out all the finer feelings in love and adoration of thy Redeemer? Look at Him then in the moment in which this scripture represents Him, in His lowliness and meekness, washing the disciples' feet. Had I the power of drawing the most endearing portrait, Jesus should be my one and only object; and for a subject of the most finished kind, the humbleness and tenderness of Jesus, the Lord of life and glory, washing poor fishermen's feet, should be the picture. And what, my soul, tends if possible, infinitely more to endear and bring home to the heart this unparalleled condescension and grace of Jesus, is, that it was, as the evangelist relates it, at a time when Jesus knew that all things were given by His Father into His hands: that is, all things relating to His medi...

"I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." - Galatians 1:12 [KJV] When I speak of a revelation of Christ, I am not contending for anything visionary. Dreams, voices, appearances in the air, sights and sounds, crosses in the sky, and apparitions at the bedside, I must leave to others. I believe that for the most part they are the portion of visionaries and enthusiasts, for we have all these in the visible Church of God, as well as Pharisees and hypocrites, Arminians and Antinomians. I will not indeed deny that the Lord may have wrought by them in some peculiar instances, as in the cases of Augustine and Colonel Gardiner. But taking the generality of God's people and the ordinary mode of divine operation, the revelation of Christ to the soul is a gracious internal discovery by the power of the Spirit, revealing Him to the eyes of faith.  Nothing is seen or heard by the bodily senses; and yet His glorious Person is as muc...

  More on the Blood (Part 2) by D.G. Miles McKee In this short series on the blood of Jesus we have considered, so far, that the blood is precious, it brings us to God, and it has made atonement for our sins.  We continue by noticing that,   4)  "Without Shedding of Blood there is no remission."  (Hebrews 9:22). What could be plainer, or simpler? We may weep and pray over our sins from the beginning of the day to the end; we may try multitudes of religious exercises; we may become monks or nuns; we may get baptized and take communion, but it is all useless when it comes to canceling sin. Repentance, baptism, prayer, the Lord's Supper all have their place, but it stands permanently written in God's imperishable word that, “ Without shedding of blood there is no remission .” Neither one, nor all these things combined, ever did, or will, put away a single sin. Remission of sins is full, free, and eternal, but wholly and solely through the precious blood of Jesus. H...

"A door opened in heaven." -Revelation 4:1  [KJV] Lord! give me, as Thou didst to Thy servant John, a call to "come up hither," and by faith behold the glories which shall be revealed; and immediately I shall be in the spirit as he was, and so substantiate and realize, in present enjoyment, those felicities in Jesus, that this evening my soul will be, by happy faith, in the very suburbs of that blessed city, "which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God!" Is it not true, Lord, that all Thy possessions are mine? And shall I not take the map of them from scripture, and look over them with holy rapture and delight?   Do men of the earth take pride in their lands and manors; the very holding of which is precarious, even in the moment of possession, and which begin to slide from under their feet, as soon as they enter upon them; and shall not an heir of God, a joint-heir with Christ, rejoice in having a kingdom which cannot be moved? Come, my soul,...

"Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." - Luke 24:45 [KJV] Blessed opening, when He that hath the key of David puts in His hand by the hole of the door, and opens our heart to receive His own word. Then when we go to the Word of Truth, after it has come to us, our fingers drop with sweetsmelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock. It is said that "the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." O, to hear the voice of the Son of God in our hearts! Surely it shall make our dead hearts, cold frames, withering hopes, drooping love, dying faith, languishing prayers, and fainting minds live; yea, revive as the corn and grow as the vine.   What is all religion without a divine beginning, middle, and end, commencing, carried on, and accomplished with a heavenly power, supernatural life, and spiritual unction? Well may we be ashamed and sick of, and sorry for all our thoughts, words, and works, all ...

"Unto the pure, all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving, is nothing pure." -Titus 1:15  [KJV] An union with Christ brings with it the sweet and sanctified use and enjoyment of all things. My soul, ponder, this evening, what the apostle here saith, with an eye to this, and behold thy blessedness in Jesus . Every thing which comes into the account of what may be called real good, can be so no farther than as it is found and enjoyed in Christ. Creature comforts have nothing in them of good, but what is derived from the blessedness of the covenant in them. To the pure in Christ, all things are pure. His gracious leaven in them, leaveneth the whole lump. And wherefore is it, that to them that are in a state of unrenewed nature, being defiled and unbelieving, there is nothing pure; but because there is nothing of Christ in them? They, and all they have, are under the curse; for every thing is so out of Christ. It is Jesus which must put a blessing and a...

"Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil."   - Hebrews 6:19 [KJV] Anchors, you know, are made of different sizes. You may walk in the Queen's Dockyard, and there you may see anchors for a boat, and anchors for a three-decker. Yet all anchors are made in the same way, and are designed for the same purpose; and the little anchor that holds the boat is as useful and as much an anchor as that which holds the three-decker. So spiritually. There is hope in the heart of the babe. But the hope in the heart of a babe is but as the anchor of a boat; yet it holds that babe as firmly as the anchor holds the boat to which it is moored. But as the Lord increases hope, He increases the size of the anchor; and as the vessel and its anchor always bear a proportion to each other, so when He enlarges the size of the anchor He increases the size of the ship. Nay more, as He increases the size of the ship, He increases...