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

" Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light." -Ephesians 5:8 [KJV] Unregenerate persons, raised from indigence (-poverty) to opulence (-riches) , do not love to hear of their pedigree: they see not the hand of the Lord in it. What detracts from their character and merit, hurts them. But disciples of Christ like to hear of, love to look back upon what they were by nature, that they may ascribe fresh praise to the Lord, Who of His mere grace raised their degenerate souls "out of the dust, and lifted the needy from the dunghill, and has set them with the princes of His people , ” (Psalm 113:7, 8.)   We are here reminded, “Ye were” —what? dark, having some glimmering light of God, His truth, His ways, etc. Nay more, darkness itself. Blind to them, as if totally deprived of sight. Ignorant of them as a beast: as dark, respecting them, as we should be of natural objects without the sun. We walked in darkness, and kn...

"Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But My people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit." -Jeremiah 2:11 [KJV] Pause, my soul, over these words! Was it ever known that any nation changed their dunghill gods for others? Such regard had they for whatever ignorance had set up, that the veneration never after ceased. But Israel, above every other nation of the earth, manifested folly, and even exceeded the most senseless and stupid of men. My soul! dost thou not in Israel's folly behold thy own? Was there ever one, when the Lord first called thee, less deserving? A transgressor, as the Lord knew thee, from the womb! And yet this did not prevent the Lord from calling thee. He loved thee because He would love thee; gave thee His Christ, — gave thee His Holy Spirit—gave thee the name, the privilege, the adoption of a son.  What returns hast thou made? How often since hath thy back-slidings, thy coldness, thy departures, been...

"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." -Hebrews 2:14 [KJV] By His sufferings, blood-shedding, and death our gracious Lord not only made a complete atonement for sin, fulfilled every demand of the law, washed His people from all their iniquities in the fountain of His precious blood, and wrought out and brought in a perfect and everlasting righteousness for their justification, but "through death destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." It was by the death of the cross that the gracious Lord "spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it."   It is a point little considered, though one of much importance, that the Lord Jesus had, as if personally, to grapple with and overcome the prince of the power of the air, ...

" Hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us." -I John 3:24 [KJV] “That the soul be without knowledge, is not good,” (Proverbs 19:22.) What knowledge is to be compared with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ? All other will perish. But, “This is life eternal,” (John 17:3.) “For He is the true God and eternal life,” (I John 5:20.) Does He abide in us? Could we possess the whole world without this, we should only grasp a phantom. We might as well seek to fill our belly, and satisfy our hunger with the east wind, as be happy without Christ abiding in us.  (1st.) What is implied in this? We know what it is to receive and entertain a friend in our dwelling. According to our love to him, and delight in him, so we treat him. Love will set the best things before him, give him the pre-eminence in all things, and accommodate him with the best room in our house. Yea, love is jealous, lest all things should not please, and will ap...

"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." -II Corinthians 3:17 [KJV] What liberty, my soul! art thou brought into by thine adoption into the family of God in Christ? Not from the assaults of sin; for thou still carriest about with thee a body of sin, under which thou groanest. Not from the temptations of Satan; for he is still levelling at thee many a fiery dart. Not from outward troubles; for the world thou art still in, thou findest it a wilderness state. Not from inward fears; for thine unbelief begets many. Not from the chastisement of thy wise and kind Father: for then many a sweet visit of His love, under the rod, would be unknown.  Not from death; for the stroke of it thou must one day feel—though, Blessed be Jesus, He hath taken out the sting in His blood and righteousness . What liberty then is it, my soul, thou enjoyest? What hath the Spirit of the Lord, as a spirit of revelation, discovering to thee the glory of Jesus, and thy interest in H...

"But when the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me." -John 15:26 [KJV] The special work and office of the Holy Ghost is to testify of Jesus, to glorify Him, to take of the things that are His, and to shew them to the soul; and therefore without these teachings and testimonies of the Holy Ghost we have no true, no saving knowledge of Him, no living faith in Him, no sweet communion with Him, no tender and affectionate love toward Him. And are not these the marks which peculiarly distinguish the living family of God from the dead in sin and the dead in profession? A bare knowledge of the letter of truth can communicate no such gracious affections as warm, soften, melt, and animate the soul of a child of God, under the felt power and influence of the Holy Ghost; can create no such faith as gives him manifest union with Jesus; can inspire no such hope as carri...

" 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...