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

" Love not the world." -I John 2:15 [KJV] There is one word too much in this text, to make it agreeable to the spirit and conduct of many professors. As Pharaoh said by the locusts, “take away from me this death only,” (Exodus 10:17.) so many may say, Take away this Not only, for it is death to us; then we shall like the text, and most passionately obey its command, Love the world. Does it not seem by the conduct of too many, as though they thus read the text? Now, do not look at Mr. Such-an-one. Look at home. See if you are not the very person, in whom the love of the world reigns. You own it.  But instead of falling under conviction of the evil of it, you have an excuse for it. You say, “I have a large family—I ought to obtain a fortune for them—though I have some riches, I must get more—I must love, court, and follow the ways of the world—there is nothing to be done without industry—we must rise early, late take rest, eat the bread of carefulness, and be ...

"Behold the Lamb of God!" -John 1:36 [KJV] Who is it calls upon thee, my soul, to this most gratifying and enriching of all employments? Is it not God the Holy Ghost, by the ministry of His servant John? And doth not God thy Father do the same by the ministry of His servant Isaiah, when he bids thee behold Him in Whom His soul delighteth? And is not Jesus Himself calling, again and again, in the ministry of His word and ordinances upon thy poor forgetful heart, when He saith, "Behold Me! behold Me! look unto Me, and be ye saved!" And wilt thou not obey the sweet and gracious calls, on which all thy present peace and everlasting happiness depend? Precious, precious Jesus! Yes, my Lord! I would, methinks, so look unto Thee, and so behold Thee, until my whole heart, and all its affections, followed my eyes, and left not a thought behind for a single object besides Thee. I would eye Thee, Thou dear Redeemer, as the Lamb of God; both where Thou once wast, a...

"For upon all the glory shall be a defence." -Isaiah 4:5 [KJV] The glory of the Lord is His presence in the soul, for that is represented by the cloud, as it was when His glory filled the house of God, which Solomon built. Now this glory of the Lord in the cloud and smoke by day, and in the shining of a flaming fire by night, is to be a defence, both upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion and upon her assemblies. A defence against what? Chiefly against four things.  1. First, it is a defence against error. No person can embrace error who knows anything of the presence and power of God in his soul, or has ever seen anything of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; for all error is opposed not only to God's truth, as revealed in the word, but to God's presence, as revealed in the heart. And this is true both as regards individuals and churches. God will never sanction error as held by either. He will never bless with His manifested presence any er...

" Adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in ALL THINGS." -Titus 2:10 [KJV] What pains and expense are we at to adorn our bodies, which must shortly turn to ignoble dust: and our dwellings, which must soon be burnt up with fire? And shall we not study, and take pains to adorn the precious doctrine of our loving God and Saviour in our lives? Let gay clothing and genteel furniture reprove us for, and remind us of this duty. Let us not be like asses with long ears to hear doctrines, but slow of feet to walk in the ways of holiness. To avoid legality, let us not run into licentiousness. This awfully prevails amongst professors in our day. They incessantly dwell on doctrines. But if you aim to reduce them into experience and practice, they cry out, O, you are as legal as an Arminian.  This is really like one who should receive food into his mouth, chew it for a season, and then spit it out again: but as it passed not into the stomach to be digested, the body is not nou...

Blood that Washes! by D.G. Miles McKee “Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood...” -Revelation 1:5 Currently we seem to hear less and less about believers having been washed in the blood of Christ! We are told that such language is outmoded and meaningless in today’s culture. But is it? I don’t believe so! Let’s look for a moment then at what it means to be washed in the blood. It means that we are totally identified with Jesus in His death. The blood of Christ cleanses us, not because it is a ‘heavenly detergent,' but by totally immersing and identifying us in and with the death of our Substitute. To be washed in the blood means that legally we have been crucified with Christ. His death was our death; His punishment ours. We are now cleansed by His blood ... which is another way of saying that we have been made partakers of the death of Christ. Because the blood has been applied to us, we are legally counted as those who have paid the pena...

"The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the L ORD , to make an atonement for your souls." -Exodus 30:15 [KJV] Pause, my soul, over this sweet scripture, and mark the graciousness of thy God and Father in the blessed truth conveyed in it. What, were all the souls of the redeemed charged equally alike in the account of God? Did God thy Father rate them thus? And did Jesus, thy precious Jesus, purchase all His redeemed with an equal price, when He bought them with His blood? If this be so, my soul, it must follow, that thou, a poor unworthy creature as thou art, overlooked as thou art by the great ones of the earth, and too frequently overlooked in thyself how precious every redeemed soul must be in Jesus's sight, cost as much to Jesus as the soul of Peter, or of Paul, or of any of the patriarchs, apostles, or prophets. Oh, think of this; write it down in the tablets of thy remembrance...

"And the L ORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night." -Isaiah 4:5 [KJV] There is an allusion here to the cloudy pillar which rested upon the tabernacle. It was as a cloud by day, but as a pillar of fire by night. The reason of this is evident. By day, the cloud and the smoke were sufficiently visible; but not so in the night season. In the night, therefore, it was a pillar of fire, that the presence of the L ORD might be distinctly seen.  Spiritually viewed, this night may signify dark seasons in the soul; for there is night as well as day in the experience of God's saints. Now when they are in these dark seasons, they want clearer and brighter manifestations of the Lord's presence than when they are walking in the light of day.  Thus this "shining of a flaming fire by night" may represent the shining in of the Lord's clearer, f...