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

" What is your life?" -James 4:14 [KJV] A short day, full of evils; a span long, replete with crosses. Each revolving day brings its troubles; each fleeting moment, its sorrows. ‘Yes,’ says a soul, ‘I am a living witness of this: I am a mark for the enemy to shoot his fiery darts at; against man he daily renews his attacks, constantly buffets, and is ever busy with his subtle devices. Each morning I rise, I am brought into the field to exercise my arms; or on the stage, to conflict with my enemies. Truly, I am almost worn and wearied out. What with a sense of indwelling corruptions, the plague of my heart, the attacks of Satan, the troubles of the world, want of the sense of my Lord’s love, and the workings of unbelief;—my life is one continued scene of sorrow and distress.’  Remember, for your comfort, your life is short: your rest shall be eternal and glorious. Consider what one sweetly says, “It is the great work and difficulty, and yet duty of a christian, ...

"... Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption ." -I Corinthians 1:30 [KJV] What a sweet subject for my morning meditation is here! Who is it, my soul, is made of God to thee these precious things but Jesus? And mark how they are made so. I am a poor ignorant creature, grossly ignorant by reason of the fall. I knew not my lost estate, much less the way of recovery. Here Jesus became to me wisdom. By His illuminating the darkness of my mind, He led me to see my ruin and my misery. But this would never have brought me out of it; for though I saw my lost estate, yet still I had no consciousness by what means I could be recovered. Here again Jesus came to my aid, and taught me, that as I needed righteousness, He would be my righteousness, and undertake for me to God.  But even after this was done, I felt my soul still the subject of sin; and how to subdue a single sin I knew not. Here Jesus came again, and gave me to se...

"It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." -II Timothy 2:11, 12 [KJV] To be partakers of Christ's crown, we must be partakers of Christ's cross. Union with Him in suffering must precede union with Him in glory. This is the express testimony of the Holy Ghost: "If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." The flesh and the world are to be crucified to us, and we to them; and this can only be by virtue of a living union with a crucified Lord. This made the apostle say, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me." And again, "But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the ...

" Where two or three are gathered together in My name there am I in the midst of them." -Matthew 18:20 [KJV] Our hopes and comforts rise or fall, according to our conceptions and belief of what Christ is in Himself, and what He is to us. Attend to this. You will find this true in your experience. Therefore it is of no small moment, whether you believe Christ to be God over all, or only a mere man. Yea, it is of the utmost importance: it enters into the very life, peace, and joy of your soul. Our Lord here puts this beyond a doubt. None but God is, at one and the same time, in more places than one. But Christ declares, “Wherever My disciples are gathered together in My name, there am I.” Therefore Christ is the omnipresent God. This is the joy of our faith; this, the glory of our souls. Now, it should be our grand concern to bring this into experience and practice.  (1st.) Remember “The eyes of the L ORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good,” (P...

"He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack." -II Corinthians 8:15 [KJV] My soul! here is a delightful morsel for thee to feed upon this morning. Thou art come out to gather thy daily food, as Israel did in the wilderness. Faith had no hoards. Thou wantest Jesus now as much as thou didst yesterday. Well then, look at what is here said of Israel. They went out to gather—what? Why, in the morning bread—God's gift.  Such is Jesus, the bread of God, the bread of life. And as Israel would have been satisfied with nothing short of this, so neither be thou. And as Israel was never disappointed, so neither wilt thou, if thou seek it in faith, as Israel did. And observe, "they that gathered most had nothing over;" so "he that gathered least had no lack."   Yea, my soul, no follower of Jesus can have too much of Jesus; nothing more than he wants—nothing to spare. So the poorest child of God, that hath th...

"Thus saith the L ORD ; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown ." -Jeremiah 2:2 [KJV] Salvation is a gift, the choicest and richest gift which the hands of a Triune God, whose name is Love, can bestow. It is a portion, an inheritance, an estate, a treasure, an eternal reality. The full possession, the entire enjoyment, the complete acquisition of this predestinated weight of glory, is indeed reserved until a future state; but the earnests, the firstfruits, the early ripe clusters, the first dew-drops of this eternal inheritance, are given to the elect whilst upon earth.  The everlasting enjoyment of the presence and glory of Christ is often compared in Scripture to a wedding. Thus we read (Revelation 9:7) of "the Lamb's wife," and of "the marriage of the Lamb." So the Church is said to be "brought unto the King in raiment o...

" 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...