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

"Should such a man as I flee?" -Nehemiah 6:11 [KJV] Nehemiah was engaged in a great work. His God was with him, and gave success unto him. Friends and enemies unite against him. By base insinuation, craft and stratagem, they strove to dishearten and deter him from going on with God’s work. Opposition is the Christian’s lot: courage is honour: perseverance is his jewel.  Look at this man of God: he boldly repels all fear. Instead of fleeing from his work as advised, he flees to his God, and cries, “O God, strengthen my hand.” Faith inspires prayer: prayer brings courage to the heart. Then he boldly demands, Should such a man as I flee! A man so greatly favoured, so highly honoured, as to be employed by God, to work for him? No, I disdain such mean cowardice: I will work on: It is God’s cause: let God see to the event; I fear it not.  Christian, know your calling: it is to work for God: expect opposition from within and without. This may call up fear and dismay...

"Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise." -Galatians 4:28 [KJV] Mark, my soul, the distinguishing characters of those who are the children of promise, and see whether thou art of this blessed family. For as the law and the gospel are strikingly distinguished from each other, so are the children of nature from those of grace. And how is this to be known? Look at the case Paul hath referred to: Isaac was the son of Abraham.  And the apostle saith, "that they which are of faith, the same are children of Abraham. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." And as Isaac was a child of Abraham by promise, not by natural power, so believers in Jesus are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God . -see John 1:12-14 [KJV] Hence Paul saith, "to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not to seeds as of many, but as of one; and to ...

"A time to kill, and a time to heal." -Ecclesiastes 3:3 [KJV] All through the Christian's life there will be "a time to kill, and a time to heal." We sometimes read in books, and hear in conversation, an experience of this kind—a work of grace commencing with very powerful convictions of sin, and the soul brought almost to the very brink of hell, and then a wonderful revelation of Jesus Christ, a powerful application of His atoning blood to the conscience, and a blessed manifestation of God's love to the soul.  And then what follows? If we can credit their account, and they are not deceiving us, or not deceiving themselves, or if we do not misunderstand their statements, they possess an unwavering assurance during the remainder of their sojourn upon earth. Sin and Satan never distress nor wound them; the flesh lies calm and tranquil, like the summer sea, never lashed up by angry gusts into a storm of fretfulness and rebellion; the sea birds of...

"The righteous is taken away from the evil." - Friends,   read the full verse in Isaiah 57:1 [KJV] Why then do we not rejoice over the dead, who die in the Lord? Why do we, who profess to be in the Lord, fear to die? Death will be the funeral of all our evils, and the resurrection of all our comforts. Why then do we at all dread it? Why so reluctant to be taken from the many evils we suffer here?  Why not rather be longing to be for ever with the Lord? Plainly, it is for want of faith. The point is not fully settled between our Saviour and our souls, whether we are His righteous members or not, and hence we do not walk closely and comfortably with Him, and then the fear of death prevails over us.  A believer in Jesus, and a righteous person, are convertible terms. Every believer is a living member of Christ, united to, and one with Him. They are righteous as Christ is, as man and Mediator. His very righteousness is theirs. They are clothed with it, and stan...

"Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved." -Song of Solomon 8:5 [KJV] Who is it that asketh this question, my soul? Is it the holy angels, astonished as they well may, at the gracious condescension of thy Jesus in the grace and favour He hath bestowed upon thee? Or is it the world at large, looking on with amazement at the love of Jesus to His chosen? Is it the Jewish church, amazed that Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of God's promise in Christ? Or, above all, is it Jesus Himself, not because He knoweth not the grace He hath bestowed, but because He admireth the grace He hath given, and as He did the centurion's faith which He Himself was the author of, He looketh upon it with pleasure? And art thou, my soul, come up from the wilderness of nature, a dry, barren land, where no water of life is; from the wilderness of the world, and from all the unsatisfying and empty pursuits of it? Art...

"Again, they are minished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow." -Psalm 107:39 [KJV] Oppression is the exercise of strength against weakness, the triumph of power over helplessness; so that poverty literally opens the door for oppression. It was so with Hezekiah. When Hezekiah was laid on his bed of sickness, death stared him in the face, and he expected he should be cut off, and cast into perdition. This opened the door for oppression; says he, "Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me."   The cold damps of death stood upon his forehead, and despair pressed upon his soul. All his fleshly religion vanished in a moment; and he had but just faith and strength enough to cry out under the grip of the oppressor's hand at his throat, "Undertake for me" (Isaiah 38:14). Oppression then is a weight and a burden super-added to poverty. It is not the same thing as poverty, but it is an additional infliction to poverty. A man may ...

"What is it which made, and will forever continue to make, Christ’s righteousness so infinitely meritorious and successful in producing the divinely intended result?  It is the divinity of His glorious person.   All the created beings in the universe, whether angelic or human, unfallen, fallen or restored, would never by their endeavors united, be able to furnish out and make up a righteousness of sufficient value to claim the favours of God upon the footing of justice and merit, or to present anyone of the chosen seed blameless before the burning eyes of infinite holiness.   Such power belongeth only to the righteousness of the God-Man, Jehovah incarnate!  Nothing but that all-perfect and everlasting merit, which is the complex result of His obedience and of His sacrifice, can exalt and retrieve us to the dignity and suitability of heaven."                           -preacher...