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

"And He said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." - Luke 10:18 [KJV] It deserves our utmost attention and prayerful consideration to see, by the eye of faith, the display of wisdom and power shining forth in the way in which the all-wise God sent His dear Son "to destroy" or, as the word is in the original, to unloose "the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8) . Satan had, so to speak, spun a ravelled knot when he cast the cords of sin round man's heart. This tangled and tight-drawn knot could not be cut through as by a sword of omnipotent power; but had by infinite wisdom and patience to be unravelled through its whole length. The work which Satan had done was to be undone. Disobedience had to be repaired by obedience—the voluntary obedience of the Son of God, and therefore of infinite value. Sin had to be atoned for by sacrifice—the sacrifice of the nature which had sinned, in union with the Person of the Son of God, and therefore ...

"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen."   -II Corinthians 4:18 [KJV] His was the blessed plan of old testament believers, under present exercises— to look off from the objects of sight, and to substantiate and realize the objects of faith. They saw "the day of Christ afar off;" and in that view, "rejoiced and were glad." By this means they brought into present enjoyment things which—were distant; their faith acting like those glasses which magnify and bring home whatever is remote, as though it were nigh. Now, my soul, take instruction from those eminent worthies of the old testament school, that "through patience and comfort of the scriptures, thou also mayest have hope." By virtue of thine interest in Jesus, thou hast a large property in the world to come. If Christ be thine, all is thine. And certainly it is an extensive domain which thou hast in Christ's bond promises, and God's cove...

  Jesus Leaves us Speechless.   “And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows;). How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”  -II Corinthians 12: 3-4 [KJV]   “Thanks be unto God for His  uns peaka ble  gift.”   -II Corinthians 9:15   I am going to attempt to do the impossible. I will in these next few lines endeavour to speak about the unspeakable One, the Lord Jesus Christ.  The apostle Paul had been transported to Paradise where he heard unspeakable words.  He must have been overwhelmed with the reality of the invisible God made visible in the Lord Jesus.  He was left speechless.  There are many who think that the pinnacle of spirituality is to speak in tongues, but when Paul was confronted with the exalted Christ in His majesty, he couldn’t speak at all.     May we yet become speechless as we take time...

"The Lord's free-man." -I Corinthians 7:22 [KJV] And who is the Lord's free-man? Jesus Himself hath given a decided answer to this enquiry. "Whosoever committeth sin (saith Jesus) is the servant of sin." Now as by nature we were all born in this state of bondage to sin, and by practice have fully manifested the stock of servitude to which by nature we belong; we are Vassals and slaves to sin, and in bondage to all the dreadful consequences. "But (saith Jesus) if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed!" John 8:34-36 . Hence then; my soul, learn what it is to be the Lord's free-man, and the blessed effects resulting from this freedom. If this be thy portion thou art no longer in bondage to "the curse of God's broken law." Jesus hath freed thee from this; having "redeemed thee from the curse of the law, in being made Himself a curse." Thou art no longer under "the penalty of sin:" Jesus deli...

"By His knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew." - Proverbs 3:20 [KJV] When the Lord said, "Let there be light," instantly there was light. So when the Lord says, "Let the earth open," the heart immediately opens, the conscience is made tender, and the soul hears and receives what God speaks. And what follows this opening? The heart receives the dews and showers of God's grace that fall into it; and these dews and showers of God's grace communicate to it softness, fertility, and productiveness. O how we have to learn this by painful experience! Is not our heart as hard sometimes as the nether millstone; and to our feelings, utterly destitute of light, life and power, without one grain of brokenness, contrition, godly sorrow, spiritual desire, or fervent breathing after the Lord? This painful experience the Lord's people have to pass through perpetually, that they may know that "in them, that is, in their fl...

"Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth; for Thy love is better than wine." -Song of Solomon 1:2 [KJV] And what are the kisses of Jesus, but the manifestation of Himself to His people? Old testament saints longed for this blessing; and new testament believers live by the same faith in the enjoyment of it. The cause is most evident indeed; for the love of Jesus passeth knowledge . Nothing of the nether-springs in comforts can even describe the blessedness of it; for corn, and wine, and oil, when they increase, cannot satisfy those desires, which Jesus in Himself and His upper-spring mercies, can alone fulfil. Wine indeed may act as a temporary cordial to the body's weakness, and it may for the moment relieve worldly sorrow; but in both cases, the maladies will return, sometimes with double violence, and baffle all its powers; nay, if wine be used too freely, so far from affording relief, it will add drunkenness to thirst.   But Thy love, blessed Jesus, never fails o...

"That He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life." - Luke 1:74-75 [KJV] Holiness consists mainly of two points:   1. Being made a partaker of the spirit of holiness whereby, as born of God, we are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; set our affections on things above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God; have our conversation in heaven; put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him which created him; live a life of faith in the Son of God, and beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.   To be thus spiritually-minded, to be thus brought near unto God through His dear Son, to walk before Him in the light of His countenance, and to know something of spiritual communion with the Lord of ...