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

" O L ORD , Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, and every one mocketh me." -Jeremiah 20:7 [KJV] A poor deluded perfectionist lately made a great noise in London: he blasphemously pretended to be as holy as God Himself, to have revelations from Him, and peremptorily fixed upon a day when the world was to be destroyed. He deceived many, and alarmed more. But time proved how artfully he had been deceived himself; and now, what is most awful, he has cast off all sense of religion, ridicules it, charges all his delusion upon God, and quotes these very words of Jeremiah, to prove that God had deceived him. One would not mention this by way of reflection, or triumph over this unhappy man; but, as a caution against this mad, wildfire notion of sinless perfection, which so spreads itself among a certain description of professors.  But did God really deceive Jeremiah? Can we suppose that he cha...

"Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?" -Song of Solomon 3:3 [KJV] Is Jesus still the object of my soul's warmest affection; the subject of all my thoughts, all my discourse, all my inquiry? Oh, yes, my soul; whom else, in heaven or in earth, wilt thou seek after but Him? Tell me, ye ministers of Jesus, ye watchmen upon the walls of Zion— "Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?" Ye followers of the Lamb, can ye shew me where Jesus feedeth His flock at noon? Or rather, ye in the upper regions, where the Son of God manifesteth Himself in the full glories of His Person; "ye spirits of just men made perfect," ye who have known, while sojourning here below, what feeling of the soul that is, which, in the absence of Jesus, is longing for His appearance.  Ye angels of light also—ye who see Him without an intervening medium—tell Him, I beseech you, how my soul panteth for His visits: tell Him, that a poor pensioner, well known to my Lord, is waiting this mor...

"I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal." -Deuteronomy 32:39 [KJV]   The work of grace in the soul, in its very beginnings, penetrates deeply into its inmost substance. It wounds and lays open the conscience to the eye of infinite Purity and Holiness. "The entrance of Thy words (that is, the very first entrance) giveth light." "The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." All conviction to be true conviction must be thorough. The field must be ploughed, broken up, and furrowed, before the seed can find a tilth, a seed-bed for the seed to fall in so as to germinate and grow. There is much to be done in a sinner's heart before Christ can dwell in him by faith, or be formed in him the hope of glory. The heart is naturally very hard; thorns, thistles, and ...

The spiritual troubles which encompass the Christian walk are the deepest and the severest of all his trials. What in comparison are others? Our Lord keenly felt this when He uttered that affecting exclamation: “Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Shall I say, Father, save Me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour.”  What to Him – galling and agonizing as they were – what to Him the smiting, and the scourging, and the spitting, and the excruciating torture, compared with the sword which was now entering His soul – the mental conflict and spiritual sorrow which, in the hour of atonement, amazed, staggered, and overwhelmed Him?  Listen again to His affecting cry: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” Then, withdrawing Himself from His disciples – for the human sympathy upon which He had relied in anticipation of the hour of suffering failed Him now – retiring from man, He flung himself upon the bosom of God, and kneeling do...

" He hath put a new song in my mouth." -Psalm 40:3 [KJV] Some sing, when they have cause to be sad: others are sad, when they have reason to sing and rejoice. Some go on merrily to hell; others go on sorrowing to heaven. When the grace of Jesus is in the heart, a new song is put into the mouth. This is a song of new covenant love. This we are to sing all our days on earth, and for ever and ever in glory. In passing the streets, we meet with many occurrences, which remind us of our Beloved. It is sweet to spiritualize carnal things. I was much delighted with a carnal song, which concludes thus: All the time is thrown away, But what is spent in love.  I thought this was very true of the love of our Saviour. This Psalm is applied to Christ in His manhood state (Hebrews 10.) A new song was put in His mouth on our accounts. He says, “Many shall see it, and fear, and trust in the L ORD .” See hence, our spiritual joy springs from seeing Christ’s work in our salvation...

"I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore Thou contendest with me ." -Job 10:2 [KJV] My soul, art thou at any time exercised with any trying dispensations? Doth thy God, thy Jesus, seem to hide His face from thee? Are His providences afflicting? Art thou brought under bereaving visitations? Is thy earthly tabernacle shaken by sickness? Are the pins of it loosening? Are thy worldly circumstances pinching? Is prayer restrained? Oh, refer thy state, my soul, be it what it may, to Jesus. Tell thy Lord, that of all things, thy greatest dread and fear is, lest thou shouldest be mistaken concerning His love to thee. Say, as Job did, "Shew me wherefore Thou contendest with me."   There is an Achan in the heart ( see Joshua 7:1 ) . Thy Jesus doth not withdraw for nothing. Love is in His lips. Salvation fills the whole soul of Jesus. Fly to Him, then, my soul! Say to Him, Lord, make me what Thou wouldest have me to be . Oh! for a word, a whisper...

"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." -II Corinthians 3:17 [KJV] The Gospel is "the perfect law of liberty , " therefore the very perfection of liberty, and thus thoroughly and entirely free from the least taint of bondage, the slightest tincture of servitude. It is this perfect freedom which distinguishes it from the law which "worketh wrath" and "gendereth to bondage." It is, therefore, a freedom from sin; from its guilt, as having "the heart sprinkled from an evil conscience;" from its filth, by "the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost;" from its love, through "the love of God, shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost;" from its dominion, as "not being under the law but under grace;" and from its practice, by becoming servants to God, so as to have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life . How, then, can this pure, holy, and precious go...