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

"A Nazarite unto God from the womb." -Judges 13:5 [KJV] And what, in the language of scripture, was a Nazarite unto God? Certainly what the very term implies; one dedicated to God, set apart, and sanctified. Both the person and character are largely descried, Numbers 6:1-21. And was Samson such? It cannot be doubted, notwithstanding the many strange particularities in his life, which were departures from sanctity of character. But in that part of Samson's life wherein the Nazarite was strongly marked, he was eminently proved to be one; and it is in this feature of the illustrious Danite, that we behold him as a striking type of the Lord Jesus Christ.   My soul! as it hath pleased the Holy Ghost to give the church so circumstantial an account of Samson, do thou ponder the subject well, and remark (what was evidently the only design for which it was given) how gracious the Lord the Spirit was, thus to set forth, in type, Jesus of Nazareth, so many ages before His incarnati...

"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." - Colossians 3:2 [KJV] Everything upon earth, as viewed by the eyes of the Majesty of heaven, is low and paltry. Earth is after all but a huge clod of dust, and as such, apart from its having been once the place of the Redeemer's sufferings and sacrifice, being now the habitation of His suffering people, and to be hereafter the scene of His glory, as insignificant in the eyes of its Maker as the small dust of the balance or the drop of the bucket.   What, then, are its highest objects, its loftiest aims, its grandest pursuits, its noblest employments, short of the grace of the gospel, in the sight of Him who inhabits eternity, but mean and worthless? Nay, even in our eyes is there not one consideration that when felt stamps vanity upon them all?—that all earth's pursuits, whatever high attainments men may reach in this life, be it of wealth, rank, learning, power, or pleasure, end in death? The breath ...

"There was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." -Revelation 8:1 [KJV] This is a very striking scripture, and records as striking an event, when took place on the opening of the seventh seal silence in heaven; not a suspension or interruption to the happiness of the place, but the silent adoration of God and the Lamb. This must be the sense of the passage, if by heaven we are to understand the place where dwell "the spirits of just men made perfect." But as it is more than probable that it refers to the events of the kingdom of Christ upon earth, which are here spoken of under prophetical representations, the silence may rather be supposed to mean, that the church of God, both in heaven and on earth, are waiting in solemn expectation of what events the sounding of the seventh trumpet will bring forth.   But there are some sweet instructions to be taken from what is here said, of silence in heaven by the space of half an hour , which in the silence of...

"Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him." - Psalm 62:8 [KJV] Have we not sometimes been enabled to pour out our hearts at a throne of grace, and tell the Lord what we really wanted, what we really asked for, and tell Him that nothing but that which He alone could give would satisfy our souls? There have been such times of access to the God of grace. And afterwards perhaps we have forgotten the things we told Him of; we have been heedless of the prayers we laid at His feet; and though very earnest at the time in seeking after certain blessings, we left them at the Lord's feet and forgot them all.   But the Lord does not forget them; they are treasured up in His heart and memory; and in His own time He brings them to light, and gives the fulfilment of them. But before He does it, He will bring us into the spot where we want them again; and then we have to tell Him, and supplicate and ask Him again, ashamed of ourselves perhaps that we should h...

"And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them." -Isaiah 42:16 [KJV] Never, surely, was there a promise of a covenant God in Christ more strikingly fulfilled as to what is said in the former part of this verse, than in thine instance, my soul. By nature and by practice, thou wert so totally blind to any apprehension of divine things, that not a right thought hadst thou ever conceived of God and Christ, when the Lord first manifested His grace to thy heart! No being in the universe was so near to me as God, but none so little known or understood. No heart was nearer to me than my own, but to all its errors and deceitfulness I remained the most perfect stranger! In the works of providence, as well as of grace, I had no consciousness whatever of any guide, nor even of needing a guide. Self-wille...

"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."   -I John 5:4 [KJV] If we are to be saved our faith must gain the day; we must have a faith that shall triumph over death and hell and gain a glorious conquest over every internal and external and infernal foe. This is just the state, then, in which the matter stands: we must either conquer or be conquered; we must either gain the day and be crowned with an immortal crown of glory, or else sink in the strife, defeated by sin and Satan. But none of God's people will be defeated in the fight; and yet they often seem, as it were, to escape defeat by the very skin of their teeth; yet faith will sooner or later gain the day, for Jesus is its Finisher as well as its Author. He will crown the faith of His own gift with eternal glory. He will never suffer His dear family to be overcome in the good fight of faith, for He will give strength to every weak arm and ...

"The golden censer." -Hebrews 9:4 [KJV] It is blessed, my soul! to behold the numberless types and shadows of "good things to come," which the church of old contained; and it is blessed to see them all fulfilled in Christ, the substance. Jesus, thy Jesus, in His glorious high priestly office, is at once the censer, the incense, the high priest, and offering, and is now unceasingly engaged in carrying on the glorious purposes of His redemption "by appearing in the presence of God for us."   He is the "mighty angel" spoken of, Revelation 8:3. For upon the "golden censer" of His own merit and righteousness, and by the efficacy of His own glorious person, are all presentations made. "No man cometh to the Father but by Him." coming by Him, and in Him, and through Him, all thy poor offerings come up "for a memorial before God." And what is the much incense here spoken of, but the merits of that finished salvation of...