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

"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." -Psalm 30:5 [KJV] It is most profitable, yea, blessed, to have right conceptions of the Lord's dealings with His people. Jesus is everlastingly pursuing one plan of love; and never, in a single instance, departs from it. But as we see only part of His ways, until the result come, exercises by the way much perplex our poor short-sighted view of things. Jesus, for the most part, brings His people into the wilderness, in order to speak comfortably to them there. But while in the wilderness, we are at a loss to trace the footsteps of His love. And when, after some sweet love-tokens of His favour, new trials arise, though Jesus, it should seem, designed by the mercy to prepare for trouble, yet, by our false interpretation of it, we aggravate the trouble, and make it greater.   My soul, do learn from the precious thoughts suggested by the scripture of the evening, to form a right estimate of the Lord's dealin...

"What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies." - Song of Solomon 6:13 [KJV] Are you not often a mystery to yourself? Warm one moment, cold the next; abasing yourself one half-hour, exalting yourself the following; loving the world, full of it, steeped up to your lips in it to-day; crying, groaning, and sighing for a sweet manifestation of the love of God tomorrow; brought down to nothingness, covered with shame and confusion, on your knees before you leave your room; filled with pride and self-importance before you have got down stairs; despising the world, and willing to give it all up for one taste of the love of Jesus when in solitude; trying to grasp it with both hands when in business.   What a mystery are you! Touched by love, and stung with enmity; possessing a little wisdom, and a great deal of folly; earthly-minded, and yet having the affections in heaven; pressing forward, and lagging behind; full of sloth, and yet taking the kingdom wit...

"Wherefore glorify ye the L ORD in the fires, even the name of the L ORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea."   -Isaiah 24:15 [KJV] My soul, hast thou ever considered, in how many ways, and by what a variety of means, every poor sinner called by grace, is furnished with ability to glorify God in Christ? It is blessed to see this, and doubly blessed to be employed in such a service. The poor sinner not only glorifies Jesus, actively, when he is praising Him; but passively also, when his wants and necessities afford occasion for Jesus to be glorified in giving out of His fulness to his relief.   And how is the Lord glorified in the fires? Evidently when in the furnace of affliction, or in the fire of temptation, the poor exercised soul glories in his infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon him! when he can, and when he doth receive all, and take all, and feel happy under all, from the consciousness that the Lord's hand is in it, and the Lord's blessing ...

"It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."  - Matthew 4:4 [KJV] "Man shall not live by bread alone." There is heavenly food to support his soul, as well as natural food to support his body. If a man is supported spiritually by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, if this be the only food the Lord's people enjoy, how little they have! If you and I have no more religion than that which comes from what God has spoken into our soul; if that be the bread we are to live upon; if that be the strength of our heart; if that be our living portion and our dying sufficiency;—how it narrows up our religion into so small a compass, that sometimes we seem to require a microscope to see whether we have any or not.   But thus we learn this lesson, "that man liveth not by bread alone." He cannot live by doctrines in the head. He cannot live by bodily gestures. He cannot live by rites and ...

"The eternal God is thy refuge." - Deuteronomy 33:27 [KJV] There is, to my mind, much sweetness in the contrast betwixt the eternal God being the refuge of His people, and the lying refuges that most hide their heads in. God's people want  an eternal  refuge. They have a never-dying soul; and unless they have a never-dying refuge, it is not sufficient for a never-dying soul. Works! these are for time; the never-dying soul wants something to stand when works and wonders cease. Doctrines, opinions, sentiments, ordinances, the good opinion of men, the applause and flattery of the creature—these are of the earth, earthy; they fail when a man gives up the ghost.   But a child of God wants a refuge, not merely that his soul may anchor in it in time, but that when time is ended, when the angel proclaims, "There shall be time no longer," and his liberated soul escapes its prison-house, and is wafted into the presence of the eternal God, it may find in Him at that sole...

Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (02-04DEC22 A.D.) 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. Gospel truth to follow, friends: "Sovereign Ruler of the skies Every gracious, ever wise All our times are in Thy hand All events at Thy command His decree Who formed the earth Fixed my first and second birth. He that formed me in the womb He shall guide me to the tomb All my times shall ever be Ordered by His wise decree O, Thou gracious wise and just In Thy hands my soul I trust. Plagues and death around me fly Till He wills I cannot die Not a single shaft [- arrow ] can hit Till the God of love thinks fit Thou art God, and Thou alone I and mine are all Thine own. -old timey hymn: “ Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me...

JESUS THE LEAST   by D.G. Miles McKee   “Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is  least  in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” - Matthew 11:11  In my early years as a Christian, I was taught that this verse demonstrated that the weakest believer in the New Covenant was greater than John the Baptist.   In other words, I was told, for example, that old Maggie Murphy, a wee woman who most days neither knew if she was saved nor lost was greater than the final prophet of the Old Covenant. Poor wee Maggie Murphy didn’t know the difference between predestination and a bar of soap but, according to the prevalent theory, Maggie was greater than the one who was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb and who faithfully prepared the way of the Lord.  I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t get my head around that.   Then one day, I believe...