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

" And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?" —II Kings 8:13 [KJV] O, the treachery of the human heart! both scripture and experience prove this melancholy truth, that it is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Who can fathom the depths of its deceits? who can understand the misery of iniquity which lies concealed in the nature of sinful man? Alas! presumptuous confidence that our nature is not so totally corrupt and abominable, too, too oft deceives and betrays even the children of God. This wretch Hazael, who had premeditated rebellion and murder in his heart, yet starts at the prediction of these crimes which as yet had no real existence.  Doubtless he thought Elisha judged very hard of him; he could almost stare the prophet out of countenance; and, as though he charged him with degrading the dignity of his human nature, he demands whether he looked on him no better than an unclean beast, a...

" And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on My name, and I will hear them: I will say it is My people; and they shall say, the L ORD is my God." — Zechariah 13:9 [KJV] O, Give me comforts or I die, saith the soul! for surely was I a child of God, I should not be thus tried, afflicted, and distressed. Nay, saith the Saviour, "ye know not what ye ask." Dost thou forget the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children? "My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him." — Hebrews 12:5 .  Did I bid Thee believe on me? Believe also My words: "it is through much tribulation thou must enter My kingdom." — Acts 14:22 . This profitable lesson, though grievous to the flesh, must be learned. Like Peter, we pray to be excused being washed by our Lord. But we consider not His love, nor ou...

" God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." — Galatians 6:14 [KJV] Satan is very busy to hinder the Christian's glorying in Jesus ONLY. As an adversary to the truth, he objects, by the men of the world, and it is frequently suggested to the believer's mind, "Jesus is ever uppermost in your heart and tongue; you ascribe no glory to God the Father, and to the Holy Spirit." But this is vain and ignorant; for in our crucified Jesus we behold the great love of the Father. Our glorying in the cross of Christ alone, is by the grace and teaching of the Holy Spirit, whose office it is to testify of Jesus ONLY, and of salvation by none other; so saith our Lord, "He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you." — John 16:14 .  God forbid that any man upon earth, all the devils in hell, all the lusts in our nature, or un...

Bathed in the Gospel by D. G. Miles McKee   Romans 10:16 says, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel.  For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”     Notice how the “WORD of GOD” and the “GOSPEL” are one and the same. If we would grow in faith, therefore, we should continually bathe ourselves in the Gospel and its applications.  Faith will grow as the Gospel is expounded!  The preaching of the good news of the person, work and offices of Christ is the Gospel, and it always brings and generates faith … unless we have stopped our ears against it. We must, therefore, get away from thinking that the message of Christ is exclusively for evangelistic meetings!  The gospel is every bit as much for the believer as it is for the lost and believers will grow in faith as they are exposed to the good news of Jesus Christ. What a wonderful gift of God faith really is!...

" For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" — Mark 8:36, 37 [KJV] Hast thou heard the voice of thy Beloved? art thou a willing disciple of a despised Master? But does the flesh shrink from, murmur and reason against taking up the cross daily, "and suffering the loss of all things?" Listen, O soul, to the reasonings of WISDOM. Though the followers of the Lamb are counted fools and madmen, yet their dear Master here teaches them such reasoning and argument, drawn from the nature and fitness of things, as will in a dying hour, and at the judgment-day, silence the tongue of every adversary. Ever use thy Master's weapon.  Reason daily, O, Christian, upon thy spiritual gain, by the knowledge of Jesus. Study to look with contempt upon thy trifling worldly loss. What is all the wisdom of this world but folly? the righteousness of the whole world, but filthy r...

" They shall put you out of the synagogues." —John 16:2  [KJV] So it must be in all ages. The scriptures cannot be broken. But what are the crimes of the ministers of Jesus, to deserve such usage? Is it for a life of intemperance and lewdness, of sin and folly, in frequenting play-houses, card-tables, routs, assemblies, horse-racing? etc. No; friends of the Lamb have done with all such vain paltry matter. Their hearts feed upon infinitely higher delights, and their time is too precious to be devoted to sacrifice upon the altars of heathenish vanities.  For these things they might gain no censure, but keep their places in the synagogues, and their characters in the world as good, honest, orthodox preachers, and stand free from the charge of mopish, dreaming enthusiasts; chief priests themselves being judges. But they stand arraigned of crimes of the highest nature, even of inverting the very order of things; "turning the world upside down;" "preach...

" And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them: for I am the L ORD their God." —Leviticus 26:44 [KJV] Can any child of God read his Father's awful threatenings in this chapter, and think light of sin? Can he count it a small thing to walk contrary to God's revealed mind and will? Indeed one would think it impossible; nor can we hardly believe any one who has known the true grace of God could read this verse and ever dare open his mouth and shoot his arrows of bitter words against the doctrines of everlasting, electing love, sovereign grace, and the certain salvation of every redeemed soul. But alas! when the mouth of proud man is not held in by the bridle of humility, what awful, what horrid speeches will he dare to utter, even against the plain and express declarations of Jehovah Himself!  The rank weeds of natural not...