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

"And He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation." -Psalm 107:7 [KJV] When the Lord leads, we can follow. The path may be rough, but if the Lord upholds, we can walk in it without stumbling. Whatever the Lord bids, we can do if we have but His presence; whatever He calls upon us to suffer, we can bear if we have but the approbation of a good conscience and His approving smile. Oh, the wonders of sovereign grace! The cross is no cross if the Lord give strength to bear it; affliction is no affliction if the Lord support under it; trial is no trial sweetened by His smile, and sorrow: no grief if lightened by His love. It is our fretfulness, unbelief, carnal reasoning, rebellion, and self-pity which make a rough way a wrong way; but grace in its all-conquering power, not only subdues every difficulty without, but what is its greater triumph, subdues every difficulty within. It is, and ever must be, one of the strongest principles of...

" Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice." -Psalm 51:8 [KJV] Of all the sad consequences of sin, good Lord! deliver us from Antinomian licentiousness; which consists in being so hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, as to make light of it. Though David had been awfully licentious in his practice, yet we see the grace of the saint shine forth, in his brokenness of heart, sorrow of soul, and contrition of spirit for his sins. Never quote David’s dreadful fall, without his deep, soul-afflicted, heart-broken, sorrow and repentance. Never think of one without the other; lest you think slightly of the most cursed evil of evils, wilful sin against a gracious God. O! who can tell the horrors of soul, and terrors of conscience, David felt, when he uttered these words? Consider them, O my soul! The Lord make sin more dreadful to thy view, and hateful in thy sight.  (1st.) Spiritual joy and gladness of soul in the Lord had forsa...

"By His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." -Hebrews 9:12 [KJV] Ponder, my soul, these solemn expressions concerning thy Jesus. Mark, in them, their vast contents. Jesus, as a Prophet, hath revealed His salvation: as a Priest, He alone hath procured it, and offered it up to God and the Father; and as a King, He ever lives and reigns to see its efficacy fully accomplished in all His redeemed, being made partakers of it. Behold in this, His Priestly office, both as an High Priest and as THE SACRIFICE, what He hath wrought, and what He hath accomplished - even eternal redemption . Mark, my soul, the several volumes of mercy comprised in it. First - Of man's revolt from God .  Secondly - The deadly breach by reason thereof .  Thirdly - The proclamation from heaven, of God's determined purpose to take vengeance of sin .  Fourthly - Man's total inability to appease the divine wrath, either by doing or...

"The L ORD will give grace and glory." -Psalm 84:11 [KJV] Wherever the Lord gives grace, He in and with that grace gives glory. We, therefore, read, "Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified." Thus He has already made them, even while on earth, partakers of His glory; and this by making them partakers of His grace; for as in the bud is the bloom, and in the bloom the fruit, so in budding grace is blooming glory—grace being but glory begun, and glory being but grace finished. But what is "glory?" Viewed as future, in its full consummation, it is to be with Jesus in realms of eternal bliss, where tears are wiped from off all faces; it is to see Him as He is; to be conformed to His glorious likeness; to be delivered from all sin and sorrow; to be perfectly free from all temptations, trials, burdens, and exercises, and to dwell for ever in ...

" The Father seeketh such to worship Him." -John 4:23 [KJV] Error is natural to fallen man. He sets his face against truth, and turns his back upon it with contempt. The more error abounds with pride and self-sufficiency, so much the more it is suited to our corrupt nature. Hence, we are naturally Pelagians : we cannot think Adam’s sin has hurt us. Or else, Semi-pelagians : though we confess our souls are wounded by Adam’s sin, yet we cannot think we are totally dead to God thereby; but, as it were, only half dead: so that we still possess some power and ability, to seek God and to please Him, if we will but exert ourselves.  This is the popular doctrine of our day: it is suited to man’s pride, and keeps up his self-importance. Hence, this dry, shriveled comment is put upon our Lord’s words: “That, if we will but stir up ourselves to seek God, possess our minds with an habitual sense of religion, and worship Him in spirit and truth, He then will seek us, and del...

"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] Pause, my soul, over this condescending token of God's love to Israel; and see whether it doth not hold forth to thee a blessed portion for thy encouragement. Israel had been most undeserving; but yet the Lord would put Israel in remembrance, by assuring His people that He remembered their love when God first formed Israel into a people. When He led them into the wilderness, and married Israel, they sung the praise of Jehovah in their love-songs, on the day of their espousals. 'Now,' saith the Lord, - 'I remember thee in these things; for these were tokens of affection when thou wentest after Me in following the pillar of cloud through the desert; in trusting to a harvest, though as yet the land was not sown.' And may I, blessed Lord, sweetly interp...

"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." -I Peter 1:2 [KJV] Foreknowledge of the persons of the elect in the divine economy precedes election. "Whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate ; " and this foreknowledge was not any eternal foreview of their faith or love in time, as if that were the ground of God's choice of them; but it implies, first, that thorough knowledge which God had of them, and of all that should concern them, of all the depths of sin and rebellion, disobedience and ungodliness, of which they might be guilty before called by grace, and of all their grievous backslidings, slips, and falls, with all the base returns that they should make for His goodness and mercy toward them after He had touched their hearts by His finger. And secondly and chiefly, it signifies the good will and pleasure, with that everlasting love of God the Father, whereby He foreknew them with a holy approbation of them, a divine affection...