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

"Who maketh thee to differ from another?"   -I Corinthians 4:7 [KJV] My soul, sit down, in the cool of this lovely evening, and in the recollection of distinguishing mercies look up and behold the gracious hand that" maketh thee to differ from another; until thine heart overflow, in a view of the wonderful subject, with thanksgiving, love, and praise. If thou wilt open the volume of thine own life (and surely, of all volumes, when explained by the word of God, it is the most interesting to read) thou wilt behold such a multitude of instances, in all the departments of "nature, providence, and grace," as under divine teaching, will bring home the question with the most awakened earnestness to the heart, and cause thee frequently to exclaim, as thou passest on, "Who maketh thee to differ from another?"   Every defect of nature in others, every poor cripple, or the blind, or deaf, which thou meetest with; the want of intellect, or the want of understandi...

  "The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power."   -I Corinthians 4:20 [KJV] It is through the word of God in the hands of the Spirit, that this kingdom is set up in the soul. All God's people are agreed on this point, that they have no more religion than they have inward power. And all the living family are sighing, each according to his measure and season, after the manifestation of this divine power in their souls. Those that are under the law, and toiling under heavy burdens, are sighing after relief, and for that relief to come in divine power—power that shall cast all their sins into the depth of the sea. Those who having tasted that the Lord is gracious have lost their first love, are at times breathing out their inmost desire after power to revive their souls. Those who are beset with powerful temptations, and struggling, often ineffectually, with base lusts, are crying after power to deliver their feet from the fowler's snares. Those who are hard, need po...

"He made a feast unto all his princes, and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces being before him. When he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom, and the honour of his excellent majesty, many days, even an hundred and fourscore days." -Esther 1:3, 4  [KJV] Who can read the account here given of the royalty and liberality of the Persian monarch, without having the mind immediately directed to look at the Lord Jesus, in His royalty and grace, and to consider both the extent of His bounty, and the honour of His excellent majesty, compared to which this earthly potentate sinks to nothing? What though his kingdom reached over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces, from India to Ethiopia? What is this to Him, whose dominion is "from sea to sea, and from the river even unto the ends of the earth;" yea, Who hath "all power in heaven and in earth," and hath "the keys of hell and the grave?" And what...

  Behold, What Manner of Man is This? by D.G. Miles McKee   The disciples were exhausted.  Their arsenal of resources had been depleted. They had tried everything and yet their boat was continuing to sink. Then in their wisdom, they turned to Jesus and called on Him for help. In grace and power, He instantly calmed the raging storm, and the astonished would-be mariners were stunned at His authority and majesty. Then they said one to another, “Behold, what manner of man is this ….?” (Mark 4:41). That’s a great question…What manner of man is this man Jesus? Let’s call up some witnesses to testify on His behalf.   Let’s first ask Isaiah. “Isaiah, you are one of the greatest of the prophets what do you say about Jesus?” And Isaiah says, “He is the Mighty God.” (Isaiah 9:6). “He is the Lamb brought to the slaughter.” (Isaiah 53:7).   Let’s now ask Micah. “Micah, do you have anything to say about the Lord Christ?” And Micah replies, “His goings forth are from eternit...

"For we are strangers before Thee and sojourners, as were all our fathers; our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding."   -I Chronicles 29:15 [KJV] If you possess the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and, Jacob, you, like them, confess that you are a stranger; and your confession springs out of a believing heart and a feeling experience. You feel yourself a stranger in this ungodly world; it is not your element, it is not your home. You are in it during God's appointed time, but you wander up and down this world a stranger to its company, a stranger to its maxims, a stranger to its fashions, a stranger to its principles, a stranger to its motives, a stranger to its lusts, its inclinations, and all in which this world moves as in its native element.   Grace has separated you by God's distinguishing power, that though you are in the world, you are not of it. I can tell you plainly, if you are at home in the world; if the things of time and sense be your el...

"...be thou in the fear of the L ORD all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off." - Proverbs 23:17, 18 [KJV] The Lord is here addressing Himself to a soul labouring under temptation, and passing through peculiar exercises; and this is the exhortation that He gives it: "Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long;" watching His hand, submitting to His will, committing everything into His care and keeping; not hardening your heart against Him, but looking up to Him, and worshipping Him with godly fear; "for surely there is an end."   You may be tempted, exercised, and surrounded with difficulties, and see no outlet; but "surely there is an end;" and, when the end comes, it will make all plain and clear. This quiet submission, this watching and waiting, a man can never be brought to unless he has seen an end to all perfection; an end of his own strength, wisdom, and righteousness. To sit still i...

"...as an hireling, his day."   -Job 14:6 [KJV] The sufferings of Job are proverbial; but the sermons of this exercised believer, though delivered from a dunghill, were sweet sermons. The figure of an hireling accomplishing his day (and that a day, both on account of original sin and actual transgression, fleeting and full of labour and sorrow) forms a just, though sad representation of human life. But this, like all the other circumstances of our fallen state, when read through the medium of the gospel, and softened and sweetened with the blood of Christ, puts on a different aspect. It is then found in its shortness to be the better, and in its crosses to be the more sanctified; and, like Samson's riddle, "out of the eater to come forth meat, and out of the strong to bring forth sweetness;" Judges 14:14 . It is the blessed property of grace, to work by contraries; so that the cross of Jesus, like the tree cast into the waters of Marah, put into our hireling li...