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

"We are saved by hope." - Romans 8:24 [KJV] What is the meaning of being saved by hope? It does not mean saved actually, but instrumentally; not saved as regards our eternal security, but as regards our experience of salvation. By hope we are instrumentally saved from despair, saved from turning our backs upon Christ and the gospel, saved from looking to any other Saviour, or any other salvation; and especially saved from making this world and this life our happiness and home, as "waiting patiently for what we see not," even "the redemption of our body."   Now it is by hope that we hang upon and cleave to the Lord Jesus, and thus by this grace we abide in Him. It is therefore spoken of as an "anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that which is within the veil." What holds the ship firm in the storm, and prevents it falling upon the rocks? The anchor. The ship abides firm as long as the anchor holds. So by hope the...

"And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest."   - Isaiah 32:2 [KJV]  Who is this man? Need I ask the question? Is there not a response in every God-fearing breast? It is the man Christ Jesus—the man who is God's fellow. How blessed it is to have a scriptural and spiritual view of the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, to see Him not merely as God, truly essential God, one in essence, glory, and power with the Father and the blessed Spirit, but also man, made in all things like unto us, sin only excepted.   And what a suitability there is in the humanity of the Lord Jesus, when we view it in union with this glorious Deity! As man He suffered, as man He bled, as man He died, as man He stands a Mediator for His fellow men between God and man; as man, He has for human distress an affectionate, compassionate, sympathising heart; as man, He obeyed the law in every particular; as man, He bore all the sufferings of humanity, and thus became...

“An Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile."   -John 1:47 [KJV]  And what are we to understand by our Lord's account, in this short but sweet history of Nathaniel, of an "Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile?" If, my soul, thou wilt do as thou art directed, (1 Corinthians 2:13) attend "to the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual," thou wilt soon arrive at a proper apprehension of the Lord's account, of "an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile."   It is our mercy that, on a point of so much consequence, we are not left to mere conjecture; for the Holy Ghost hath Himself pointed out what it is to be without guile, in one of the Psalms of David (see Psalm 32) . And in his comment upon it by the apostle, (Romans 4:12) he hath followed up the same doctrine more fully; "Blessed (saith he) is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the L ORD impute...

"Ye are bought with a price."   -I Corinthians 6:20 [KJV] How deep, how dreadful, of what awful magnitude, of how black a dye, of how ingrained a stamp must sin be, to need such an atonement—no less than the blood of Him who was the Son of God—to put it away. What a slave to sin and Satan, what a captive to the power of lust, how deeply sunk, how awfully degraded, how utterly lost and undone must guilty man be to need a sacrifice like this. "Ye are bought with a price." Have you ever felt your bondage to sin, Satan, and the world? Have you ever groaned, cried, grieved, sorrowed, and lamented under your miserable captivity to the power of sin? Has the iron ever entered into your soul? Have you ever clanked your fetters, and as you did so, and tried to burst them, they seemed to bind round about you with a weight scarcely endurable?   But have you ever found any liberty from them, any enlargement of heart, any sweet going forth from the prison-house, any dropping of ...

"He turned their heart to hate His people." -Psalm 105:25 [KJV] Oh! precious scripture! what a blessed discovery is here made! Never should I have known, never thought that the hand of my God was in a dispensation like this. Henceforth, my soul, remember, when at any time the world is oppressing thee, and opposing thee, yea, when even "thy mother's children are angry with thee;" look deeper than the surface, and behold both the Lord's wisdom, and the Lord's appointment in the exercise.   And dost thou ask wherefore the Lord should dispose the heart of the believer's foes to hate His people? the answer is at hand: it is to keep His people from "mingling with the heathen, and learning their works." Nature cleaves to nature; and the dispositions of flesh and blood are in all the same. If God, therefore, turn the hearts of those we are too fond of, to treat us with unkindness, and reward our love with hatred, this process will do more to sep...

"Ye are not your own."   -I Corinthians 6:19 [KJV]  There is a blessed sense in these words, "Ye are not your own." Remember you must be some one's. If God be not your master, the devil will be; if grace do not rule, sin will reign; if Christ is not your all in all, the world will be. It is not as though we could roam abroad in perfect liberty. Some one will have us. We must have a master of one kind or another; and which is best, a bounteous benevolent Benefactor such as God has ever shewn Himself to be; a merciful, loving, and tender Parent; a kind, forgiving Father and Friend; and a tender-hearted, compassionate Redeemer, able to save us to the uttermost; or a cruel devil, a miserable world, and a wicked, vile, abominable heart?   Which is better, to live under the sweet constraints of the dying love of a dear Redeemer; under gospel influences, gospel principles, gospel promises, and gospel encouragements; or to walk in fancied liberty, with sin in our hear...

"I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste." -Song of Solomon 2:3 [KJV] My soul! hear what the church saith concerning her Lord, in those early and distant ages, before thy Redeemer became incarnate, and mark the strength of her faith and love. Did old testament saints thus sit down with a recumbency on the person, work, and finished salvation of Jesus, as those determined to arise no more, when they beheld Christ only through "the shadow of good things to come;" and shall not thy rest in Christ, and thy enjoyment of Christ, be equal, and even greater than their's? For shame, my soul! let it never be said, that their views of Jesus, Who was then yet to come, and had all the vast work of redemption to perform, were as lively as thine, or their delight in those fruits of His salvation, which they partook of by anticipation, sweeter to their taste, than they are now enjoyed by thee.   Thou hast lived to see the whole comp...