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

"...such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." - Psalm 107:10 [KJV] God's people are here represented not as sitting in death; were they sitting there, they would be dead altogether; but they are sitting  in the shadow of death.  Observe, death has lost its reality to them; it now can only cast a shadow, often a gloomy shadow, over their souls; but there is no substance. The quickening of the Spirit of God in them has destroyed the substance of death spiritually; and the death and resurrection of Jesus have destroyed the substance of death naturally.   Yet, though the gloomy monster, deadness of soul, and that ghastly king of terrors, the death of the body, have been disarmed and destroyed by "Immanuel, God with us;" yet each of them casts at times a gloomy, darkling shadow over the souls of those that fear God. Is not your soul, poor child of God, exercised from time to time with this inward death? Deadness in prayer, deadness in reading the word, d...

"But which of you having a servant plowing, or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?" -Luke 17:7, 8 [KJV] I have often thought that the Lord Jesus, the bountiful Lord of all His servants, and Who giveth largely to the supply of all His household, hath a more special and suited food for His servants in the ministry, who are employed by Him to set forth His table for others. They are, as the servant here described, in the field, plowing, and engaged in every branch of the spiritual husbandry. But when they return, their peculiar privilege is to wait upon their Master. And well is it for them; for in the faithful discharge of their labours, so great and constant are their engagements in following up the several departments of it, that, while keeping ...

"For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance."   -I Thessalonians 1:5 [KJV] The Holy Ghost never comes into any poor sinner's soul, except through the medium of the gospel of the grace of God. Have you ever considered that point? You are praying, perhaps, that the Holy Spirit would teach you, and be in you a Spirit of revelation, a Remembrancer, a Comforter, Instructor, and Teacher. You pray for His gifts, and graces, and sanctifying operations; but have you ever viewed these graces in connection with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Now, if you want the Holy Spirit to come into your soul, you must keep firm hold of the gospel; you must not run away from it to the law or to self; but keep firm, fast hold of it, so far as you have felt its power, and have a living faith in it.   If, then, you are tried, still hold the gospel. If Satan get you into his sieve, still hold the gospel; if in the furnace of affliction...

"And have been all made to drink into one Spirit." -I Corinthians 12:13 [KJV] What a most lovely and endearing representation is here given of the several members of Christ's mystical body, as all united to their one glorious and common Head, and, like so many branches of the vine, deriving every thing of life, and grace, and fruitfulness, from Him! "They have been all made to drink into one Spirit." Yes; the Lord the Spirit, the Holy Ghost the Comforter, whose gracious influence first unites them to Jesus, unites them also, in Him, to one another. Hence, though distant and remote from each other; divided and separated by distant climes, and countries, and languages; though unknown by face to each other, yea, in language, and manners, and customs wholly dissimilar; and of different degrees of knowledge, and apprehension, and attainment in the divine life; yet, from being one with Christ, they are also one with each other, and "are members of His body, of H...

"A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished." - Proverbs 22:3 [KJV] Noah, warned of God, prepared an ark to the saving of his house. Lot, admonished by the angels, fled out of Sodom. So there is a fleeing from the wrath to come. How careless, how secure, and unconcerned are we till quickened with spiritual life! Solomon speaks of those who sleep on the top of a mast, where one jerk of the wave, or one turn of the sleeper may precipitate him into the boiling ocean. God's anger is gathering against a wicked world !   Who will escape this fearful storm of eternal, unmitigated wrath? Those who flee to Jesus. Who flee to Jesus? Those only who feel their need of Him. How are they made to feel their need of Him? By the flashes of God's anger. Whence issue these flashes? Out of the thundercloud of God's holy law—the revelation which He has made of His anger against transgressors. How necessary then to feel the applicati...

"And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great." -Mark 16:3, 4 [KJV]   My soul, how very often, like these poor women at the door of our Lord's sepulchre, hast thou been at a loss to think whence help should arise to succour thee in the needed moment? And how often, like them, hast thou found, when looking again, all the difficulties which thou hadst figured to thyself removed! And with thee the mercy hath been, if possible, yet more striking. For thou not only needest the stone to be rolled away from the door of the sepulchre, that thou mightest see Jesus, but to have the stone taken away out of thine heart, that thou mightest love and believe in Jesus to the salvation of thy soul.   Is it so then, that whilst, at any time, thou art putting forth the question and inquiry, full of doubt, and fear, and misgiving, who shall help in this or...

"I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring." - Isaiah 44:3 [KJV] In pouring out His Spirit upon Zion's seed, God pours out therewith every spiritual blessing that there is in His heart or hands to bestow. Whatever earthly good you may enjoy, without the blessing of God it will but prove a curse; whatever afflictions fall to your earthly lot, if God bless, they must all eventually be made a blessing. Nor is this blessing niggardly given, for the Lord has here promised that He will pour it out! It shall be given as profusely and as abundantly as the Spirit Himself. Nor shall Zion doubt either the blessing itself or the source whence it comes, for it carries its own evidence, shines in the light of its own testimony, and manifests itself by its own effects. And does not the contrast between the dry ground and the promised showers of blessing enhance it all the more? Your very barrenness and sterility make the promise all the more suitable, an...