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

"Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." -Revelation 2:10 [KJV] My soul! thy last evening meditation, by faith, was on Pisgah's top. This evening, do thou attend to what thy Saviour speaks in this scripture of the prospect of a prison. This forms the state and condition of the believer. The transition he is sometimes, and suddenly, called to make, is from the house of feasting to the house of mourning. He is here but in a wilderness at the best; and whatever accommodations he meets with by the way, the apartments of joy and sorrow are both under the same roof, and very often it is but a step from one to the other: yea, sometimes, and not unfrequently, when Jesus hath been feasting with His people, and they with Him, before the cloth hath been taken away, and the blessing offered ...

"The L ORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." - Jeremiah 31:3 [KJV] There can be no new thought in the mind of God. New thoughts, new feelings, new plans, new resolutions continually occur to our mind; for ours is but a poor, fallen, fickle, changeable nature. But God has no new thoughts, feelings, plans or resolutions; for if He had He would be a changeable Being, not one great, eternal, unchangeable I Am. All His thoughts, therefore, all His plans, all His ways are like Himself, eternal, infinite, unchanging, and unchangeable.   So it is with the love of Christ to the Church. It is eternal, unchanging, unchangeable. And why? Because He loved as God. Never let us lose sight of the glorious Deity of Jesus. He loved Him in eternity as the Son of God, prior to His incarnation. That was but the fruit of His love. We can, therefore, assign no beginning to the love of Christ, fo...

"The top of Pisgah." -Deuteronomy 34:1 [KJV] There is somewhat truly interesting in this account of Pisgah, to which Moses ascended before his death. The relation, no doubt, was intended to convey seasonable instruction, of a spiritual nature, to all true believers in Christ, in their Pisgah contemplations of the promised land. My soul! sit down this evening, and see what, under divine teaching, thou canst make of it. Probably thy Lord, thy Jesus, may grant to thy faith, sights yet more glorious than even Moses beheld in open vision, when he went up to Mount Nebo. "The top of Pisgah" afforded to the man of God, a beautiful prospect of Canaan; and as we are told, that "his natural force was not abated, neither his eye become dim;" he might possibly view the boundaries of Israel's dominions; which, in point of extent, reached but little more than fifty miles in one direction, and about three times that length in another.   Indeed, we are informed, th...

"The L ORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion." - Psalm 20:1, 2 [KJV] When the soul has to pass through the trying hour of temptation, it wants help from the sanctuary. And nothing but help from the sanctuary can ever stand it in any stead. All other help leaves the soul just where it found it. Now why does the Lord send help from the sanctuary, but because the soul to whom help is sent stands interested in the Father's love, the Saviour's blood, and the Spirit's teachings—interested in the eternal covenant transactions of the Three-One Jehovah . Help is sent him from the sanctuary, because his name has been from all eternity registered in the Lamb's book of life, graven upon the palms of His hands, borne on His shoulder, and worn on His heart.   He was in the sanctuary when his covenant Head stood up on his behalf, and in the Lord's book all his me...

Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (06-08MAY22) 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: TRUE FAITH Faith takes God at His Word and lays hold of Christ for everlasting salvation. “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Faith is the hand that reaches out and touches the hem of His garment, but faith does not cure spiritual diseases, Christ does. Faith drinks freely of the Water of Life, but faith does not create soul thirst for Him, nor does it quench it; Christ causes the thirst, and He satisfies it. Faith feasts upon the Bread of Life but does not generate the desire to spiritually eat of Christ nor does it relieve that desire. Christ alone can stir the heart to hunger for Him and then draw us near to feast up...

"And when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity ."   -Luke 13:12 [KJV] My soul! sit down this evening, and let the case of this poor woman open to thy view some sweet subjects of instruction and encouragement. Who knows, but that God the Holy Ghost may graciously make thy meditation on it blessed, in Jesus? The evangelist gives a short but interesting history of her. She was a daughter of Abraham; and yet Satan had bound her; and that not for a little space, but for a very long time, even to eighteen years. Hence learn, that they who are within the covenant, are not without affliction; nay, they become the very grudge and hatred of Satan, on that account; and shall assuredly be made sensible of his enmity.   Do not overlook this part of the poor woman's memoir. It forms a distinguishing feature in the children of the kingdom. Jesus Himself hath said, "Because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you ...

"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" - Romans 6:16 [KJV] There is a blessedness in obedience. It does not give us, but it manifests our interest in the finished work of the Son of God. There is nothing in the highest acts of faith or obedience that we can take any joy in as accomplished by us, nothing that we can boast of as our own; and yet there is a sacred blessedness in obeying the gospel by believing in the Son of God, by walking in the fear of God, and doing the things, as well as professing them, which are pleasing in God's sight .   Walk in carnality, pride, and self-righteousness; live after worldly customs and conform yourself to worldly opinions, and if there be a grain of godly fear, or one spark of the life of God in your heart, you will do the best thing you can to bring your soul into misery and bondage. Therefore, though we can ...