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

"The same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you ."   -John 20:19 [KJV] There is a peculiar blessedness in this first visit of the Lord Jesus to the whole college of disciples (at least as many as were present of them) after He arose from the dead: and the manner of relating it is peculiarly striking also. It was the same day at evening; and it was the first day also; as if the Lord Jesus would again and again honour the day, as well in the evening as the morning of His resurrection, and make that day for ever memorable to His church, and among His people.   My soul! thou hast celebrated thy Lord's triumphs over death, in the morning, both at home and abroad, in His church, at His ordinances, at His table, and among His disciples; but learn hence also, that at evening time Jesus will make it light by the swee...

"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." - II  Timothy 2:3 [KJV] We often get into states and frames of mind, where we need something else besides consolation. A child would not grow, if it were always fed upon sweetmeats. It must have exercise, and be exposed to the weather, and have the cold winds blow upon its face, and be hardened, so as to enable it to bear the chill winter and the nipping frosts.  So the child of God is not always petted, and fed upon love-tokens. He is not always carried in the warm bosom, or sucking the breasts of consolation, but he has to learn lessons to fit him to be a soldier. The soldier, we know, has to endure hardships. He has to lie all night upon the wet grass; to be pinched with hunger, parched with thirst, and nipped with cold; to make harassing marches; to hear the roar of the cannon and the whistling of the bullets, "the thunder of the captains and the shouting;" to see the flash of the sabre uplift...

"Having loosed the pains of death; because it was not possible that He should be holden of it." -Acts 2:24 [KJV] My soul! thou hast been in contemplation to the tomb of Jesus this morning, and seen the place where the Lord lay; now sit down, and ponder over what this blessed scripture saith, that "the pains of death were loosened, because it was not possible for Jesus to be detained a prisoner by it." And if there were no other scripture, but this one, in proof of Christ's Godhead, this in itself would be unanswerable; for it could be nothing but the Godhead of His person which made it impossible. It was this which, from the union of the manhood with the Godhead, preserved His soul from sin, and His body from corruption; for though the human nature that Christ took was subject to all the sinless infirmities of nature, and to feel hunger, weariness, and the like, to the full, being part of the curse on the fall, which He came to bear and do away; yet was He not...

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." - Hebrews 13:8 [KJV] The eye of our faith must be ever fixed on Jesus, for the Person of Christ is the grand object of faith, and to lose sight of Him is to lose sight of the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Is He not the same Jesus now that He was on earth? He is exalted, it is true, to an inconceivable height of glory, so that when John saw Him, even as if in some measure veiled, he fell at His feet as dead. But He is the same Jesus now as when He was the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as He wears the same human body, so He has the same tender, compassionate heart. All that He was upon earth as Jesus, He is in heaven still. All that tenderness and gentleness, all that pity to poor sensible sinners, all that compassion on the ignorant and on those that are out of the way, all that grace and truth which came by Him and were manifest in Him, all that bleeding, dying love, all that sympathy with the affli...

Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (15-17APR22) Heads-Up --- Please find enclosed encouragement in   SO GREAT SALVATION by the perfect and finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ in saving poor, needy and wretched sinners by His sovereign free grace - Almighty God's unmerited favor - from our sins and from Hell: “ I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” - II Timothy 1:12 [KJV] A number of well-meaning people (I suppose they mean well) have put a lot of emphasis on when a person is saved. They insist that one should be able to pinpoint the time and place when they were delivered from darkness to the kingdom of God's dear Son. Some may be able, like the apostle Paul, to recall a Damascus Road experience. Others, like the apostle Peter, may recall a more drawn-out process; the initial meeting and first confessions, but then struggles to learn, impulsive claims, even doubts and d...

“And the people stood beholding; and the rulers also with them derided Him, saying, He saved others; let Him save Himself, if He be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him, and offering Him vinegar, and saying, If Thou be the king of the Jews, save Thyself." -Luke 23:35-37 [KJV] My soul! thou art not tired, I hope, of taking thy stand, night by night, and morning by morning, at the foot of the cross. Surely it is blessed to sit down by the Fountain, which was opened by the soldier's spear, in the heart of Jesus, and contemplate, one by one, the mercies which flow in it to the souls of His redeemed. There are more to be seen, more to be discovered at every renewed review; for in the death of Christ, is the life of the soul. It is not the smallest part of the excellencies which Jesus discovered in His death, that it was "the death of the cross;" for the apostle joins this with His sufferings. He not only endured the cross, but He d...

"As having nothing, and yet possessing all things."  -II  Corinthians 6:10 [KJV] How do we possess all things? In possessing Christ Who is Heir of all things. If we possess Christ, what have we not in Him? We have wisdom to teach us, righteousness to justify us, sanctification to make us holy, and redemption to deliver us from sin, death, and hell. If we have Him, we have the favour    and love of God; we have the pardon of our sins, the reconciliation of our persons, the casting behind God's back of all our backslidings, and a title to a heavenly crown. If we have Him, we have everything in Him, for Christ is ours, and Christ is God's. Therefore in Him we possess all things. We shall have in providence things sufficient to carry us to the grave. He will give us everything that is for our good, and keep back nothing that is for our benefit. If we possess Him, what have we not in Him?   Now the world, when death comes, what has it? Nothing to look to but the ange...