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

"The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." -I John 1:7 [KJV] Most precious truth for guilty sinners! Lord, help us most deeply to consider what is implied in these words.  (1st.) See the exceeding sinfulness of sin. It has brought these dreadful evils upon us. First, Loss of God’s image. Secondly, Obnoxiousness to His wrath. Thirdly, Rejection from His presence. For we are by sin totally unclean. The pollution of sin has brought the curse of God’s law upon us, armed His justice, shut His kingdom against us, and opened the gates of hell to us.  The bitter cries and exquisite torments of the damned in hell, will eternally proclaim the malignancy of sin. The everlasting songs of the saints in glory, will for ever proclaim the praises of the Lamb, who washed them from their sins in His own blood.  (2d.) This proves the curse and defilement of sin. The blood of Jesus Christ, and that alone, cleanseth from all its deepest stains. O the infinit...

"Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost." -Acts 11:16 [KJV] Blessed promise! realize it, Oh Thou Holy Spirit, day by day, in and upon my soul. Bring me under the continued baptisms of Thy sovereign influence, and cause me to feel all the sweet anointings of the Spirit sent down upon the hearts and minds of Thy redeemed, as the fruits and effects of Jesus' exaltation, and the promise of God the Father.  Yes, blessed Spirit, cause me to know Thee in Thy person, work, and power; in all Thy offices, characters, and relations. I need Thee day by day, as my Comforter. I need Thee, as the Spirit of truth, to guide me into all truth. I need Thee, as the Remembrancer of the Lord Jesus, to bring to my forgetful heart all the blessed things He hath revealed to me.  I need Thee, as the witness of my Jesus, to testify of my wants, and His fulness to supply. I need Thee, as my Advocate and Helper, in all my infirmities in prayer. I need Thee, as the earnest of the promis...

"With clouds He covereth the light, and commandeth it not to shine, by the cloud that cometh betwixt." -Job 36:32 [KJV] The sun, from its first formation by its almighty Creator, shines at all times alike. There never was, is, or ever can be, any addition to, or diminution from, its light and heat. But we perceive a sensible difference. Even the intervention of a cloud coming between us and the sun, hides and obscures the glorious rays of light from us. There are fixed laws in creation. All nature acts under the direction of those laws, prescribed by our all-wise Lord.   As in nature, so in grace. As by the natural sun, so it is by the Sun of Righteousness : it shines with an equal degree of resplendent glory, of light, love, and grace at all times. But, we are not always alike sensible of it. Why not? As clouds and vapours arise from the earth, and interrupt the light of the natural sun, by coming between that and us; just so, the clouds of sin, the vapours of ...

"But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you." -I John 2:27 [KJV] All the powers of earth and hell are combined against this holy anointing, wherewith the children of God are so highly favoured. But if God has locked up in the bosom of a saint one drop of this divine unction, that one drop is proof against all the assaults of sin, all the attacks of Satan, all the enmity of self, and all the charms, pleasures, and amusements of the world.  Waves and billows of affliction may roll over the soul; but they cannot wash away this holy drop of anointing oil. Satan may shoot a thousand fiery darts to inflame all the combustible material of our carnal mind; but all his fiery darts cannot burn up that one drop of oil which God has laid up in the depths of a broken spirit. The world, with all its charms and pleasures, and its deadly opposition to the truth of God, may stir up waves of ungodliness against this holy anointing; but all the powers of earth ...

"Give us this day our daily bread." -Matthew 6:11 [KJV] Happiness, that inestimable jewel, springs only from content. Christian content is founded in humility. The humble Christian lives upon the fulness of God. Thence he seeks all his supplies. Our Lord not only teaches His disciples the words of prayer, which any one may use, but also gives the Spirit of prayer, which is peculiar to disciples only. This consists,  (1st.) In knowing our wants.  (2d.) In seeking a supply of them from the Lord. Give us...  (3d.) This day : just from hand to mouth: daily bread, all the blessings of providence and grace, needful for us, as men and Christians.  (a.) Do we know our own wants? The sight and sense of these will make and keep us very low and humble in our own eyes; for we shall go out of ourselves, and live out of ourselves. Do we want daily bread to support our bodies? Have we no source of life in ourselves, but what must be fed and nourished from the food we r...

"Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH." -Zechariah 6:12b [KJV] My soul, listen to the call, and behold this wonderful Man, whose name is The Branch . Mark the wonderful features of His person. This is one of the prophetical names of Him, in the faith of whom, as the Redeemer of Israel, all the old testament saints died. The branch of the Lord—the branch of righteousness; or, as He is elsewhere called, the Nazarene. But observe how very descriptive of His nature is this title. He grows up out of His place. And where is that? rain the eternal counsel of Jehovah. Who shall declare His generation? He is indeed a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots. But all this as the root Himself of David; planted in the eternal purpose of God's own sovereign decree, and budding forth as a branch in all the periods of His incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, glory. And what a branch of never-failing loveliness, and everlasting verdure (- green...

"...that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." -Romans 12:2 [KJV] The will of God is "good, perfect, and acceptable." How are we to prove personally and experimentally that it is all this? That good and perfect will runs counter, over and over again, to my natural inclinations, sets itself firmly against my fleshly desires. God's will calls for self-denial, but I want self gratification; it requires obedience, but my carnal mind is the essence of disobedience; it demands many sacrifices, but my coward flesh revolts from them; it bids me walk in the path of suffering, sorrow, and tribulation, but my fleshly mind shrinks back, and says, "No, I cannot tread in that path!"   As long, then, as I am conformed to the world, I cannot see the path, for this worldly conformity has thrown a veil over my eyes; or if I do dimly and faintly see it, I am not willing or able to walk in it, because my carnal mind rebel...