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

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen." -II Corinthians 13:14 [KJV] Here, my soul, set up thy pillar. Baptised as thou hast been into the joint name, love, praise, and adoration, of the Holy Three in One; and blessed as thou hast been, and art, in their joint mercies, grace, and favour; here every day, and all the day, seek thy portion and blessing, as the united source of all thy salvation.  End the year, and begin the year, under those precious tokens of God in Christ; and daily keep up a lively communion and friendship with each, as the blessed cause of all thine happiness. Jehovah, in His threefold character of Person, is engaged to perfect what He hath begun: and it is, and should be thy happiness to be for ever viewing the testimonies of it, in the holy scriptures of truth.  God thy Father hath so loved the church in Jesus, as to give Him to the church, and the church to Him; and God the So...

"All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."   -I Peter 1:24, 25 [KJV] All flesh, and everything that springs from the flesh, and is connected with the flesh, is as grass, which, for a time, looks green and flourishing, but touched with the mower's scythe, or scorched by the midday sun, soon withers and fades away. Such is all flesh, without exception, from the highest to the lowest. As in nature, some grass grows thicker and longer than other, and makes, for a while, a brighter show, yet the scythe makes no distinction between the light crop and the heavy, so the scythe of death mows down with equal sweep the rich and the poor, and lays in one common grave all the children of men.  You have seen sometimes in the early spring the grass in flower, and you have noticed those little ...

" A building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ." -II Corinthians 5:1 [KJV] My soul, after thy last evening's meditation on the shortness and unsatisfying nature of life, let thy present thoughts be occupied in beholding, with steady faith, the great contrast to it: and see whether thy confidence be as strong, and well founded, as the apostle's. His was not a mere hope only, but an assurance in Jesus. "We know, (saith he) that if this tabernacle (our body) were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Dost thou know this?  Is Jesus thy foundation? Hath God thy Father built for thee? And doth the Holy Ghost set His almighty hand to the work, in sweetly witnessing to the writings, and sealing the deed, that it is thine? Oh! the blessedness to know this, to live already in the enjoyment of it; and while the pins of thy earthly tabernacle are daily loosening, and taking out, to be...

"Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof."   - Ecclesiastes 7:8 [KJV] Thus saith the wise man, and it is often true in natural things, but invariably so in divine. Rarely at first can we foresee what will be the issue of any matter which we take in hand. We may begin it with much hope, and find in the end those hopes sadly disappointed. We may begin it with much fear, and find from the event those fears utterly groundless. Whatever we take in hand it is very rare that our expectations are fully carried out, for we have again and again to learn that "man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps," and that there are many devices in a man's heart, nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that and that only, shall stand.   But so far as we are amongst the family of God, and as such are under especial guidance and divine teaching and leading, whether our first expectations are accomplished or not, the end stamps wisdom and goodness...

Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (30DEC22 - 01JAN23 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: “ Salvation is of the LORD.” -Jonah 2:9c [KJV] “ God prepared a salvation for His elect, chosen by Him not because of any goodness in them, but because He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and will have compassion on whom He will have compassion. Is this not a salvation that will suit thee, O poor sinner?   If God had chosen them out of any merit, or if that choice depended on anything which men did or could do, thou wert a damned soul, for thou hast no goodness, and thou canst do nothing. If God’s election comes to those who are without merit, without hope, without strength, there is hope for thee.” -copied "Storm Warning: Prove ...

"Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been." -Genesis 47:9 [KJV] My soul, in looking back upon thy life, mayest thou not well take up the same language as the patriarch, and confess that "few and evil have thy days been?" Surely the review appears like the heath of a desert, "that knoweth not when good cometh!" Out of Jesus, and considered without an eye to Him, there is not a single circumstance of real merit, or of real happiness to be seen. The whole of life, from the days of childhood, through all its intermediate stages, presents but one view "of vanity and vexation of spirit?   Precious Jesus! what would the arithmetic of life have been in the now departing year, or in the departure of myself from the world, but for thee? Hadst Thou not graciously sought me, when I sought not Thee: hadst Thou not opened to me "the good old way," trodden by the patriarchs, and guided and held up my feet in following them; had not Jesus ...

"I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing." - John 15:5 [KJV] The great secret in religion—that secret which is only with those who fear the Lord and to Whom He shews His covenant—is first to get sensible union with the Lord, and then to maintain it. But this union cannot be got except by some manifestation of His Person and work to our heart, joining us to Him as by one Spirit. This is the espousal of the soul, whereby it is espoused to one husband as a chaste virgin to Christ. From this espousal comes fellowship, or communion with Christ; and from this communion flows all fruitfulness, for it is not a barren marriage.   But this union and communion cannot be maintained except by abiding in Christ; and this can only be by His abiding in us. "Abide in Me, and I in you." But how do we abide in Him? Mainly by faith, hope, and love, for these are the three chief grace...