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

" He who is washed, needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean ." -John 13:10 [KJV] How precious is the word of the Lord! being in great disorder of body and heaviness of soul, our Lord refreshed and comforted me with these words. Here, Christ most plainly teaches us these blessed truths:  (1st.) That every believer is washed by Him from the filth of all his sins.  (2nd.) That each and every one are equally and alike perfectly clean from all sin, in God’s sight; “not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing , ” (Ephesians 5:27.) — “Justified from all things before God , ” (Acts 13:39.) There is not one condemnation against them from God (see Romans 8:1.)   Therefore, (3d.) They need no other cleansing to make them acceptable to God, pure in His sight, meet to come into His presence now, and to enjoy Him to all eternity.  Rejoice, O my fellow-sinners! and thou, too, my soul! in a lowly, self-abasing, disciple washin...

" ...in the hand of a Mediator ." -Galatians 3:19 [KJV] The hand of a Mediator was the great blessing every, enlightened son of Adam, from the fall, sighed after, and looked for, in every approach to God. Hence the first transgressor, for the want of it, hid himself from the presence of God, amidst the trees of the garden. Hence Israel cried out to Moses, "Go thou near, and hear all that the L ORD our God shall say; but let not God speak with us, lest we die." And Job longed for a day's man, that is, a Mediator, that might lay his hand upon both parties. See then, my soul, thy privileges; for thou hast a Mediator, and a glorious one indeed, in whose almighty hand all thy concerns are eternally secured. "Ye are come," saith the apostle; he doth not say, ye are coming. but, ye are come, to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling." Oh then, in all thy approaches, have an eye to Jesus. Put all thine affai...

"For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." -Jeremiah 2:13 [KJV] There is nothing so cutting as the remembrance of backsliding against a good and holy God. There is nothing so wounding to a tender conscience as having sinned against manifested mercy and revealed salvation. It seems almost like doing despite to the Spirit of grace; almost like trampling under foot the blood of the covenant whereby we were sanctified, and treating our best Friend worse than His very enemies treated Him. And as these things are brought to mind, and laid upon the conscience with weight and power, they will sometimes sink us very low into despondency and gloom so as almost to take away our very hope. But the Lord is very merciful and compassionate to those who fear His name. He regards the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their cry. He listens to the s...

" He will reprove the world of sin." -John 16:8 [KJV] Has the Spirit so convinced , so reproved you of sin, of the curse of the law of sin, of the wrath of God revealed against all sin; and of that sin of sins, unbelief, that whosoever lives and dies in, is under the wrath of God: so that you have fled for refuge to Jesus, and have taken shelter in His wounds, to be saved from all sin; then you are blessed: your soul is safe, your salvation is sure.  The Spirit has glorified the Redeemer in your eyes and to your heart. And Christ will glorify your soul with Him in His own kingdom. Is not the Spirit rightly styled the Comforter? Did He not act the part of a comforter, even in convincing of sin? What if your heart was broken and bled for sin, yet it was that you might be comforted with the love, and made joyful in the salvation of Jesus. But having thus convinced you of sin, and brought you to Christ for salvation, has the Spirit done with you? Is the work at an ...

"The Comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me." -Lamentations 1:16 [KJV] Whence is it, my soul, that those distressing thoughts arise? Pause, and inquire. Is the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, indeed withdrawn, when Jesus, thy Jesus, sweetly and graciously promised that He should abide for ever? This cannot be. Is the righteousness of Jesus less; or hath His blood to atone and cleanse, lost its efficacy? Oh no! Jesus' righteousness, and Jesus' all-atoning propitiation, like the almighty Author of both, must be eternally and everlastingly the same; "yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."   Hath God thy Father forgotten to be gracious? Oh no! God thy Father proclaimed from heaven that He is well pleased for His dear Son's righteousness' sake; and never, never, shall a word gone out of the Lord's mouth be altered. From whence then, my soul, is thy leanness, thy fears, and despondency? Canst thou not discover? Oh yes! It is all i...

"Woe to them that are at ease in Zion." -Amos 6:1 [KJV] John Bunyan says, in his plain, homely language: "A Christian man is never long at ease, When one fright's gone, another doth him seize."   Sin will never let him rest long, nor satan let him rest long, nor God let him rest long, nor his own fears let him rest long. He cannot be at ease till his conscience is purged with the blood of sprinkling; till his soul has been blest with a feeling sense and enjoyment of the love of God; till he has sweet manifestations of pardoning mercy, blessed revelations of Christ to his soul, with the voice and witness of the Spirit in his breast.  This is not the ease of Moab (Jeremiah 48:11) but the ease of which the Psalmist speaks when he says "His soul shall dwell at ease" (Psalm 25:13.) All ease but this is the sleep of the sluggard; carnal ease as opposed to spiritual. If then he drop into carnal ease, and for a time sin do not seem to plague, no...

" Speak thou the things which become sound doctrine." -Titus 2:1 [KJV] “Like people, like priest,” is a Scripture adage, (Hosea 4:9.) Professors generally possess the same ideas of the minister they sit under. Our Lord advises, “Take heed what ye hear , ” (Mark 4:24.) The seeds of all heresies are in our nature; they are sooner learned than sound doctrine. Hence Paul’s jealousy of, and advice to Titus. He was not only to preach sound doctrine, but the things also which become it. Sound doctrine is to be highly prized, yet it is not to be alone. Good as it is, to have a sound judgment in the doctrines of grace, yet we are ever to consider, they are all according to, and tend to promote godliness.  They are all of a practical and experimental nature: productive of love in the heart, and holiness in the life. Many err here. Some make little of sound doctrine. They cry out, Away with your doctrines, give us practical holiness. These cast contempt upon the word of...