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

"The L ORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." - Jeremiah 31:3 [KJV]   There can be no new thought in the mind of God. New thoughts, new feelings, new plans, new resolutions continually occur to our mind; for ours is but a poor, fallen, fickle, changeable nature. But God has no new thoughts, feelings, plans or resolutions; for if He had He would be a changeable Being, not one great, eternal, unchangeable I Am. All His thoughts, therefore, all His plans, all His ways are like Himself, eternal, infinite, unchanging, and unchangeable.   So it is with the love of Christ to the Church. It is eternal, unchanging, unchangeable. And why? Because He loved as God. Never let us lose sight of the glorious Deity of Jesus. He loved her in eternity as the Son of God, prior to His incarnation. That was but the fruit of His love. We can, therefore, assign no beginning to the lo...

" Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings." -Jeremiah 3:22 [KJV] Backsliding is a species of apostacy from the faith. Apostacy is the high road to destruction. Total apostacy will certainly end in eternal damnation: for there can neither be repentance, or hope, for such a soul. The Son of God is the only sacrifice for sin : this, the backslider once professed to believe. But now he tramples on His precious blood, wilfully despises and rejects the Saviour; so that now, he has only “a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour every adversary of Christ” (Hebrews 10:26, 27.)   Most striking is the picture of such, drawn by Mr. Bunyan, in his Pilgrim’s Progress, as a man in an iron cage, who thus confesses: “I was once a fair and flourishing professor, both in mine own eyes, and the eyes of others; I was, as I thought, fair for the celestial city, and had even joy at the thoughts that I should get t...

If you and I are among the righteous, it is because we are made so IN CHRIST. The Apostle says, (and it is such a comfort to our souls, because it admits of no contradiction, neither sin nor Satan can overthrow it), He was, "made sin for us, Who knew no sin ; " that, it almost makes me afraid to utter the words, they are full of such grandeur and immortal glory, and shine like a diamond set with all manner of beauty, "we might be made the righteousness of God IN HIM , " (II Corinthians 5:21).  Come, poor child of God, who are cast down by looking at your wanderings of heart, carnality, and daily failings, and who perhaps have come here full of confusion, feeling yourself a helpless and wretched creature, with your head hanging down like a bulrush, look up to Jesus, He is the blessed head for the righteous, the perfect center of all glory and beauty! Look at the perfect work of Christ, He is, "the L ORD our Righteousness!" "Ye are comp...

" If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another; and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin ." -I John 1:7 [KJV] The walk of many professors seems to speak this language: Why cannot we love the world, indulge ourselves in the ways of it, and yet enjoy fellowship with God? Now we have clear notions of the doctrines of grace—of acceptance with God, and justification before Him, why need we be so very precise in our conduct? This seems as though they were desirous to walk as near as possible to the very borders of hell, and yet hope to get safe to heaven at last. Such walk not in the light of truth—in the comfort of love—in fellowship with God.  (1st.) What is fellowship with God? It is a sweet, heart-felt concord, harmony, and agreement between God and our souls; a mutual communion of spirits; a free communication from the Lord to us, and from us to the Lord:—just as two loving friends have between each ...

"Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted?" -Isaiah 2:22 [KJV] This precious text my dear Lord preached to my heart, day after day, upwards of twenty years ago; when it first pleased Him to make me happy in His love: though not then, yet I have seen abundant cause for it. That soul is in good health, that can say, I am sick of sin, sick of men, and sick of myself. The Lord is teaching us this lesson day after day: it is a hard one to flesh and blood. For we are naturally prone to look to, trust in, and depend upon an arm of flesh.  But this is to depart, in heart, from the Lord: a curse is denounced upon this (see Jeremiah 17:5.) Consider, man’s breath is in his nostrils. The best of men are subjects of sin, and liable to the stroke of death: the breath that promises you to-day, ere to-morrow’s drawn, may be vanished into air, and all your hopes blasted: the arm of flesh, which to-day is strong and stretched forth in...

" I will sow her unto Me in the earth, and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy: and I will say to them which were not My people, Thou art My people; and they shall say, Thou art our God ." -Hosea 2:23 [KJV] Declarations of grace depend not on the will of the flesh for their accomplishment. Sovereign power brings sovereign purposes to effect. Human will can neither forward nor frustrate them. So the Lord raises up and forms a people, for His glory on earth, and the Redeemer’s crown in heaven. See the process of it.  (1st.) “I will sow her.” This alludes to the word Jezrael in the last verse, which signifies the seed of God. God’s people are His own precious seed: He sows them in the earth.  (2d.) “Unto Me.” As they are sown by Him, they spring up unto Him. Though they lie long under the clods of nature’s darkness and corruption, and for a while spring up only to the world, the flesh, and the devil, yet there is a set time to favour them; a f...

" If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." -Galatians 5:25 [KJV] These two things the enemy of souls works powerfully against. (1st.) To keep sinners from coming to Christ for salvation. (2d.) When they are come, to prevent their enjoying the comfortable knowledge that Christ is their Saviour. And our own legal hearts, and wicked natures, join the enemy of our peace and salvation in both. But love lives and reigns above. Our Saviour sees how it is with us, and sends the power of His Spirit to help, relieve, and comfort us.  The dear Spirit, when dead in sin, quickens us: then He guides us in our walk. What need we then of exhortations? Much, very much; for, consider, The walk is ours: to order our steps aright, is the work of the Holy Spirit. (3d.) Our comfortable enjoyment of our interest in Christ, is experienced in a holy walk, or walking in the Spirit. The battle is the Lord’s. Yet David was to engage and conquer Goliath. “The L ORD gave h...