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

Did Jesus Die Well?   Part II by D.G. Miles McKee We saw, in part one, that Jesus died with scripture in His mouth and faith in His heart. He died well. Let us ask whether many gospel believers of the past also knew how to die well. Let’s see what some of them said as they were about to die. Thomas Cranmer cried out, “I see Heaven open and Jesus on the right hand of God.” (Thomas Cranmer was the Archbishop of Canterbury who lived from 1489-1556. He was burnt at the stake for believing in Justification by Grace through Faith). Cotton Mather, (the most famous of the late 17th century New England Puritan preachers) said, “Is this dying? Is this all? Is this what I feared when I prayed against a hard death? Oh, I can bear this! I can bear this!” Watts Wilkinson: 19th Century gospel preacher said, “Christ is worth more than ten thousand worlds. O let me catch a glimpse of Thee, and then drop into eternity.” Lady Selina Shirley, Countess of Huntingdon (1707-1791) declared, “I...

" But GOD, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with CHRIST (by grace ye are saved.)" -Ephesians 2:4, 5 [KJV] My dear brethren in Christ, and thou, O my soul, one chief reason why, at any time, we have so little comfort, and are so low in joy, is, we do not enough believe and live upon the love of God. Let us never think of, or look for any mercy from God, without considering that it flows from love. Is God rich in mercy to any? It is because He loves them. Great love, everlasting, unchangeable love, is the source and spring of rich mercy. It was rich mercy, for God to give us His beloved Son to be our Saviour in time.  This was because of His great love to us before time. He loved us from eternity in His Son. He loves us invariably the same through time, and under all states and circumstances. Yea, when we were forlorn, hopeless, helpless, loathsome, and desperate, even dead in...

"Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith." -Hebrews 12:2 [KJV] No one can ever run the race set before him, except by looking unto Jesus. He is at the Head of the race; He stands at the goal; holding the crown of victory in His hand, which He puts upon the head of the successful runner. And we can only run on as we view Jesus by the eye of faith at the right hand of the Father opening His blessed arms to receive us into His own bosom at the end of the race. Nor indeed can any one really look to Him but by the special gift and grace of God. He must be revealed to the soul by the power of God; we must behold His glorious Godhead and His suffering manhood by the eye of faith; and we must view Him as the incarnate God; the only Mediator between God and man. We must see the efficacy of His atoning blood to purge a guilty conscience; the blessedness of His obedience to justify a needy, naked soul; the sweetness of His dying love as an inward balm and ...

"But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth." -II Thessalonians 2:13 [KJV] Some of the sweetest enjoyments in grace, are the freeness and undeserved nature of that grace towards the happy objects of its distinguishing favour: and as the first and ultimate design of all, for which grace is given, is the glory of Jehovah; so the promotion of that glory, in the redemption and sanctification of the church of Jesus, is the means and end. Now, my soul, sit down, this evening, and mark well, in the blessed effects wrought in thine own heart, what the apostle hath here said, that if thou art chosen, it must have been from the beginning thou art chosen to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth . Pause, and ask thyself: art thou chosen? Hath this sovereign act of grace pass...

" My soul shall make her boast in the L ORD : the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad." -Psalm 34:2 [KJV] There was a poor, vain-glorious boaster, who had arrived to the summit of his happiness, and attained the zenith of his glory. The sun of prosperity shone with great splendour upon him. He bid adieu to all care. Down he sat to solace himself. “Soul!” said he, “thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease: eat, drink, and be merry.” But, awful moment! solemn speech! God said unto him, “Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee” (Luke 12:20.)   O how many such fools are there, who think the soul can be made happy, in outward ease, eating and drinking, and carnal enjoyments. Alas! one moment dashes the honey of their comforts, into the gall of disappointment. Not so, that soul who boasts in the Lord. This was not a transient fit of David’s, caused by a warm frame of the passions. For, says he, “I will bless the L ORD at all...

"I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant; for I do not forget Thy commandments." -Psalm 119:176 [KJV] If the Lord did not seek us, we should never seek the Lord. That is most certain. If you are one that seeks the Lord in prayer, in supplication, in secret desire, with many a heart-rending groan, and often by night and by day, be well assured, that you would never have sought the Lord, had not the Lord first sought you. He is now seeking you. It may be (as you fear), some time before He finds you; but He will find you at last. How sweetly the Lord has set this forth in the parable of the lost sheep! The poor sheep has gone astray; and having once left the fold, it is pretty sure to have got into some strange place or other. It has fallen down a rock, or has rolled into a ditch, or is hidden beneath a bush, or has crept into a cave, or is lying in some deep, distant ravine, where none but an experienced eye and hand can find it out. And so with the ...

"The house of the Rechabites." -Jeremiah 35:2 [KJV] My soul, as the prophet had his commission from the Lord, to go unto the house of the Rechabites, and the Holy Ghost hath been pleased to have the event of the visit recorded; do thou go down to it also, and see what instructions thou canst gather there, under His gracious teachings, for thine evening meditation. The house of the Rechabites drank no wine. And was not this to intimate the law of the Nazarites? Surely there was a reference, in this prohibition, to the one glorious Nazarite, even Jesus! The Rechabites had no fixed dwelling-place, but lived in moveable tents; and believers in Jesus, like their Lord Himself, have "here no abiding city, but are seeking one to come." Hence, when the king of Babylon came into the land where the Rechabites had no fixed abode, they had no attachment to the place, and therefore the more readily took their departure. Such, my soul, will be the case with thee, i...