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

"How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!"   -Song of Solomon 7:6 [KJV] My soul! thou hast been refreshed, many an evening, through grace, in beholding thy Lord, both in His person, and in His comprehensive fulness for His redeemed; nor wilt thou be without refreshment this evening, if thy Lord, in His sweet influences, be with thee, to make what is said in this lovely scripture, life and spirit in thine heart. They are the words of Jesus; and they express the love and complacency of delight which Jesus takes in His church. Surely nothing can be more blessed, than to see the high value the Son of God puts upon the church, which the Father gave Him, endeared as it is yet more in being the purchase of His blood! But what astonishment is it to the soul of a poor sinner, to be told, and by the lip of truth, that sinners are fair in Jesus's eyes! "Thou art fair, O love, yea, pleasant."   Now remember, my soul, and in that remembrance let Jesus have ...

"O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted." - Isaiah 54:11 [KJV] The Lord here compares His suffering Church to a ship at sea, under bare poles, labouring in a heavy storm, driven out of her course by contrary winds, as was Paul's case in the Adriatic, and doubtful whether she will ever reach the harbour; as the hymn says, "Half a wreck by tempests driv'n."   What a picture of a tempest-tossed soul! Sun and stars    beclouded, compass lost, chart useless, pilot absent, and breakers ahead! Many, very many of the Lord's dear family are thus "tossed with tempest;" some with a tempest of doubts and fears; others with a tempest of lust and corruptions; some with a tempest of rebellion and fretfulness; others with a storm of guilt and despondency, or with gloomy forebodings and dismal apprehensions. Thus they are driven from their course, their sun and stars all obscured; no clear evidences, no bright manifestations; darkness above...

  Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (08-10JUL22) 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: "Blessed are the poor in spirit , for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." -Matthew 5:3 [KJV] The Lord's people are all poor; they see and feel that sin has stripped them of every excellence; and has left them wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. They can do nothing of themselves, they can procure nothing for themselves! But free grace has made ample provision for them, and the Gospel informs them that Jesus has everything they need--and that all that He has, is for them! When they look at, or into themselves , they are discouraged. But when they look to Jesus , they rejoice! He has riches of grace --and riches of glory; and ...

"Jesus wept." -John 11:35 [KJV] My soul! look at thy Redeemer in this account of Him. Was there ever a more interesting portrait than what the evangelist hath here drawn of the Son of God? If the imagination were to be employed forever in forming an interesting scene of the miseries of human nature, what could furnish so complete a picture as these two words give of Christ, at the sight of them? "Jesus wept." Here we have at once the evidence how much the miseries of our nature affected the heart of Jesus; and here we have the most convincing testimony, that He partook of all the sinless infirmities of our nature, and was truly, and in all points, man, as well as God.   We are told by one of the ancient writers (as well as I recollect, it was St. Chrysostom) that some weak but injudicious christians in his days, were so rash as to strike this verse out of their bibles, from an idea, that it was unsuitable and unbecoming in the Son of God to weep. But we have cause...

"For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him? Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call upon God?" - Job 27:8-10 [KJV] Many of God's people are at times exercised as to their hypocrisy, and sometimes they may think themselves the most consummate hypocrites that ever stood in a profession. But if you are exercised with these painful surmises, these doubts and fears, just see (and the Lord enable you to bring it to the light of His countenance) these two features of a spiritual character. Do not talk about your hope; it may be "a spider's web." Do not boast of your gifts; they may be altogether in the flesh. Do not bring forward the good opinion of men; they may be deceived in you. But just see if, with the Lord's blessing, you can feel these two tests in your soul, as written there by His own hand. If so, you are not a hypocrite; God Him...

  Gospel Truth from the Philippian  Jailer. Part 1.                                                         D.G Miles McKee In Acts 16, the Philippian jailer cried out to Paul urgently inquiring, “What must I do to be saved.” But the apostle didn’t encourage him to do any work of any kind. Instead, Paul instructed him to simply believe. (See Acts 16:30-34).   Simply believe!   Paul told the same thing to the church at Rome when he penned the words, “ Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. But to him that works not, but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. ” (Romans 4:4-5).  I’m not sure that I know of a more stunning statement in the whole of God's Word than that.  It tells us that, when it comes to this matter of salvation, works and grace ...

"Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience, by the things which He suffered." -Hebrews 5:8 [KJV] My soul! behold what a precious verse of scripture is here! How blessedly doth it set forth thy Redeemer! See here what an example Jesus shews to all His people, and how sweetly accommodating is that example to every case and circumstance, into which any of them can be brought! Surely, if any might have done without going into such a school of suffering, for the purpose of learning, it must have been Jesus; but yet even Jesus would not. And wouldest thou, my soul, after such an illustrious pattern, desire to be excused? Hath not Jesus dignified it, and made it blessed? Oh! the honour of following His steps.   There is another beauty in this scripture. The apostle, in a verse or two preceding, took notice of Jesus in His human nature, that He sought not, as such, the high priest's office uncalled. "Christ (saith He) glorified not Himself, to be made an high priest, ...